Cruising down the street in my 64…
Supplied and ready to hunker down in case in gets bad.
by John Cole| 94 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Cruising down the street in my 64…
Supplied and ready to hunker down in case in gets bad.
Comments are closed.
Origuy
I was waiting for a logging truck to come the other way.
schrodinger's cat
You have a nice voice.
jeffreyw
Been there and done that, only in S Illinois. I avoid such these days, just kicking back and being all retired and shit. Wasted the entire morning upgrading to a new video card that broke file explorer, otherwise seemed to be working fine. No luck finding a fix so I went back to old card, seems all ok now.
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: I have done it too, from Maine to Quebec, not fun, at all. The drive through ME was the worst in Canada it was a proper divided highway.
FlyingToaster
And all we have is the French Toast Alert.
Windy with flurries means that there will be no bread or eggs left at Stop&Shop. And only store brand milk.
patrick II
I thought you were going a little faster than I would in that snow. Then I remembered you drive a subaru all-wheel-drive, so that looks like fun.
Joyce H
I watched the whole thing expecting some big Event at the end. Me, I don’t travel on roads like that, I Shelter In Place.
Gimlet
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue ridge mountains, Shenandoah river
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
donnah
Very pretty, and reminds me of the mountain roads we drive to visit my mom’s side of the family near Beckley. They live right next to Lake Stephens and I admit, snowy roads like that can be treacherous. Lots of hairpin turns on the roads we take to get there.
Stay safe and warm! Surround yourself with pets!
Keith G
Oooh! Another found-footage horror film. The Blair Witch Project meets Deliverance.
John Cole
@patrick II:When I watched the video, my first thought was that it looked like I was going a lot faster than I really was. In real life, it seemed much, much slower. I was only going 30.
It might be that the video doesn’t have peripheral vision like humans do, so it gives you a more tunnel like experience that seems faster than it really is.
Amir Khalid
@Gimlet:
I too remember listening to the great musician Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. in my youth.
Iowa Old Lady
We don’t have much snow but it was 0F this morning.
schrodinger's cat
@John Cole: I would have probably done 20 mph in those conditions, but then my car is not an all wheel drive.
schrodinger's cat
@Keith G: A man named John Cole was driving too fast on a snowy WV afternoon. There was no other car in sight, no bird even..
JPL
Try driving in the Atlanta area during a storm. Sitting might be a better word.
BruceFromOhio
Ah, the slow, steady course through the slushy-mush, arriving home with no intentions of going anywhere unless there is family emergency or a fire, then curling up with favored pastimes, people, or pets and just letting Ol’ Man Winter do his thing.
I have to watch checking in on Balloon Juice at work, the Intimissimi ads for Italian skimpy things is right on the border of NSFW, and I’d be embarrassed as heck if one of my coworkers was looking over my shoulder.
Not that the ads aren’t eye-catching …
Origuy
@BruceFromOhio: What have YOU been looking at? I’m getting ads from Staples and Rosetta Stone.
geg6
Looks like we have the same weather, Cole. Winter has finally hit and, to be honest, I’m not going to complain about it after the last two winters. We’re about halfway through January and this is the worst we’ve had. Supposed to get a bit more snow here until tomorrow morning, when it will also have turned ridiculously bitter cold. Not looking forward to that.
Today was Lovey’s first experience with a real snow fall (we had a dusting a few days ago that didn’t really prepare her for today). She kinda bounces through it, loves to stick her nose in it, but absolutely will not pee or poop in it. Which means pee pads inside until she can get used to the cold, wet, white stuff. So she bounced around the front yard in a circle and right back into the house. She’s such a funny little thing.
PurpleGirl
@Origuy: My most common ad is for women’s clothes from some outfit called WE Style.
ETA: NYC is supposed to get a little snow tonight. I don’t mind snow. I hate ice. And, yes, being retired means I can stay inside on really bad days. Big Six Towers, my development, has a commercial building with a supermarket and I can easily get out to get supplies if I need them. (We also have our own power plant.)
geg6
@PurpleGirl:
Today, it’s been Staples for me all day. I have no idea why. I do not buy office supplies and have never been to their website. The mysteries of the interwebs.
