This snow-packed February is well into the Cabin Fever phase in Boston, and it’s only gonna get worse for the immediate future. Thousands of tickets are being issued for failure to clear sidewalks (“‘Pick a corner on your property and put it on there and pile it as high as you possibly can,’ Code Enforcement Police Sgt. Emanuel Dorosario said”). Fights are breaking out on the trains, trolleys, and buses, as too many people relying on too few cars see their commuting times doubled or tripled even when the system isn’t shut down entirely. (And our new CEO-friendly governor Charlie Baker is a Pioneer Institute tool. Thanks for endorsing him, Globe, you giggling hipster jagoffs!) Retail businesses and restaurants are worried about going broke because people can’t get out of their homes, and even the ski resorts are suffering:
Of course, things are not about to get better…
After Friday’s bitter cold, this will be the fifth straight weekend that Massachusetts has either been in the midst of a storm or seen one on the doorstep… This weekend will be no different and the hazard it brings could be as dangerous as the wind-whipped whiteout blizzards we’ve been through.
A wintry mix will start as snow Saturday, but then change to an icy mix or rain which could add stress to the region’s already-burdened roofs… The state has already received reports of over 100 full and partial roof collapses over the last week. There have also been reports of gas leaks and fires caused by snow and icicles falling on gas piping and meters.
Thursday’s snow made this season the second snowiest winter on record for Boston. So far, Logan Airport has recorded 96.7 inches for the season. The snowiest Boston winter on record was 1995-96 with 107.6 inches.
No, thanks, we’d be just as happy not to break any more records!
***********
Given that perspective, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another miserable week?
Amir Khalid
So far, Kuala Lumpur has been spared the terrible snowstorms now afflicting the north-eastern United States. Meanwhile, I am contemplating the prospect of undergoing cataract surgery later this year.
(Why does the spellchecker put a red skwigel under Lumpur, but not under Kuala?)
Mustang Bobby
It is 38 at the nearest recording station to my house here in Miami. That is probably a record, and for here that is like being below zero anywhere else. The agricultural interests are worried about the cold upstate in the citrus-growing regions, and the tourism interests are worried about keeping their customers happy and comfortable.
I’m not complaining about the cold; I’m a Midwestern guy who grew up with subzero winters and piles of snow. It’s also a reminder that Florida isn’t tropical and there are parts of the state like Tallahassee and Pensacola that get this weather on a regular basis.
This is supposed to be the last morning of the cold front; the forecast calls for the temperatures to climb back to near normal this morning and get up to the 80’s by the weekend.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Ugh, contemplating surgery (especially on one’s eyes!) is never a fun time. On the other hand, if your cataracts are bad enough that surgery is recommended, at least you can look forward to the improvement?
The people I know who’ve had such surgery have been universally pleased with the results, for what it’s worth…
raven
It’s 16 here but supposed to go up to 40 later. I’ll get the doggies out for a quick walk but no trek to the bakery!
OzarkHillbilly
All around sh!tty weather this wkend: Some snow, some sleet, some freezing rain, none of it ever amounting to much more than slick roads and cold windy days with even colder windier nights.
Ahhh February…..
Keith G
With southerly winds, my porch thermometer reads 59. I hear we will be getting up to 73. I would like it to stay cooler, but as March approaches the chance for chilly days slides away.
Geoduck
Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s mid-February and we’ve already got plants blooming. I’ll take that over crippling snowstorms any day, but, still, ugh.
BillinGlendaleCA
We may get some light rain Sunday and Monday mornings. Don’t worry it’s not predicted to rain on the red carpet for the Oscars.
Keith G
BTW, today I am going to be fit with a fracture boot to aid in the healing of a painful stress fracture of the first metatarsal on my left foot.
Tooling around the cafe and kitchen with that contraption will be no end of fun.
tybee
23 here. so there goes the citrus crop, the banana crop and the brass monkey’s reproductive capabilities.
danielx
It’s 4 below zero, and….and I really don’t want to go out this morning to earn my daily bread. Needs must, and it’s supposed to rise to 20 later on today. Just in time for ice and snow tomorrow.
I’m getting too old for this shit.
raven
@Keith G: God, stress fractures suck.
Mustang Bobby
It may be record cold here in Miami — 38 — but it is 60 degrees colder — minus 22 — in Petoskey, Michigan.
So glad I don’t live there anymore.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Ahh, I almost froze to death in August hitchiking from the Sooo across the UP and down to Chicago many, many moons ago!
