Sandbags, sandbags, sandbags. I've helped with the filling of thousands in the past week - and many more will be needed. Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence continue to rise to 40+ year highs, with no respite in sight. Right now the river is some two feet over normal for this time of year.
We've got it down to a science, though. A couple of saw horses, a couple of 2x4's, three or four traffic cones with the tops cut off, shovels, 5 gallon buckets (seats for the bag holders, and you can turn out a lot of bags. That does require about a dozen people, though. Shovellers, holders, tiers, stackers. I was trying to keep the holders supplied with bags, but had to dodge around flying filled sandbags to do so...
This isn't going to end soon. The powers that be can't let any more water out of the lake and river than they already are, as Montreal is already flooded. And it's still raining - we've had 3.5" to 4" in this area alone this past week.
This is nothing like the flooding they get along the Mississippi, et al, but it's sure significant for us.
Larry 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...
evening
Well trainday in Toledo wasn't what it used to be.They did have the Ann Arbor unit but NS didn't have any extra horses.We did miss Amtraks Lake(Late) shore from departing by about 10 minutes.Amtrak didn't even send a train.Did however see plenty of trains move on Ns,found a new metropark and saw a switcher far away from home.Went to Deshler and worked on some projects there.Chores to catch up on here.The swamp is starting to dry out.
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").
My wife has personalized plates that say JEFF WON. Her bother Jeff was a quadriplegic for 30 years and died of cancer. Friends gave her some money and told her to buy herself something nice to help heal the loss. She bought a raffle ticket for a charity event to help troubled kids and won a bright red Prius.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Florida used to imprint the name of the county that issued the plate; they stopped that 15 or 20 years ago when car jackers were targeting foreign nationals in rental cars that could be easily identified by the rental ID stickers and the Dade County plates. Thereafter everything shows 'Sunshine State'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Here in NY, one could often tell what county a car was licensed in as prefixes/suffixes resembled the county name. It wasn't a sure thing, though.
Nowadays there are so many different number/letter combinations that about the only thing you know is that such and such a plate was probably obtained in a given county because all of the other new plates (on new and used cars) were in that series.
Some letter combinations are sort of reserved for certain specialty plates (and there are quite a few). My volunteer firefighter's plate contains the letters "VF".
Otero County Colorado (La Junta) for years was the domain of PA and PB series license plates. Applied to car and truck plates as well as SME (mechanized equipment -yellow machines) The railroad, by luck or by some railfan's advanced thinking, wound up with most of the PA and PB tags from PA-50 to PA-99. To this day, I can remember fairly easilly that some of the railroad's work equipment in the Group 5 or track department were certain things. PA-56 was a motor grader and PA-72 was a track department backhoe. PB-66 was a Martinez trailer. (kinda fits)
Even though the Alco PA's were long gone, it was a reminder in ATSF country..
For years, some states had a number at the beginning of the identification on license plates. Some, such as Tennessee, used the population of the counties as the determining factor, others such asAlabama and Mississippi, used the names of the counties in alphabetical order as the determining factor--except Jefferson County (with Birmingham) was #1 in Alabama.
South Carolina had a letter which was determined by the weight of the vehicle--and highway patrolmen would check the weights of trucks to make certain that they had the proper letter on the plates. A Ford Model A had a "B" license.
Tennessee also had a "D" after the county number if a car weighed more than a certain amount.
Johnny
Ah, Larry, your father was in Oakland County! The GJ was ahead of the numerals, and 1001 was the first number available. If he wasn't in line every year, yes, it was saved for him!The Michigan plates came in a wrapper which told you which county each letter pair came from. For us (Ottawa County), it was NU-NZ early on, then it changed to RL-RS. I remember that Grand Haven got NV, later RN. The NU and RL plates apparently went to Holland.Then, after they went to three letters and three numerals (about the time I left the state), I lost track...and maybe so did the state.
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)
JoeKohRain has moved on eastward. Farmers now have mini lakes in the fields
Same here - Upwards of 2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. If you want to mow, you'd better live on good draining ground, or have a snorkel for your mower.