Keith G
Speaking of things gullible…. So that happened again:
Police in Cincinnati say a man has fatally shot his 14-year-old son in their home, thinking he was an intruder
I figure “good taste” would veto the president including this item in his SOTU, but this really needs to be brought up.
Remember from the town hall presentation last week:
At that point, I wanted Obama to school her about what the statically reality is about guns in the home. He did not.
Now he has a “ready for prime time” do-over, and yet….
geg6
@PurpleGirl:
Whereas my Pandora page has had giant ads for Fabletics. Which, I must say, I am kind of liking and may be tempted to buy some.
Betty Cracker
I wouldn’t want to have to drive in those conditions, but it sure is beautiful. Stay safe and warm!
Applejinx
I already miss my Subaru (which was so old the wheel basically snapped off at 60mph on the highway last Saturday).
I would totally be going that fast in that snow, in a Subaru. They’re proper little rally cars in the snow.
gogol's wife
It’s amazing that you don’t see a single other car on the road in all that time. That wouldn’t happen around here.
Rich Webb
Thanks, John — that video makes me kind o’ homesick.
FlyingToaster
@BruceFromOhio: Wow. Usually I get Staples ads, but today the default seems to be FashionMia and StyleWe, trying to sell clothes that will never fit me.
Since my work browser isn’t my shopping browser, it hasn’t picked up on the idea that I’m actually looking for tank tops and shorts for my 8-year-old to wear to Grandma’s on February vacation. More’s the pity; most of my usual sources haven’t any yet. Land’s End may be the only one to come through for me, at least with shorts. And where I used to buy her stuff down there in February — Miramar or Tanger — no longer have Old Navy, so I suspect I’ll be scaling back on the summerwear until like May.
jharp
I don’t go out in weather like that any more. Just ain’t doing it.
Last big trip was thru the wilderness to Duluth Minnesota when it was 30 below zero with blowing snow.
Fuck that. And on the way home, black ice.
raven
@John Cole: It’s funny, when I took the Cobra flight in the spring we made a run straight down at 150+ mph, flipped upside down and came back on the target. The video I shot doesn’t come close to showing the speed.
MomSense
I’m hoping for a big snowstorm tonight so we can have a snow day tomorrow. I’m dying to get my snowshoes on and walk the beast in the woods. Last time we walked in the woods, it was really icy and it was like pairs figure skating with the worst partner ever.
vheidi
Nothing could persuade me, but perhaps another NYC BJ denizen could take one for the team.
At the New-York Historical Society
BERNARD AND IRENE SCHWARTZ DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS SERIES
The Story: A Reporter’s Journey
With Judith Miller, Bret Stephens (moderator)
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 6:30 PM
Judith Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter formerly with The New York Times, turns her reporting skills on herself and her career, discussing her early years with the paper, her controversial work regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and the decisions she made during the Scooter Libby investigation. Bret Stephens, foreign affairs columnist and deputy editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, will moderate.
catclub
@jharp:
This can be the most beautiful thing to watch. Unfortunately I was driving (but no harm done).
Watching moving water in all its forms is worth it.
Soylent Green
Militants say they’ll reveal exit plan Friday.
Hello, is this the FBI? I have a small suggestion.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
I’m mostly glad I’ve never had to experience what the Los Angeles area would be like after a snow storm. I think the smart play would be to stay home until it melted.
Mike J
@Soylent Green:
Send them a a book on Thích Quảng Đức.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Talk to any tow truck driver or CHP officer about who’s most likely to need yanking out of a snowdrift and it’s mostly AWD drivers.
There’s capability and then there’s ability.
Bill E Pilgrim
From now on I’m calling you Snowy Slippery Wintry West Virginia Rhodes.
trollhattan
@Soylent Green:
Fond this helpful roundup (heh) of who’s who among the Oregon criminals.