Mustang Bobby
@Keith G: Ouch; been there, done that. Get well soon.
dr. luba
You don’t need to go all the way to Petoskey for cold weather. It’s – 24 in Detroit’s northern suburbs this morning. To be honest, once you go below 0, it all feels the same…….
raven
Joe and Halperin think Carson is in Orange County!
dr. luba
And, top be honest, I prefer this to the damp cold we often have this time of year and will probably have come March. Damp cold chills you to the bones like nothing else can. This is invigorating.
raven
@dr. luba: If you’ve become weak by 30 years in Georgia 16 seems cold!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Right, midway between LA and San Diego.
(Bangs head on desk, repeatably)
bemused
I’m a bit surprised by Jeb Bush’s prez campaign so far. For a guy who grew up in family that has been deeply political for decades and an ex-governor himself, he is coming off as a very inept, unprepared amateur.
Rudy Giuliani is the king of scumbags. Eugene Robinson wonders if Giuliani is “well” but I don’t think Rudy is being any more scummy than is normal for him.
raven
@bemused: He reminds me of Geraldine Ferraro with her racist shit. Are they both from Cicero?
BruceFromOhio
@dr. luba: Hmmm, invigorating.
I’ll have to cogitate on that while shuttling to work in -14 cold, as it was not the word I was using to describe the feeling I’m feeling this morning.
JPL
Anne, March will be here before you know it. May the month be filled with above freezing temps and plenty of sunshine for you.
For some reason, Fulton Cty Schools are closed today. There was a winter storm advisory, which means, a slight chance of winter precip and they didn’t want to take any chances. This is good news for the stores because at least in my neck of the woods, parents will be taking their children to the malls.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: Good luck with the eye surgery, Amir. My grandmother had two cataract surgeries twenty years apart; she said the most recent one was a breeze. May it be so!
Arclite
Sounds like the perfect opportunity to visit sunny Hawaii! Ping me, and I’ll give you all the tips about where to go on Oahu to make your vacation special.
(Yes it’s 2AM here, and I have to work in the morning) :(
WereBear
So true!
I went on a local historical tour on a gray and windy November day, it was high 30’s, above freezing. I cracked up the whole group by declaring that I should have come in January… when it would be warmer.
We’ve recently had days in the single temperatures where the sun is shining and the wind’s not blowing and you can walk around in a couple of sweatshirts with gloves and a hat and sunglasses (for the bounce off the snow. It’s like summer.) Now that’s a winter I can deal with.
bemused
@raven:
I had forgotten about her remarks, ugh.
I think of Carly Fiorina as a male equivalent of Giulani. Maybe not quite as openly racist but just as nasty with same inflated sense of entitlement. She and Giuliani make my skin crawl in the same way.
WereBear
That’s because none of them are particularly smart, insightful, or even good at it. But their considerable handicaps are tidily overcome by connections and tons o’ money.
Bystander
Nine below here in Barryville, NY.
Guess I should get out the SoCal vacation pics and reminisce.
A year or so ago I encountered Jebula walking thru Rockefeller Center. It just dawned on me what I should have yelled at him. Must be the cold.
Botsplainer
My outdoor thermometer on the porch says 22 below – a number I hope is inaccurate. I can get the dog outside long enough to pee but not long enough to dump; that takes about 3/4 of his walk, and his paws just can’t handle that, not with the street having a combo of ice, pavement and rock salt.
Dishwasher won’t drain and won’t take in water, meaning the lines behind it are frozen because it backs up to the coldest exterior wall in the house.
And I have a suck ass deposition this morning with a business BK client who is a pathological liar and document forger. He acts like he WANTS the DOJ to follow through on sending him to Pounded Ass prison.
bemused
@WereBear:
My thoughts too. These are not bright or perceptive people. Even with all the connections and money floating them, you’d think at least they would have acquired a least a bit of political polish by now.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: Only negative twelve here, we’re on a warming trend. But we have to let the bathtub trickle at such times… that won’t work on a dishwasher.
JPL
The plan seems to be say something offensive and then go on every network to defend your comments. I’m not a racist but seems to be the opening statement. Giuliani must of felt left out. All we need now is Trump to make the rounds defending him.
peak wingnut was a lie
WereBear
@bemused: Expertise is for the little people.
RSA
We’re in the single digits in Raleigh, NC, a rarity (maybe a record) for this month.
I was living in western MA that year, and I remember enormous amounts of snow but fortunately no infrastructure problems.
