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Chatterbox Winter

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Posted by CShaveRR on Sunday, February 1, 2015 9:30 PM

We are somewhere in the vicinity of 15 inches on the ground.  Driveway was shoveled/blown in the early afternoon, but you'd never know it.  It may have ended by daytime tomorrow, but the damage is done--no school, no garbage pickup, no walking errands for me.  Shoveling...we shall see.

One thing was nice to hear, while I was out doing the apron and crosswalk this afternoon:  some sort of freight came through on UP, and didn't sound like he was being slowed down too much.  There were some Metra-affecting switch problems toward the city (where they're getting more than we are), but I haven't seen either BNSF or UP West come up on the delay reports lately. 

We're enduring a ten-percent fare increase for this?

(I have to snicker at that...if we take Metra or anything else now, we have a reduction in fares, 'cause we got our RTA discount cards that knock 50 percent off CTA, Metra, or Pace.)

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, February 2, 2015 3:42 AM

morning

Matt is closed work is closed.Still snowing outside.Going to dig out in a bit.County is under a level 3 as well.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Norm48327 on Monday, February 2, 2015 5:42 AM

Looks like close to a foot of snow this morning. Glad I don't have to fight it going to work. Retirement has it's advantages. Wink

Norm


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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, February 2, 2015 7:25 AM

    We received somewhere between 6 and 10 inches of what seems to be snow mixed with cement. 

     Yesterday, we went out to help a friend who had gotten his car really stuck Saturday night taking his daughter to the hospital.  He had been there a while shoveling when we arrived.  Trying to lighten up the situation, Lisa says "Oh boy- this looks like fun!".  He said he wanted to get the car out in time to watch the superbowl.  He's from the east coast and is a big Patriots fan.  My wife knows nothing about football, except what makes the news.  Trying to make conversation, she asks him "Do you have underinflated balls?" 

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Norm48327 on Monday, February 2, 2015 7:34 AM

Norris,

Get over here and clean the coffee from my keyboard. Big Smile

Norm


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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, February 2, 2015 8:22 AM

Hmm

Norm48327

Norris,

Get over here and clean the coffee from my keyboard. Big Smile

 

SNORT! SNORT! Hmm 

Can you put a keyboard into a bowl of rice to 'dry' it out ?? 

I'd sent it to you to fx it, Norris. but it'd probably freeze solid.Whistling

 

 


 

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, February 2, 2015 10:04 AM

Norm, Sam, haven't you learned to swallow your coffee before looking back at the monitor?

Katie had a party last night, upstairs. Some of her friends and some of Jackie's dorm friends were there, making great noise from time to time. I went up for supper and learned that they all wanted a repeat of last year's game. I did go up for supper. This morning, I learned why they were quiet when the game ended.

I also laughed when I read Norris' post.

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, February 2, 2015 10:31 AM

All I know about the game is what I read about it.  

Measured 3" at 8 AM,  although there was a two foot high "pyramid" drift right in front of the garage door.  The rest of the driveway was basically clear.   The wind is sticking right in there, though, holding at around 10 MPH with gusts as high as 20 MPH.  And I live in a valley.

All in all, it's a good day to stay home.

Syracuse is looking at 8-12" inches.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Mookie on Monday, February 2, 2015 3:18 PM

While I had no interest in either team, but peeked in every so often.  You must admit that the last, what, 2 min were a great football game.  The Seahawks receiver who caught that "juggling ball" was pretty spectacular.  And the finish was incredible. 

Kudos to both teams for more entertainment than 90% of those inane commercials.  Where did they get these advertising agencies? 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, February 2, 2015 3:51 PM

The snow has stopped, we have blue skies, but it's still colder than the dickens outside.  At least the wind is settling down.

Time to go tackle that drift in front of the garage one more time.

Apparently a few folks got a little fiesty on the roads - there have been several minor accidents, mostly folks sliding off the road and/or into things.

The question of the day seems to be why the Seahawks passed on that last play...  We may never know.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, February 2, 2015 4:34 PM

Mookie

While I had no interest in either team, but peeked in every so often.  You must admit that the last, what, 2 min were a great football game.  The Seahawks receiver who caught that "juggling ball" was pretty spectacular.  And the finish was incredible. 

Kudos to both teams for more entertainment than 90% of those inane commercials.  Where did they get these advertising agencies? 

 

There was a time in the not too distant past, that the commercials were memorable, and consequently of value to the advertiser.  Today, I can remember the 2 Doritos commericals, the Budweiser commercial that seemed like either a rerun or an overused theme, and one involving the Brady bunch and a lady in her crawlspace with a opossum.  I dont't recall what the last 2 were advertising.