Iowa Old Lady
@vheidi: Seriously? Was no one else available?
schrodinger's cat
@trollhattan: Too true, and the vehicles that you see tipped over by the side of the highway in snow are usually SUVs.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: haha.. Since I’m not in NYC, I am unable to attend.
Soylent Green
@trollhattan:There’s also this.
Meet the militants and their visitors.
And some great reporting by the Portland Oregonian:
Oregon occupation planned for months by Ammon Bundy.
David Koch
PPP says birther issue is dragging the Canadian Rafael Cruz down.
AAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHH
trollhattan
Looks like the War on Coal (wowah on coah) has collected its first scalp.
Poopyman
Apologies if this came out in the No Labels post down below, but this is from C. Pierce’s piece:
From Charlie’s lips ….
catclub
Kevin Drum
Terrorist Squirrel attacks on the electrical grid.
Mike J
@trollhattan: (from your link)
And far from the first scalp. At least seven coal companies went bankrupt last year. I’m hoping this one kills the coal terminal they want to build out here.
Keith G
@Soylent Green:
It seems to me that letting the cast of Bundy’s Island attend a community meeting, might well be a genius move. They are interlopers and will be told so. After they face that bit of humiliation, they can disperse or not, but nonetheless know that moving up to the top of their To Do list will be raising funds bail and/or for legal fees.
Gimlet
Now that he has raised questions about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Canadian birth and American citizenship, Donald Trump has started playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” before campaign rallies
Mike J
@Keith G:
They were told so at the meeting last night.
Southern Beale
A meeting of “gun enthusiasts” at the Vigo County Public Library in Indiana went off with a bang today. Literally.
rikyrah
POSTED WITH JUST THIS QUESTION…..
WHAT IF THESE ‘ ARMED PROTESTORS’ WERE BLACK?
UH HUH
UH HUH
………………….
Oregon Sheriff Accuses Armed Protesters of Intimidation, Harassment
by TIM STELLOH
Local law enforcement is accusing armed protesters who seized an Oregon wildlife refuge of harassment and intimidation.
In a statement Monday, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward described an “uptick” in reports of “law enforcement officers and community members being followed home; of people sitting in cars outside their homes, observing their movements and those of their families; and of people following them and their families as they move around the community.”
Ward added, “While not direct physical threats, these activities are clearly designed to try to intimidate.”
Federal employees of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the site occupied by the protestors, also reported “a number of uncomfortable instances” of “unknown” outsiders idling outside their homes, watching them and initiating debates about their employment.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
There have been a bunch already, big ones, too. Patriot Coal. Alpha Natural Resources. The WV company owned by Murray, who killed all those miners in Utah pulling pillars in a soon-to-be abandoned underground mine. Those are the square hunks of coal left to hold the mountain up while you work under it.
Some of these mines may reopen if and when the energy market reverses itself. I’ve seen mines closed for decades reopen successfully.
John, if you were going 30, you were doing it right. I’ve been in bad snow storms with several inches on the road, and people slow down so much when they enter a banked curve, they slide down the bank into the ditch, because they were going too slow to stay up on the camber of the curve.
One night years ago around 1 am I was driving a heavy 4×4 and we stopped to pull a guy out of the ditch. As we worked, I talked about how he got there, in the ditch at the bottom of a steep curve with lots of camber to help cars take the curve faster than you could if it was flat and un-banked.
I let him take off ahead of us, and after a couple of hundred yards, we came to the next sharp curve, down he slid into the ditch, again. I had to keep on going, I wasn’t going to pull him out of the ditch on every sharp curve between Hinton and Beckley – there are a hundred of them!
So going too slow can be as hard to get anywhere as going too fast, although the accident from going too slow will usually be gentler than one from going too fast.
It has snowed here, but it turned into big wet flakes, and then into rain. There’s little piles of slush on the steps. I may go out and sweep the suv off before it freezes, or not. The radar shows that most of the precipitation is already east of here, so this may be all there is for this “storm”.
David Koch
@Gimlet: Now THAT’s Entertainment
I guess this is what PT Barnum must have been like.