Mustang Bobby
@Bystander: Right after he left the governor’s office in Florida, he bought a condo about ten blocks from where I used to live in Coral Gables. I was in Einstein’s Bagels one Sunday morning and he came in for a cup of coffee and a nosh. No security, no personal assistant, and no one even noticed; either they were so jaded by seeing celebrities on Miracle Mile or they didn’t recognize him.
bemused
@WereBear:
Yup.
Gene108
At what point does one decide to replace their car?
I have a 2003 Toyota Corolla with 186,000 miles. Runs just fine and I have never had any major problems (knock on wood I just did not jinx it).
It’s just the technology in new (or new to me) cars has advanced incredibly in 12 years and interest rates are still very low, which may not be the case in a few years.
I am on the fence. Just curious what people’s thoughts are.
Also, I have not worked out what I can afford, but it would probably be under 20k and above 10k (low mileage used cars).
Botsplainer
@bemused:
I’m not at all surprised at the ineptitude. The Bush family is the American exemplar of unearned white entitlement, where a name and inherited money (and the connections that come with those) are all the status you need to run ahead of the pack and have an awesome life.
satby
@Amir Khalid: What Anne Laurie says, the new lens they implant now let my mother have near perfect vision (at age 83) after her surgery. But when I need it, and I will, I will be nervous about it too.
debit
I really feel for you guys that have been hammered with the snow. Hold on. We’re almost to March and warmth.
bemused
National report of -42 in Cotton MN Thurs am sounded wrong to me. I thought they were talking about windchill temp but no. We are about 40 minutes north of there and we had -23 at 7:30 am. Quite a difference.
Botsplainer
@WereBear:
I’m just hoping there’s enough elasticity in the feed line to avoid a break. We’ll both be gone all day, that would suck.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gene108: That’s what I call a new car, I drive a ’86 Jetta. I have added a backup camera and a BT radio and hands free phone.
Tommy
I am a pretty laid back guy, but could see how if I was in Boston and just trying to get around. To work. The store. I might lose my temper right about now.
Gene108
@RSA:
Shortly after we moved to Raleigh, in January 1985, we went from temps in the 70’s to single digits the next week.
The central heat pump in the condo we were renting at the time could not handle the cold and conked out. We spent several days huddling together with a space heater in one of the bedrooms.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Too true. If Jeb is supposedly the smarter brother and GW managed to be a 2 term president, he probably isn’t worried about his odds.
Mr. Twister
@bemused: I’ll just leave this here: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-rudy-giuliani-love-article-1.2122253?cid=bitly
Gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I am not that handy. Replacing the littke light bulbs that cit behind the vent control, A/C – heat knobs on the center console is about as handy as I get and I am waiting for warmer weather to attempt it or I might have a local mechanic do it for me,
JPL
@bemused: Do we really know if that’s true though? I know that has been said, but what if he isn’t.
debit
@Gene108: My car died about a year ago and I didn’t replace it. I’m lucky in that I live in an urban area with great public transit and bikes lanes. Since I bike most of the year anyway (until snow, ice or cold make it dangerous) I don’t really need a car. When I do, I use a car2go.
I only mention it because I was seriously considering replacing my car when it occurred to me that I truly didn’t need one. Not having to pay for gas, insurance or maintenance is rather nice.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: Or at least an awesome life simulacrum.
It is wonderful to be surrounded by luxurious rooms and plantings, not be bothered by the mundane crap of car registrations and errand running, and have ass-kissing available 24/7. It’s what makes it look so good from the outside.
But I’ve glimpsed the inside, and it all too often results in people you can’t stand to be in a room with for more than an hour or so. They have no true accomplishments, no admirable qualities, no real worth and no self-actualization.
Deep down, they know this. And they fear others know it, too.
Heck, the history of the Vanderbilts is an abject lesson is how you can be richer than God and still manage to be the most miserable collection of drunks, depressives, dipshits, and despots the world hasn’t seen since the Caligula line self-destructed.
satby
@Gene108: I’m having the same debate with myself, with the added factor of “can’t really afford it”. But my fender bender with the high curb cost me $1200 in front end repairs and a catalytic converter replacement last fall was $800; the car is only worth a bit over $2500 according to the Blue Book (2005 Taurus, 125k miles).
I’m hoping to be able to drive it through the summer and then stick a sign on it and get the $2k back, but my salary is hourly and I don’t live where public transportation is. So I need a reliable car.
bemused
@Mr. Twister:
I read that this morning. Giuliani is an amoral scumbag, not an ounce of conscience. He always manages to come up roses even though he belonged in prison with his pal Bernie Kerik.
Tommy
@debit: I am a bike guy myself. I’ve found I don’t need a car as much as I always thought. And thankfully even though I live in a rural area, my former Congress Critter was famous for bringing home the bacon. I actually have pretty good if not amazing public transportation. Bus and rail.