      For the most part, I just kept thinking that somebody blew a big wad of cash on a useless commercial.  Some of them were downright awful.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, February 2, 2015 5:01 PM

getting ready for back to work and back to school.Helped neighbors here and in town dig out.More stuff on the way for wed.Saw the y101 get ready to switch in town.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, February 2, 2015 5:09 PM

tree68

The snow has stopped, we have blue skies, but it's still colder than the dickens outside.  At least the wind is settling down.

Time to go tackle that drift in front of the garage one more time.

Apparently a few folks got a little fiesty on the roads - there have been several minor accidents, mostly folks sliding off the road and/or into things.

The question of the day seems to be why the Seahawks passed on that last play...  We may never know.

 

Some matters will never be told. At least, in the 2013 season Alabama's coach said why he wanted a field goal to break the tie with Auburn when the regulation playing time was almost over--he did not want the game to go into overtime. At least, he kept his job even though the ball fell short and an Auburn player caught it and ran all the way down the field with no trouble to break the tie.

And, this past season, a Utah player celebrated making a touchdown and dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line--and an opposing player who was on the ball picked it up and ran aboout 98 yards to score for his team. The celebratory player was kept on the team, even though Utah fell behind and failed to make the error up.

Johnny

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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, February 2, 2015 6:16 PM

 Crying Murphy Siding, said , in part: "... For the most part, I just kept thinking that somebody blew a big wad of cash on a useless commercial.  Some of them were downright awful..."

I was curious, as the Media had touted the Cost of Commercial Time during "The Game" as a price for a 30 second commercial of $4.5 milion bucks ! Whistling

Curiosity led me to seek out further costs.  The $4.5 price tage is for the air time per commercial, the Production costs are unknown, but I had read that the total entertaimnet costs for the SuperBowl #49 were north of $331 million.

The price for the 15 minute half time show is not mentioned anywhere I could find, but I did read that at one point the NFL had asked the' entertainers' to participate in defraying the costs...A request, that probably had as much impact as one of those deflated football that grabbed pregame headlines.  

Ticket prices started in the range of $8 K per seat; in January it had climbed to somewhere above $10,350 bucks.  Seats on the area of the fifty yard line were just shy of $28,900. ( for that price????). 

The bidding for the game cost the City of Glendale, Az. approx $6 million to host the game; agains expected revenues of approx $300 million(?). This does not even include the monies the Federal Governnment and State Governments spent for Protection and Safety of the Crowds ( est. at between 70 and 75 thousand for the Game Crowd). I saw costs of an excess of $6 million dollars (?).

[Sources were varried for this cost information; found them by 'googling' Costs for Super Bowl 49...] 

The long and the sort of it is for Two Hours (more or Less) on a Sunday afternoon in Feburary America spent a heck of a lot of money to see a Football game.

Essentially, Norris was right!  "...somebody blew a big wad of cash on a useless commercial (s)..." Bang Head

 

 

 


 

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 8:49 AM

Took about 2 hours on Sunday morning with the snow thrower clearing the walks and part of the alley in front of the garage, not that it served any useful purpose.  Got out again yesterday morning and spent about 3 1/2 hours doing the same thing, but now everything is still clear.

Seattle's last offensive play on Sunday definitely was offensive.  As a former rugby forward, I tend to favor running plays, especially from 5 yards and closer, whether I'm on the attacking team or the defending team.  Also, play to your strengths to avoid exposing your weaknesses.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by JoeKoh on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 4:35 PM

work is busy busy.Ns had a westbound stacker and the local was uptown shuffling cars when I left work.Ma nature going to give us more snow soon.Sunday she might send ice our way.can't wait until spring.chores to do.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 6:51 PM
It looks like the Forum has been tweaked again--no way to change font, add smileys, or whatever. It won't even allow me to break my post up into paragraphs. Maybe the groundhog gnawed through something.

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by power58 on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 7:01 PM

Linus has a good Grandpa for sure, it is our job to teach the fine art of Razzberry and other talents. Nothin like grandkids, he will be wearing UP jackets in no time. 

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 7:46 PM

Another six inches of snow, this time without the wind.  Oddly, it was a small band of lake effect that hung in right over us for most of the day.  

Fortunately, it was light and fluffy.

Last night, though, was cold. My weather station showed -30F on the anemometer sensor, and -22F on the regular sensor.  Now (8:40PM) it's up to +23F.  Positively balmy!  The temperature line on the weather station computer display is quite dramatic - sloping up from that -22F at 7 this morning to +20F by noon.  

There is some wind blowing that fluffy snow around, up out of the valley, which has resulted in several cars off the road.  Most were caught by a combination of the drifting snow and some black ice.  Our chief followed one driver back from the scene of the last call who barely ventured about 20 MPH.  

Probably wise - I broke the back end of our brush truck loose pulling on to the the state highway from the side street our station is on.  Wheeee!

Carl - All of the usual font/color/etc functions are still available to me.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 7:49 PM

And to me.

Almost sixty degrees here today; a little rain last night. I won't object if MC sends some snow over this way.

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 12:58 AM

And out again just after midnight for another pick-up off the road - this one on it's top after what looked like a pretty spectacular ride.  There were rounded corners where there shouldn't have been rounded corners...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 6:37 AM

Mild here yesterday with a few flakes. Tonight it's back into the deep-freeze.

Norm


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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 9:02 AM

Font problems corrected themselves after an hour or so.  No clue as to what, how, or why.

A couple more inches of snow yesterday afyternoon (nice that it waited until I'd finished shoveling from the blizzard), and zero or below forecast for tonight.   Today's high will be close to 20; I'll have a routine chore day out in it. 

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 3:33 PM

snowing temprature dropping roads are getting bad.No confirmation class for Matt tonight.Ns had a westbound going out of the siding and the local was uptown again today. 61 days until opening day for baseball.chores are calling.

stay safe

Joe

 

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 4:28 PM

It's been snowing here pretty much all day.  Not heavily, but snowing nonetheless.  The roads aren't bad, though - no reports of accidents that I've heard.

The temperature has been hovering a degree or two below freezing most of the day.  

Headed down to meet granddaughter on Saturday.  She won't even be a week old yet, but I'm sure it'll go well.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by edblysard on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 7:34 PM

Wow, I almost feel bad telling ya'll it was 60 and sunny down here this afternoon....if it helps any, the wind was blowing out of the north!

23 17 46 11

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 7:48 PM

Ed, you do not have a monopoly on warm afternoons--it was close to sixty here this afternoon; we had some rain during the night, and I hope it snowed up in the mountains.

If Carl can do it, I will not object to his sending some of the snow that keeps him occupied here.

Johnny

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 7:54 PM

Okay, Mr. Smug swamp-person...

I'm just waiting for your occasional fresh picture of a Blysard with a light dusting of snow, looking unhappy.

I'm a little unhappy myself, but Pat is loving this!  She likes the way the snow brightens things up around here.  I don't have any problem getting her to help with the shoveling, either.  I did my weekly chore for the historical society on foot today; I think it probably accoundts for about three miles of walking.  Then I shoveled everything around the house (driveway, front walk, sidewalk, neighbor's sidewalk, patio) before falling asleep with the paper for a while.

The "chore" was a little frustrating today:  I had to go to only one bank instead of two--and it was the bank nearer to the tracks that I didn't need to visit.  So naturally, while I was out on the streets going to the other bank, no fewer than five trains went through, too far away for me to see much.  There have been delay reports involving the scoots on this line throughout the day (switch problems, equipment problems, freight train interference, etc.), but the two I saw were running pretty close to on-time.

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, February 5, 2015 7:20 AM

Just a reminder to Ed so he doesn't get too smug.  I have a younger brother who has resided in Houston since 1980.  About 20 or so years ago, Mom and Dad went down to visit and they drove out to San Antonio to see the Alamo.  A snowstorm hit which dumped about 18 inches of snow and made for an interesting drive back to Houston.  Mom and Dad had a picture of Steve in front of the Alamo in the middle of that snowstorm.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, February 5, 2015 10:02 AM

Currently investigating a bright orb in the sky.  

Of course, that's a precursor to sub-zero wind chills again tonight...

Got a lot of the packed snow off the driveway.  As much as I'd like to clear the driveway before I drive over it and pack the snow down, the pager sometimes overrides that desire with a call to arms that can't wait till I get the snowblower out...

Speaking of the snowblower, daughter related the other day that the pull cord on their snowblower had broken.  Fortunately, their machine also has electric start, although that does necessitate being able to reach it with a cord.

So, last night, my pull cord broke.  It was at the end of my driveway, but that's only 75' back to the garage to use the electric start.  The reason I had to restart it was because I ran it out of gas, having used the snowblower to clear snow around our banquet hall yesterday...  Good thing it didn't break while I was a fair distance from the nearest outlet...  So a trip to the appropriate store for a new pull cord is in order.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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