BruceFromOhio
@Origuy: Sheesh, beats me! Postsecret??
rikyrah
Where are the snow plows and salt trucks, Cole?
dr. luba
I have been spoilt by Russian dash cam videos. Sorry, Cole, but this is how you do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgXRGR0zUOE
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah:
This. Times 16 jillion.
David Koch
I don’t think he’ll win a single state. This Canadian thing is lethal.
Poopyman
@David Koch:
Geez! How often do you get to say that?
PurpleGirl
@Gimlet: I hope that Trump’s legal eagles got permission from The Boss to do that. The Boss will probably ask for an injection to stop it and take Trump to court. The Boss don’t like things like that.
Gimlet
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/265555-quinnipiac-poll-sanders-surges-to-lead-in-iowa
Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton in a major Iowa poll for the first time since September, the latest sign the Democratic primary race is tightening between the two candidates.
The Vermont senator wins 49 percent of likely caucusgoers in the Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, compared to Clinton’s 44 percent. It’s a significant drop for the former secretary of State from last month’s Quinnipiac poll, which had her up by 11 percent.
Sanders is boosted by his 30-point lead among men, a significantly higher favorability rating, and more favorable views of his character traits and values. He’s seen as a better steward of the economy and climate change, while Clinton wins on foreign policy, terrorism and healthcare.
Mary G
That is a tiny little road – can you even pass another car if one comes along? Glad you are stocked up, now stay home with your animals and keep safe.
We had two big days of rain last week and more was forecasted for this week, but has not appeared.
Kristine
I found that video oddly restful. Probably because there weren’t any semis bearing down from the other direction.
We had a couple inches of heavy powder here in far NE Illinois. Now it’s COLD, single digits with below zero wind chills. Then it warms–rain expected over the weekend. Then another wave of cold.
I’m ready for Spring.
japa21
@David Koch: Personally, two things that should be more lethal are why didn’t he renounce his Canadian citizenship until just a couple years ago? and why does he refuse to use his real name? Is he ashamed of his heritage?
Anoniminous
@Gimlet:
The Gold Standard for Iowa is the Des Moines Register poll and they haven’t released one since December. A PPP poll conducted (more-or-less) at the same time gave 46/40 Clinton/Sanders. Need to win the I-80 corridor to win Iowa and I can see Sanders taking Johnson and Story counties I’m not convinced he can overtake the “establishment Dems” in Linn, Polk, and Scott counties.
BGinCHI
Amazing that it’s nicer in Norway than in the NE and Midwestern US.
Yesterday clear and 40s, today 30s. Thanks to being near the ocean….
schrodinger's cat
@Mary G: You don’t pass anyone on these windy roads in winter, unless you are totally crazy or a teenage boy.
schrodinger's cat
@japa21: He has the same problem as Bobby Jindal, I think.
David Koch
@japa21: Exactly – great point.
His answers seem to only raise more questions
JPL
@BGinCHI: You are becoming spoiled.
Gimlet
@Anoniminous:
No idea if Sanders can take Iowa.
Quinnipiac says maybe. Momentum shifts pretty much every day. People at “MoveOn” are impressed with Bernies populist appeal also.
Mnemosyne
@Soylent Green:
They supposedly planned for months but didn’t realize they would need food and sleeping bags? What the hell were they doing all that time, writing non-canon fanfic about how totally awesome it was going to be?
bystander
I thought it was discarded footage from “The Shining”. The tonal shift was moody and insouciant.
p.a.
I recommend General Arctic Altimax snows.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
That happened to our office building — the power went out over a weekend because of a suicide bomber squirrel. It only left a bit of charred fur behind.
A Ghost To Most
As someone who lived in the Blue Ridge mountains for 26 years, but now is accustomed to CO roads, the thing in the video that struck me was all the guardrails.
Shana
@Roger Moore: My daughter’s boyfriend moved here to Northern Virginia with her after she graduated from college. He’s spent his whole life in and around DeKalb, IL. We’re anxiously waiting for our first snow here to see his reaction to how everyone here reacts to snow. I told him that he needs to find that clip of Obama’s reaction to the first snowfall when his daughters’ school was cancelled after a couple of inches of snow.