JPL
@Mr. Twister: Thank you for the link.
ThresherK
@WereBear: sunglasses (for the bounce off the snow. It’s like summer
That’s a known thing for polar explorers. Just imagine your situation, with the sun lower all the time, and it reflecting off everything, because it’s all white. At much colder temps.
They could die of hypothermia, while getting sunburn on the roof of their mouth, in a place so bright they couldn’t see which end was up. Atop all the snow and ice one can imagine, they could suffer debilitating dehydration. Crazy place, and here in “temperate North America” we’re getting just a taste of it.
(PS I learned several years ago to not indulge my taste for books about polar expeditions after Columbus Day. Stuff like this is now beach reading for me.)
Chin up! The days are getting longer faster than at any time of the year.
Mr. Twister
@bemused: It is truly amazing, the free pass that Il Douche gets. Our liberal media !
debbie
It’s –6 here now. Last night, the wind was 35mph as I walked across a very large parking lot at work. I don’t like extreme weather of any kind, so I was cheered to hear the local weatherman say that the Great Lakes were 90% covered in ice. Last year, they were 92% iced and didn’t melt away until June, making for a cool summer. Hopefully, that’ll happen again this year.
bemused
@JPL:
No, that’s why I said supposedly because Jeb’s grades weren’t stellar either. It would be interesting to know where that originated, rightwing PR machine perhaps.
raven
@Gene108: We have a 2006 Accord but it only has 70,000 miles on it. I was just talking to a guy who kept his Honda for 20 years and 500,000 miles. One thing he mentioned was how technologically advanced his new Accord is. Apparently the camera in the back helps the driver see the blind spot when passing.
Matt McIrvin
@debit:
March is usually not a warm month here. We’ve had blizzards in April. Spring generally doesn’t really get going until May.
bemused
@Mr. Twister:
When I think of the multitude of low life miscreants that get a free press from media, I get stabby.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused: From what I’ve seen of JEB! so far, he hasn’t proven that he’s brighter than a shrub.
ThresherK
@Gene108: I have a 2003 Toyota Corolla with 186,000 miles. Runs just fine and I have never had any major problems (knock on wood I just did not jinx it).
Our superannuated Sentra went to my regular mechanic for the “used car buyer’s check” on it. If you haven’t done so, it may be a good use of ~$75. I got an idea for which consumables would need to be replaced in a year or two, and which non-trivial big things need attending / replacing so they don’t blow up on me.
And there’s always the “10 cent rule”: When getting to that point in a vehicle’s life, ask yourself “Can I get 10 miles additional out of this car for any dollar I put somewhere besides the gas tank, oil changes, and wiper blades?* ”
(*A bit oversimplified, but I’m sure you get the idea.)
Mr. Twister
@JPL: Saw that over at Booman’s this morning.
debit
@Matt McIrvin: Well, it’s a matter of perspective. I live in Minnesota and while March isn’t precisely warm, it’s warmer than February. And yep, we get blizzards in March (and sometimes April) as well, but when the temps get up into the 40s the snow isn’t going to stick around.
raven
@ThresherK: Yep, if the cylinders register with in 5lbs of pressure in them that’s a good reason to keep it.
Tommy
@raven: Last year on my camping trip we rented a Honda mini-van. I couldn’t get over how advance it was. Had a lot of features I never thought I would need in a car but once having them, they were pretty nice.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
I had both eyes done 15 years ago and it made a huge difference in my vision. I can see after dark now which is really nice for driving. They did one eye at a time & the week I had one good eye was really something. I discovered I had been seeing the world in sepia tone & not realizing it.
Matt McIrvin
…And then, it’s basically two weeks of blossoms and pollen-soaked misery and we go straight into summer.
debit
@Tommy: Do you bike at all in the winter? It took a few years when I first started cycling to work up the courage for winter riding, but now I think it’s awesome (as long as I have a bike lane and can keep my feet warm). I built up a mountain bike frame with drop bars, then built some wheels with drum brakes and a dyno hub up front. Throw on some studded tires and it’s pretty much a beast (and probably overkill for the winter we’ve had thus far). Here’s a shot of it with bonus Oliver.
ThresherK
@debit: You forgot to mention you have the most important option for bad-weather riding: Fenders!
I salute your persistence. I will return to my two wheels later this year.
raven
@Tommy: It’s hard to replace the steel dashboard and steering column that comes right back through your chest like I have on my Chev!
