The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

"paghat" wrote in message
news
The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl


But it's a bit more hilly here than it is Madison, don't you think? And I
swear the snow is a different texture here than it is in the midwest or back
east - finer and more slippery. And, because snow is a much rarer commodity
here than it is those areas, there tends to be less of an infrastructure
around to deal with it - snowplows and sand trucks, etc. Although the DOT
(just up the street from me) is beginning to wisen up.

As far as I'm concerned, shutting down everything and taking a snow day
sounds like a pretty darn good idea. The lack of traffic on my normally busy
street is delightful. Wish it would happen more often.

The garden looks beautiful with its covering - all the harsh angles are soft
and billowy and the coral bark maple is glowing. In the extreme but very
dry cold of the last few days, everything just looked kind of bleak and grim
and unhappy.

A perfect day for making split pea soup with the remains of the New Year's
ham.

pam - gardengal

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing

I am getting the same front up here in Vancouver (they predict 30 cm.).

It isn't MY driving I worry about - it's the other guy who thinks that just
because he is driving a yuppie 4X4 it will corner and stop just as fast as it
would on dry road (I see them in the ditches as I drive about)

On 06 Jan 2004 22:24:45 GMT, (Bill Spohn) wrote:

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing

2-3" does it here in Tidewater. Or less. To be fair, it *does* depend
on local accomodation to usual/unusual weather. School buses don't
have snow tires or chains. Nor drivers much experience in
snow-driving.

I am getting the same front up here in Vancouver (they predict 30 cm.).

It isn't MY driving I worry about - it's the other guy who thinks that just
because he is driving a yuppie 4X4 it will corner and stop just as fast as it
would on dry road (I see them in the ditches as I drive about)

Isn't that fun? I mean seeing them in a ditch? Years ago a hot car
flashed its lights, beeped its horn, and angrily passed my old VW
creeping along in a snowstorm. Passed *him* later. And got home sooner
with no auto-body work in my immediate future. :-)

Isn't that fun? I mean seeing them in a ditch? Years ago a hot car
flashed its lights, beeped its horn, and angrily passed my old VW
creeping along in a snowstorm. Passed *him* later. And got home sooner

I trust you flashed your lights, honked your horn, and waved at him as you
passed........;-)

It shuts down when we get a tenth of an inch in Austin. And I mean shuts down.
No school, no work, no library, nothing.

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 10:54:52 -0800, (paghat)
opined:

The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl

And where I grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan they didn't shut the schools
down unless we got over five foot of snow.
Dragonryder
"animaux" wrote in message
...
It shuts down when we get a tenth of an inch in Austin. And I mean shuts
down.
No school, no work, no library, nothing.

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 10:54:52 -0800,
(paghat)
opined:

The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would
like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl

And where I grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan they didn't shut the schools
down unless we got over five foot of snow.
Dragonryder
"animaux" wrote in message
...
It shuts down when we get a tenth of an inch in Austin. And I mean shuts
down.
No school, no work, no library, nothing.

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 10:54:52 -0800,
(paghat)
opined:

The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would
like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl

And where I grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan they didn't shut the schools
down unless we got over five foot of snow.
Dragonryder
"animaux" wrote in message
...
It shuts down when we get a tenth of an inch in Austin. And I mean shuts
down.
No school, no work, no library, nothing.

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 10:54:52 -0800,
(paghat)
opined:

The snow is soft & thick over everything this morning, the garden is
lovely. No one's apt to come plow our steep hill, so I guess I'm snowed
in. Interesting when it snows & hardly any of it sticks to the Alaska
Cedar which has evolved slipper droopy fans of needles that keep the
weight off its limbs in the very snowy places it grows wild.

As I'm still recovering from the flu I don't get to play in it. Would
like
to walk to Iris's cafe but it'd kill me just now. Weather report suggests
it will get warmer & rain this afternoon, so it won't be so perfectly
snowy long. I only hope it doesn't melt then freeze solid, as that could
damage some bulbs that had sprouted early, though the snow itself
shouldn't harm anything at all.

A mere six or eight inches snow shuts down the town, which is pretty
funny, cuz when I was in Madison two feet & a blizzard shut down nothing
in town.

-paghat the ratgirl

Last night's news said there was only six inches of snow in the town I
live next to, but that must've meant downtown, as up here on the hill,
judging by the neat even pile on the garden bench, we had eleven inches.
It rained in Seattle last night so a lot of theirs is now melted down, but
we had further snowfall only, & so today it's still a nice snowy world
round us. I really enjoyed bundling up & sitting on the porch watching
kids (& some adults) sliding down the steep road in front of our place.

I need to get to the post office but might put it off cuz of our worn
tires not apt to be maximally helpful.