Mnemosyne
@Shana:
Okay, it took me a second, because I was thinking, DeKalb gets a ton of snow — that’s why I moved the hell away from Illinois! But I got it on the second read.
chopper
so now we have pictures of cole and also a recording of his voice.
chopper
@Shana:
oy, i lived in dekalb for years, went to college there and then moved to northern virginia. how odd is that?
Bill Murray
@chopper: so how long have you been dating Shana’s daughter?
PurpleGirl
Cole’s little video — which is great — reminds me of the ride back to Peekskill from New Jersey the day I bought I my first computer. My friend Nick took me to a computer fair and we looked around at computers and components for a few hours. The ride back to Peekskill was along snowy roads, with over hanging trees that were covered in show and icicles. The landscape was wonderous and beautiful. I was sitting in the back of truck, looking out the windows.
J R in WV
@A Ghost To Most:
The guardrails sometimes tear up the side of a car, but they keep you from rolling down the hill, over and over.
You sometimes need body work from grazing the rail, but they save lives. We have them on roads where there are steep drops even on narrow roads with no paint stripes whatsoever!
John Cole
@J R in WV: That’s a 300 foot drop to my left.
Here it is on google earth.
A Ghost To Most
@John Cole: only 300 feet? /smartass
You should drive Red Mountain pass between Ouray and Silverton. 900 foot drop, oncoming trucks, and no guardrails
PaulW
Where’s the plot twist? Where’s the sudden surprise AHA JUMP SCARE?! Where’s the Bigfoot in the woods or the UFO in the fog ahead?! This was the most boring horror movie I ever seen.
PaulW
@catclub:
It’s a plot for the latest Squirrel Girl comic book series.
There’s an evil opposite of Squirrel Girl: the Anti-Squirrel Girl, and she is the one character that Squirrel Girl CANNOT DEFEAT…
Honus
@A Ghost To Most: red mountain pass is a dirt road that you drive 5 mph in a jeep. Cole was coming home from the Kroger on what qualifies in West Virginia as a highway.
Satby
Add enough blowing snow for some whiteout spots and that was my ride to the job I just quit this morning. Slower driving too.
J R in WV
@donnah:
Hi Donnah,
I grew up in and around Beckley, my Grandma lived in Harper, and kept a general store there for many years, from 1932 until the mid 1950s. I grew up walking up the road behind her small farm, Sand Lick. Before they built Lake Stephens we once drove up to the left of Sand Lick, onto the ridge between Route 3 and where the Lake was built and visited a Mrs. Snuffer on her farm, who was elderly compared to my Grandma Grace. I believe the Lake cut off access to that farm, so they bought the farm as they accumulated land for the park.
My folks began letting me stay with Grandma on weekends, which I thought at the time was for my benefit, but of course was really for their benefit. Grandma and I (and later my younger brother) would go on Sunday drives all over the country out there, Surveyor, Lester, Trap Hill, even over Bolt Mountain (before Route 99 was built on the old road… name escapes me now). Sandwiches, and we would stop at a country store for a Coke, and often sit by a creek and eat lunch.
I don’t remember all the road names now, it was 50 odd years ago now, but I remember the sights as if it was yesterday
So it was good to see a comment from someone familiar with that part of the country.
J R in WV
@John Cole:
Thanks for that, very nice summer time view of your drive. There’s a coal seam on your uphill side, too! So common everywhere you drive, even here in the big city of Charleston. Well, not here, near here.
We’re in Tango, which was a Lincoln county town back in the early 1900s Oil Boom, Post Office, Church, School, and General Store, all gone but the church. And the people. Oil boom mostly gone, now they drill for gas. Beginning to FRAC, wish us luck!
John W.
I cannot imagine living in a place that gets snow and thank the Powers I don’t have to. I’ve seen snow (for an hour) once in the last eight years where I live in Southernmost Western Oregon. You ought to move here!