WereBear
@ThresherK Thanks for tip. I do love reading polar expedition stories. It reminds me of just how much worse it could be. I can heartily recommend Endeavor which I just finished.
Aaaaand that book is in my Oyster app. Sweet!
ThresherK
@raven: Ah, the “Spear-O-Matic” steering column. Those were the days.
A car my parents had when I was a tot had a somewhat padded dash and a metal piece of trim holding the two parts together. Nobody ever went flying into the dash–no crashes in this car as I recall–but it seems like the metal ribbon was put in the perfect place to be hit with a belted human’s forehead, or an unbelted kid’s teeth.
(At this point I want to thank my parents for insisting we use the rudimentary seat belts which existed at the time.)
debbie
@bemused:
I didn’t realize Rudi made more than that one remark:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/rudy-giuliani-obama-love-america-thought-joke-racist
Rudi should know from dilettantes. That’s exactly how he acted when he abandoned his wife and children.
JGabriel
WCVB-5 via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I loved the 1995-1996 winter – still my most favorite ever. My girlfriend at the time had a 6th floor walk-up in the village, and we used to wake up to a view of the city all the way down to the business district covered in thick white blankets of fresh snow.
Here in NYC this year, most of the storms either just miss us, or turn to rain, or drop so little snow as to be barely worth noticing. So I’m actually quite jealous of Boston this year.
Tommy
@debit: Yes all winter long. I have an amazing bike shop by me. Went in and said I wanted to ride year round. They hooked me up. This is what I ride:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/5512504373/
A 1993 Cannondale. I know, old bike. But when I took it into the bike shop and said I was thinking of getting a new bike, they were like are you crazy. We can do this and that to it and you are good to go for a fraction of the cost.
Tommy
@Tommy: Wow that is a really old photo. Pre all the upgrades.
max
No, thanks, we’d be just as happy not to break any more records!
Might as well. At least you get a small prize at the end. (‘You kids don’t remember the blizzards of ’15. We had to
walk uphillski both ways to school!’)Given that perspective, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another miserable week?
It’s a balmy 8, so I’m thinkin’ I should work on my suntan.
max
[‘It doesn’t seem to bother the dog: he looks at the street with just the snow piles on sides and he says, ‘Daddy! Let’s hit the open road, man!”]
JGabriel
debbie:
I originally posted this over at TPM, but it seems like a fitting reply here too:
debit
@Tommy: Nice! I love older bikes and older Cannondales especially have a certain appeal that modern bikes just don’t. And it’s true that you can upgrade most older bikes for less than the cost of new. (I’m not a total retro grouch-I do have a couple of modern bikes and wouldn’t give up my carbon fiber for anything, but the ones I ride the most often are the older ones.)
jon
Oh for the sake of fuck, Rudy. Yes, we know you were there. We will someday have a holiday called “Rudy’s 9/11 Day”. It will be used to commemorate the day you became a caricature of a human being because your moral superiority is of the most craven and immodest sort, based on a foundation of shit, bullying authority, and irrelevance wrapped in an American flag. Good day, sir!
ThresherK
RIP Richard Shur, host of Says You!, the smartest, most intellectually rigorous, and funniest public radio game show.
Seems like it’s been a tough year on famous people. I don’t know if Richard Shur counts as famous, but I’m in the cult of that show and have dragooned my wife into listening also.
raven
@ThresherK: They sell a universal joint thing that connects the column to the ps box (yes, power steering on a 66 chevy truck!) but they are pretty expensive.
debbie
@JGabriel:
Nice comment. I love the spokesman’s reference to Rudi’s “fleeting” run for the presidency!
Matt McIrvin
@ThresherK: When my sister was little, she’d constantly get out of her seat belt in the back of our family car (of course, she was not riding in any sort of child seat, since she’d gotten too big for the seats that existed for infants) and ride standing up on the hump over the transmission, with her hands on the front seats. My parents nagged her gently to stop doing it, but never laid down the law. Today it’d probably be grounds for their arrest and/or Social Services action.
At least we did make some effort to use seat belts when they were available. I remember being bothered riding in some other family’s car, because the never-used rear seat belts would usually be jammed down between the bench-seat cushions where you couldn’t even find them.
Tommy
@debit: I am not a retro guy exactly. Maybe just cheap :). I like nice things and don’t mind paying for them. But I’ve looked at a new bike and you can drop $3,500 in a heartbeat. When a bike can cost as much as a used car I got an issue with that. I am also a brand loyal guy and they don’t seem to make any cheap Cannondales these days.