In Seattle the police department threateningly forced people to stop
sliding down Queen Anne Hill. One kid responded by throwing a snowball &
the police did a complete shake-down search of his body as he laid over
the hood of a police car -- but as it was being televised they afterward
let him go with stern commands to go home & stay in his house. They
continued all night to harrass anyone who tried to do any sledding, like
seven police cars & a dozen cops waiting at the bottom of the hill to
harrass anyone who might slide down. It wasn't because of traffic as the
road was closed. At first they said it was because the city could be sued
for injuries (this was a lie; suits of that sort are summarily tossed out
of Seattle courts), but later they said it was because it would've gotten
dangerous if it had gone on until after dark (there is no such thing as
"dark" on brightly lit Queen Anne Hill, & when snowcovered it's brighter
still all night long). There WERE two injuries one from an ad hoc
mattress-sled crashing over someone, another from a young woman coming to
a sudden stop against a telephone pole. But hey, legs get broken skiiing
at lodges, & that's no reason to put an end to the ski industry either.
Seattle just has a wuss-government that cannot keep tabs of its
over-zealous police force; the one time the government TRIED to interfer
with police behavior, they responded vindictively by watching a man get
beaten to death on Fat Tuesday & didn't interfer, going ha-ha, see what
happens when we don't bust heads (there were resignations over that one at
least). The wussy government previously cancelled the millenium
celebration for the whole city because they worried terrorists might blow
up the ugly-ass space needle, & the police department's highwater mark of
behavior was in teargassing half the Capitol Hill neighborhood getting
people minding their own businesses in their own homes, & pepperspraying
young women sitting innocently in their car, all excused by the WTO
"riots" that only turned into riots after the police began acting up, &
even the cop who was caught on tape pepperspraying the girls got his job
back. And now they don't want kids & adults sliding down a hill in the
snow, for reasons that change every news hour as they flail around for a
reasonable one.

It would've been slightly more reasonable to stop the sliding down the
hillside in front of our house, since it connects at the bottom with an
in-use flat road, with greater possibility of a slide right into moving
vehicles, though that didn't happen even once. Fortunately our local cops
are either too lazy to act like storm troopers stopping a rare chance to
go sledding, OR they were out there on the hillsides with their own kids.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

"John Catron" wrote in message
...

And where I grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan they didn't shut the schools
down unless we got over five foot of snow.
Dragonryder

There were only a three times when I saw things shut down in northern MN.
Once was when I was a kid and a November 11 blizzard hit that left six to
eight foot snow banks and caused many stranded motorist to freeze to death.
Another was when I was in college and a blizzard struck that covered first
story dormitory windows. The third time was a day of extreme cold in 1994 or
1995 when the governor closed all the school in the state. The high
temperature in the state for the day was a -40 F. A small town not far from
where we lived set a state record of -60 F. Where we lived hit a mere -55 F.

We now live in northern AR, and at first when I lived here, I laughed when
schools closed at the first sign of a snowflake. I can now understand why
school close so quickly here after sliding half way down the hill in our
back yard after a small snow followed by some sleet. So many of the roads in
our area are hilly and winding and could be extremely hazardous for a bus to
navigate in slippery conditions.

John

"B & J" bjskeff@removecox-internetcom wrote:

The third time was a day of extreme cold in 1994 or
1995 when the governor closed all the school in the state. The high
temperature in the state for the day was a -40 F. A small town not far from
where we lived set a state record of -60 F. Where we lived hit a mere -55 F.

The record low temperature for New Mexico was -50 F on February 1, 1951,
in Gavilan which is at an elevation of 7,350 feet. You had better go
back to telling fish stories.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 04:25:33 GMT, "Stephen M. Henning"
wrote:

"B & J" bjskeff@removecox-internetcom wrote:

The third time was a day of extreme cold in 1994 or
1995 when the governor closed all the school in the state. The high
temperature in the state for the day was a -40 F. A small town not far from
where we lived set a state record of -60 F. Where we lived hit a mere -55 F.

The record low temperature for New Mexico was -50 F on February 1, 1951,
in Gavilan which is at an elevation of 7,350 feet. You had better go
back to telling fish stories.

John/B&J wrote of MN, not NM. :-)

I remember the run of extremely cold weather. It was right before and during
Christmas and there was black ice all over the freeways in Mpls/St. Paul
This was after some cars had slid off bridges and into the Mississippi. We went from
there to D.C. where 1 inch of snow and there is a call for 4 wheel drive to take
essential personnel to work. yeah right. we are back in Milwaukee, 6 blocks from
the lake and I really like how much warmer it is, altho I would rather winter in
Alabama. sigh. well at least it snowed before this nasty cold weather hit. Ingrid

"B & J" bjskeff@removecox-internetcom wrote:
There were only a three times when I saw things shut down in northern MN.
Once was when I was a kid and a November 11 blizzard hit that left six to
eight foot snow banks and caused many stranded motorist to freeze to death.
Another was when I was in college and a blizzard struck that covered first
story dormitory windows. The third time was a day of extreme cold in 1994 or
1995 when the governor closed all the school in the state. The high
temperature in the state for the day was a -40 F. A small town not far from
where we lived set a state record of -60 F. Where we lived hit a mere -55 F.

We now live in northern AR, and at first when I lived here, I laughed when
schools closed at the first sign of a snowflake. I can now understand why
school close so quickly here after sliding half way down the hill in our
back yard after a small snow followed by some sleet. So many of the roads in
our area are hilly and winding and could be extremely hazardous for a bus to
navigate in slippery conditions.

John




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

"B & J" bjskeff@removecox-internetcom wrote:
The third time was a day of extreme cold in 1994 or
1995 when the governor closed all the school in the state. The high
temperature in the state for the day was a -40 F. A small town not far
from where we lived set a state record of -60 F. Where we lived
hit a mere -55 F.

"Stephen M. wrote:
The record low temperature for New Mexico was -50 F on February 1, 1951,
in Gavilan which is at an elevation of 7,350 feet.

Frogleg wrote:
John/B&J wrote of MN, not NM. :-)

My apologies. He is talking about the winter of 1995-6 when the
temperture set a Minnesota record of -60 F on Feb. 2, 1996 in Tower at
an elevation of 1,460 feet.

When he compared it to Arizona, I thought he was comparing a neighboring
state. My mistake.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman