"Ice"tastrophy 2011

[sara1998]

I'm waiting for abother 3 or so inches of snow here. The ice hasn't even melted yet. When I look outside the window at night, my yard is shiny... haha! I'll have to post some pics. I haven't seen an ice storm like this since I was a little kid, so I guess it's kinda neat for me. But, I'm ready for it to go away.

[estranged4life]

is expected here in Oklahoma starting tomorrow afternoon, with between 6 to 12 inches of snow and winds out of the North at 40-45MPH...with windchill temps at about -15 below zero.

[fringed n fab]

It turned black all of sudden here earlier this evening about 6. Heavy winds and the palms blowing. I hurried and turned on the news to keep alerted. I don't know if it had anything to do with any nasty weather up north but things got scary there for a minute.

[McTrouble]

Originally Posted by Meowi

As I said earlier before, that Yasi was not 'super bad' sadly, this does not seem to be the case.

Here is a gallery:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/cy...si/gallery.htm

I have lots of relatives in Townsville - they seem to have been very lucky and come out of it relatively unscathed.

[MissLadyLoki]

Up here, we got an ice storm-thing last week (point is that everything was encased in ice), we have snow up to the mailbox (my aunt in CT has it worse: her snow is so high that she had to carve out a small hole where her mailbox opens), my mom is highly considering leasing an SUV once the lease on her Accord is up (she's thinking of a small one, like a CR-V or a Subaru Forester) and I'm sick of this snow! Hell, I'm so tired of the cold and snow that, in the next few years, I might be leaving NY for a much warmer climate, Phoenix being very high up on the list

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by MissLadyLoki

Up here, we got an ice storm-thing last week (point is that everything was encased in ice), we have snow up to the mailbox (my aunt in CT has it worse: her snow is so high that she had to carve out a small hole where her mailbox opens), my mom is highly considering leasing an SUV once the lease on her Accord is up (she's thinking of a small one, like a CR-V or a Subaru Forester) and I'm sick of this snow! Hell, I'm so tired of the cold and snow that, in the next few years, I might be leaving NY for a much warmer climate, Phoenix being very high up on the list

Sure, there are warmer and sunnier places in the country... and they are sure nice to visit this time of year. But living there year-round is another matter. I will take the crappy weather in exchange for culture, diversity, and the energy of the Northeast. All of the palm trees, sand and surf in the world will not make up for the xenophobia, vapidity and right-wing sentiment rampant throughout the southern tier of this country.

[Nikolaj]

^
What about Southern California? Or even Northern California? I loved living in Los Angeles until I didn't love it after 13 years or so.
I'm just happy for the milder weather these past 2 days with light drizzle. Also very happy to finally figure out how to get my car out of my driveway yesterday. For 3 days, I wrongly thought the ice and snow was keeping my front left tire from being able to move, despite hours spent shoveling and using ice melting salt, 2 kinds, and cat litter.
That front tire was stuck down inside of a 3 inch hole! The landlord had chosen to place white stones up and down the 1oo foot driveway, kind of pretty, but he took the cheap way out. He at least could have had the potholes in the broken asphalt filled in. Turns out I had parked where the asphalt had a major crack/hole, and my front tire was lodged down there. A 14 year old girl in the neighborhood told me "Hey, Koly (I hate being called 'Koly')- just put a long board behind that tire, straighten the wheel out, put it in reverse, and the car will back right out."
I walked a few doors away to my parents garage, found a board from an old coffee table my father bashed apart to make a makeshift ramp years ago, and danged if it didn't work. That neighbor girl may call me 'Koly' for the rest of her life should she want to- how the hell did a 14 year old know what to do? Maybe she had seen the big holes before the driveway was covered with the decorative stones. I had no idea there were such large holes in the driveway, at all. Duh.
Anyway, the board worked like a charm.

[MissLadyLoki]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj

^
What about Southern California? Or even Northern California? I loved living in Los Angeles until I didn't love it after 13 years or so.
I'm just happy for the milder weather these past 2 days with light drizzle. Also very happy to finally figure out how to get my car out of my driveway yesterday. For 3 days, I wrongly thought the ice and snow was keeping my front left tire from being able to move, despite hours spent shoveling and using ice melting salt, 2 kinds, and cat litter.
That front tire was stuck down inside of a 3 inch hole! The landlord had chosen to place white stones up and down the 1oo foot driveway, kind of pretty, but he took the cheap way out. He at least could have had the potholes in the broken asphalt filled in. Turns out I had parked where the asphalt had a major crack/hole, and my front tire was lodged down there. A 14 year old girl in the neighborhood told me "Hey, Koly (I hate being called 'Koly')- just put a long board behind that tire, straighten the wheel out, put it in reverse, and the car will back right out."
I walked a few doors away to my parents garage, found a board from an old coffee table my father bashed apart to make a makeshift ramp years ago, and danged if it didn't work. That neighbor girl may call me 'Koly' for the rest of her life should she want to- how the hell did a 14 year old know what to do? Maybe she had seen the big holes before the driveway was covered in the decorative stones.
Anyway, the board worked like a charm.

I'd love to got LA, but my biggest problem is that it's even more expensive than NY in regard to property taxes and the land the houses are on is even smaller than here. Throw in earthquakes, landslides, and wild fires, and it's a recipe for disaster.

[Nikolaj]

^
There was a racial tension in LA in the early 90s that contributed to my leaving, along with the fact that the love of my life refused to see me, and would hang up on me every time I tried to call. I used to like to spend time on the rooftop of my building, and I witnessed a homeless (black) person trying to rob a young guy who was driving a very cool Jeep- Jeep's were popular in LA in the 90s. From my rooftop, I saw the young guy punch out the homeless man, and instantly, cars stopped, with outraged people of various races chastising the guy horribly for hitting the man, til the kid in the Jeep ran back into it and sped off, amidst jeers and cruelty. He had only been defending himself- had I the time and the guts to leave from the roof to go to the elevators and down to the street to defend the kid, I would have appeared racist, which was what passers-by were screaming at him about-that he decked the guy because of his race, and it wasn't the case at all. It was right around the time of the infamous Rodney King Police Beating, a horrible thing, and there were riots in relatively good (not great) sections of Hollywood I worked in.
Also, people were dying left and right of AIDS- LA became creepy to me. So, I left. I miss it at times, but it was a perfect place to be young in the 80s and into the 90s. I doubt I'll ever return.
That 'love of my life' died less than a year after I left, and maybe he knew he was dying, and that's why he wouldn't even speak to me. Or, maybe he just hated me by then. I didn't find out until 3 years after his death that he'd died. I still don't know most of the details- it remains a haunting thing, but death is death, there is nothing to change that.
I was ready to leave. I loved pretending to be a 'native' of Southern California, and after a few years I seemed and felt like one. But, it was just a haven of that time, not meant to last, in my life.

[fringed n fab]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Sure, there are warmer and sunnier places in the country... and they are sure nice to visit this time of year. But living there year-round is another matter. I will take the crappy weather in exchange for culture, diversity, and the energy of the Northeast. All of the palm trees, sand and surf in the world will not make up for the xenophobia, vapidity and right-wing sentiment rampant throughout the southern tier of this country.

I know you were probably talking about the South in general but around my part of Florida I've found diversity and with people being from everywhere, they welcome and bring whatever culture with them. In my experience the people here are no different than ones up home. I think we just like living in a warmer place and for some, prettier. There's good things and bad things about both Home and Florida, but either one has it's tradeoffs in the end. For me it was really about getting out of Ohio and the same place I'd lived for over 30 years and just being around something "new" for a change. I didn't want to move across the country and really there was no other place I wanted to live but beautiful Florida and while I'm now 1100 miles away from the family up there that stayed, I know it's only a short plane ride or 16 hour drive up or down I75 if we want to see each other and we have over last summer and this winter. I took a walk yesterday in February and the sun was shining and birds chirping and the smell of flowers and a big butterfly flew by and I know you couldn't see (or do) these things in most of the country right now so it's the little things like that I appreciate in the place I chose to move while still being somewhat close to my old life. It's the best of both worlds right now. Another plus about living in a place many people vacation, is I have racked in about 40 years worth since being here last winter.