ThresherK
@debit: Dude, old bikes are the best, especially if you’re hard to fit and not very flexible. (Don’t ask me how I come to that belief).
Mass-market bicycle fitment is a very inexact science, much more difficult than motorcycles, the closest thing I can think of to it.
If you’ve ever drooled over the spec sheet of something new in a magazine, then went to your local bike shop to find out that it really didn’t go with your body, no matter what kajiggering or swapping-out was done to the seat and bars and stem…
ThresherK
@Matt McIrvin: Buckets or a bench seat? I ask because I don’t really remember child seats, so I might be older than you.
When my parents’ were raising us as toddlers, the back of a front bench seat (which was the fashion at the time), was probably the safest thing for an untethered child to careen into inside the whole car!
ThresherK
@ThresherK: Ugh. It’s Richard Sher, host of the smartest, funniest, etc public radio game show.
Don’t know how I muffed that.
Matt McIrvin
@debit: The thing that’s really hit us hard is just that, this winter, it generally hasn’t gotten above freezing in between the snowstorms, so there’s no thawing.
Of course, if the thaw is only fleeting, it doesn’t do any good but just generates a lot of ice dams and roof leaks (I think that might have happened briefly on Thursday night/Friday morning).
Also, the way they tend to come on weekends may mean less disruption to the work/school schedule, but we haven’t had a real weekend to do weekend things since January; the weekend is always some screaming emergency. Right at the tail end of last winter, sometime in mid-March I think, we went cross-country skiing at this place in Weston, and I’d like to get out there and do that again (they won’t even need to use the snow-making machines). But it hasn’t been possible to even enjoy the snow; we just haul it around and worry about it.
Tommy
@ThresherK: I know these days you can get anything made for you. But part of my love of that bike is it fits me. I am a 5’4 male on good days if I stand on my tippy toes. That bike fits me.
debit
@ThresherK: Oh dear FSM, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been looking at new bikes (kind of want a cross bike with disc brakes) and have learned that “size” means nothing. If I can’t see the frame geometry I don’t even bother. Gimme the TT measurements, at least (and even then it’s iffy). I really think it’s why some people just don’t like biking: they’ve never had a bike that fits. I know that I suffered for years on bikes that were too big, on saddles that didn’t fit my seat bones, etc, and just thought it was supposed to hurt.
But yep, I’m almost to the point where I’d rather get an older frame and just build what I want.
Matt McIrvin
@ThresherK: I think they were buckets in front, but now that you mention it, I’m not sure. The car was an Oldsmobile Cutlass, model year somewhere in the 1968-70 range.
Buddy H
This video is my all time favorite (Turn Down For What):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU
the power of lust
Tommy
@debit: What cross bikes are you looking at? I know my bike is being used in a manner it wasn’t made for. This is what I have been looking at:
http://www.rei.com/product/877741/cannondale-contro-3-bike-2015
I sense you know a whole lot more than I do about bike and it can’t hurt to get a second opinion :).
raven
@Matt McIrvin: Some of those rides had a bench with a cutout for the floor shifter. My chev came with a column shifter but I put a hearst on it a quarter of a century ago. The problem with my kind of truck is that the hump for the tranny is flatter for a 3 speed saginaw and it took some doing to get the arms on the shifter to fit. I drove it for 23 years with a reverse shift pattern. Two years ago I had the rear-end rebuilt and, when I picked it up, they guy said “hey, I fixed that floor shifter and now you have a regular pattern”! I was shattered, I always figured that reverse pattern was a great anti theft device!
Jamey
If Brady and Belichick hadn’t willed the air out of those balls none of this would be happening.
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: Best of luck. Mum had that done in ’05: she was wobbly for about a week after each eye, but came through with 20/15 vision (cataracts out and corrective lens implant in). Find out what your options are and be ready for about a month of recovery (at least one week per eye).
Matt McIrvin
@raven: I think ours was an automatic. Dad’s commute-mobile was a little Datsun (later, a Toyota Corolla) with a manual transmission.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: It might think ‘Kuala’ is a drink of some kind.
Buddy H
@WereBear: Very true. I’m one of the little people and I feel like I’ve always been held to a higher standard. If I don’t do everything little thing JUST SO, there will be hell to pay. Meanwhile, my betters can fuck up again and again, and fall upward.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: I bought a Specialized Tricross Elite last fall and I really like it. I wanted a disk brake and slightly wider tires than a road bike, but a relatively standard geometry.
I’ve got other bikes as well…
ThresherK
@Jamey: The last two storms were worse east of Providence, but: How is this happening also to the NYC-oriented half of Connecticut, ask New York Giants’ fans?
(PS I’m a disinterested observer in the whole New York v. Boston sports fandom wars, with the exception of Major League Soccer. But my wife is from Worcester.)
Buddy H
@debit: That’s a wonderful feeling. A car is supposed to be a symbol of AMERICAN FREEDOM® but with the repairs (and wondering if you got ripped off for unnecessary repairs) gas, insurance, registration it’s really a ball and chain… I live in a place with sidewalks (finally), and I can walk to most places.
Paul in KY
@WereBear: Also, Dumfuckya was aided by VP Gore’s not-so-good campaign. IMO, Gov. Dukakis also ran a very bad one (the tank photo, etc.). Excellent campaigns by either (or another nominee) and neither POS would have been Pres.
Paul in KY
@Gene108: Drive it till it falls apart.
jon
Please, Mister Hizzoner Mayor, please please please keep explaining yourself. Tell us how it wasn’t a dogwhistle because Obama’s a mixed breed. Please say it. Say it. JUST SAY IT, YOU RACIST MOTHERFUCKER!
Buddy H
@Paul in KY: Can someone explain to me why Gore didn’t fight for it in 2000? I can’t imagine any republican anywhere rolling over and playing dead so easily.
Tommy
@Buddy H: LOL. We only have a few sidewalks in my town. I still walk and/or get on my bike daily. I guess I should go to more City Council meetings. Never understood how it is possible we don’t have sidewalks. In my part of town not a single one. When I walk out of my house I walk down the side of a road. This wouldn’t worry me that much if people in cars seemed to remotely respect me.
Elizabelle
@Paul in KY: Yep. That would be my advice too. Toyotas are good cars. Plus save money for a new (to you) car; have a fund at the ready for when the trusty Toyota finally breaks.
Elizabelle
@Buddy H: Yeah. That was one of the worst episodes in US history.
My guess is that some of the VSP patriots who were advising Gore to take one for the team and not tear the country apart were people who are closet Republicans, whether they admit it or not.
We would not have President Obama, but we would not have needed him so desperately either.
gogol's wife
@Mr. Twister:
Wow. That’s powerful. I didn’t know some of those curious facts.
Buddy H
@Tommy: I remember in my old exurb, the town planner (poor guy who no one ever listened to) held a meeting. He hired a new urbanist guy who gave a powerpoint presentation of what the exurb COULD look like, if they planted some trees, added sidewalks, slowed traffic, added street lights. It was beautiful. And then, in the question-and-answer segment, he was heckled by the town’s snow plow drivers.. “How can we plow snow on those narrow streets??? Have you ever used a snow plow???” He replied “Yes. It’s easy.”
But none of his suggestions were ever implemented. The exurb is still a drivethru.
Eric U.
@Gene108: Toyota has helpfully set the expected lifetime of a Prius at 175k miles. I assume they do that for all their cars. People’s experience with the Prius is that if it gets that far and you want to go farther, it becomes a bit of a hobby.
Elizabelle
@ThresherK: The book “Stiff” (about use of cadavers, etc.) had a lot to say about what cadavers and crash test dummies and actual victims taught us about auto safety.
Some of those stylish midcentury cars were death traps.
Linky: Stiff: The Curious Use of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424441501&sr=8-1&keywords=stiff+mary+roach
Paul in KY
@Buddy H: I just think it was bad stratergery on his part or a naive faith in the Supreme Court.
Also those fucking 90,000 Nader voters in Florida didn’t help any.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: You make your money back on the car when you drive it without making that car payment. Thus, the longer you drive it, the more you get your money back.
debit
@Tommy: Very nice! I need drop bars, so I’m looking at this one: http://www.thehubbikecoop.org/product/jamis-bosanova-218781-1.htm and also this one, because it’s about the only titanium I can afford: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/fantom_cross_pro_ti_xiv.htm I also prefer SRAM over Shimano, so.
Amir Khalid
@bemused:
Ooh, that’s harsh.
Ramalama
Jagoff! First time I’ve seen it used here at ye olde balloon-juice. Are you from Chicago, perhaps?
One of my friends was a trader on the floor at the Chicago Board of Trade. She transferred over to San Francisco (didn’t know they had traders there but hey, takes all kinds) and silenced the floor for a brief still moment when she yelled out, “Jagoff” to someone. No one knew what she meant – they hadn’t heard it before.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Good points there, Elizabelle.
PurpleGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Ah, yes, snow in April. In 1971 (IIRC), I was working at a toy store on Sundays and we had a snowstorm on Easter Sunday. We had only one customer that morning and the owner’s sons closed the store at noon. (They paid me for a full day.)
Winter isn’t over in NY until it snows on Easter, in April.
Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen that way this year. (It’s 4 F, expected to go up to 14 F this afternoon.)
satby
@debbie: I don’t like extremes either, but that cool weather wasn’t very good for a LOT of crops in this part of farm country. And a late frost nicked the peach blooms, so no peach harvest to mention, and 1/2 the farms around here are orchards and vineyards. One wine maker threw in the towel this fall and bulldozed a few acres of prime vineyard.
Paul in KY
@debit: Both very nice. I personally don’t like fenders on bikes. They get dinged up & then start dragging on the tire, etc. The titanium one is sweet.
bemused
@Amir Khalid:
She is vile, no? Watching her on tv always raises my hackles.
Matt McIrvin
@PurpleGirl: The one that really amazed me was the 1997 April Fool’s Day blizzard.
There hadn’t been a lot of snow that winter (and the previous year’s had been pretty extreme, still the snowiest in recorded history in Boston, though we’re getting close). And then on April Fool’s Day, three feet of frickin’ snow. I remember having to go to a lecture for a class I was TAing in a building with a glass roof, and having to walk through an area with warning signs telling you not to hang around there because it could collapse.
lymie
Do you think the SCOTUS will remember this as they deliberate the ACA?
As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Holmes once said:
“The machinery of government would not work if it were not
allowed a little play in the joints.”
(Quoted in Lamb v. Danville School Board, 102 N.H. 569.)
Mike in NC
Born and raised in Boston, I confess. Some of the worst politicians in the country (a very low bar). Massholes insist on constantly electing Republican governors, which brought us all uncomfortably close to putting Mitt Fucking Romney in the White House.
lethargytartare
@Botsplainer:
have you tried leaving the dishwasher open all day – lets the warmer house air in and it may melt out for you. Advice from my wife, though we bottomed out at 8 below in Waukegan, -22 is a whole other story…
gavin
The T is supposed to be funded to deal with minor disasters.. the worst annual snowfall in the history of ever is EXPECTED to blow out the budget.
The only incompetent person in leadership of the T is the ignorant Republican [redundant] governor who attempted to make it a personal issue with people in charge.
But since he made it an issue, governor Baker now owns the T problem. He screamed about it, now he gets to fix it.. and Massachusetts has stated quite clearly that we want the T to exist. No solution other than expanding and updating the T is acceptable, but the question is how to pay for it.
As well, all of the bonds for the Big Dig are tucked away in the budget for the T… this isn’t just an analysis of operations.
If little boy Republican doesn’t want to raise taxes, he can cut all corporate sweetheart deals.
karl knox
Everybody enjoying the changed climate? There’s lots more in store – Canada’s Maritimes are getting epically hammered too – Montreal is a frozen hellish wasteland and Calgary and Edmonton (normally notoriously cold winters) are basking in weeks of springlike weather –
karen marie
@Tommy: I was living in the West Fenway in ’95/96 and Back Bay in ’78. Neither were terrible hardships. Had no car, and the grocery stores were open and stocked. Living in rental apartments meant no shoveling for me. I was young enough, I didn’t mind climbing a 10-foot high pile of snow to cross the street. It’s when it’s melting the real problems start – gigantic puddles of slush that assholes who are driving too fast spray up in drenching dirty waves, or trying to cross at an intersection that has lakes on every corner. Ahh, the joys of urban winter.
Matt McIrvin
@gavin: Privatize it, of course! Privatization is magic!
deep
I can tell ya why the ski resorts are suffering this year. Because it’s such an expensive hobby. Wages have stagnated for nearly a decade and yet the ski resorts keep raising their prices. I can’t even afford the repairs to my roof after all the ice dams are done with it.
Helmut Monotreme
@deep: This is the truth. If the local (to the greater Madison Wisconsin area) ski resorts put together bus packages to Madison and Milwaukee, even if they only did it 4-5 times a winter, they could sell more lift tickets, more ski & snowboard rentals, more lessons and get more people interested in being on the snow. Heck, get local ski shops to have an equipment and apparel sale in the parking lot, on the days there’s bus service. I get that rich customers spend the most, but rich customers ski out west. If the local resorts want to keep the parking lots full, and people out on the hill, and people buying food and drink at resort markups, they need to chase middle income skiers and snowboarders.
Tree With Water
The Donner Party didn’t complain about the snow as much as you New Englanders. Where’s that famous flinty hardiness you people used to ballyhoo as a common attribute of people from your region?