Lake Ontario is still very high, and forecast to rise even more. Everyone along the shore is watching the wind very carefully, winds out of the north and/or west will be a serious problem.
Attending the funeral of a longtime firefighter tomorrow, then off to the Syracuse area on Sunday for grandson's eighth birthday celebration.
Next week, we'll make try number four to fix the check engine light in the truck. It's all due to the evap system - they just can't seem to pin down the exact problem.
afternoon
Rain has moved on eastward.Farmers now have mini lakes in the fields.Ns had an eastbound fright and the local was working when I left work.Ran an errand and CSX sent a westbound empty coal train.Chores to do.Going to bundle up for the Toledo trainday tomorrow.
As mentioned elsewhere, my beloved and I both have personalized plates on our cars. Her plate is all letters so it costs appreciably more each year when it's time to renew. My plate is mixed letters and numbers so I paid more up front when I got the plate but renewals are at the regular fee.
DeggestyHere, we thought about getting plates with our initials (mine are JBD; hers were PHD) on them--but decided it was not worth the extra cost.
"Say Lou, Did ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L 2404?"
--Fargo
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
DeggestyReading about the railroad-themed licnse plates reminded me of RIcki's and my experiences and thoughts on such.
In Michigan, there are Secretary of State offices in many smaller towns - no need to go to the county seat.
Somehow, my father managed to get plate number 1001, with GJ either before or after, almost every year. Knowing him, he probably managed to convince the local office manager to save it for him...
No rain in Lombard when we left this morning, no rain in western Michigan when we arrved this evening, but in between...Lots of steady, soaking rain along the I-80 and I-94 corridors, from the moment we first hit one of those highways until we exited the other for the last time on our way here. And it looked like portions of Indiana had plenty of standing water that must have been a pre-existing condition (my apologies... grrr!).Valpo Ed! We got to the used bookstore in Chesterton again, and I was able to pick up a couple of good railroad books. I'll have to check the dungeon before I go back then hope they still have the other one I had my eye on. It was a little steep for me if it was going to be a duplicate.The nice thing was that I found a rare, local-interest book that I'd already had, the CERA bulletin about the "Roarin' Elgin". I had it, but Pat had the bright idea of calling our historical society in town to see if they had it. They do, so I will let somebody else snap that one up. We also got some books of interest to Pat, and one will be of interest to some of our extended family: a third-grade book of songs to be learned and sung in school! I was in a public school in third grade, and we didn't have music books of our own to use...but I remember being taught some of those songs by the school's music teacher!Thanks to the people at the bookstore, we also located the Lustron Museum in Chesterton. Lustron homes were built immediately after World War II, using steel frames, steel walls, and steel roofs (think about gas stations from the 1950s...walls like those!) Lombard has more Lustron homes than just about anywhere else in the country, so they're easy for us to recognize. This place (one of two Lustrons in Chesterton), though, has the only Lustron garage ever built. We didn't go through the place, just located it for a future trip.Tomorrow, in spite of cold temperatures, we have work to do around the family cottage...cleaning up the brush in the yard, working on the kitchen stove, and other such stuff. Pat and one of my brothers-in-law will be joining my sisters and me to get as much done as we can, and opening the cottage for the year. (Ah, the family cottage...the nearest abandoned railroad is about seven miles away, the nearest active railroad is closer to 30 in any one of three "next counties". And "active" is very much a relative term!)
Reading about the railroad-themed licnse plates reminded me of RIcki's and my experiences and thoughts on such.
When we lived in Alabama, we would go to the county seat on the first day new plates were for sale (an annual occurence back then), and get my plate with the date I let her know I wanted to marry her, and her plate with the date she decided that she would--at no extra cost.
Here, we thought about getting plates with our initials (mine are JBD; hers were PHD) on them--but decided it was not worth the extra cost.
Deggesty MC-wait until tomorrow; it's 63 here right now.
MC-wait until tomorrow; it's 63 here right now.
Baca, Las Animas and Prowers Counties hit the worst. Denver media was strangely silent.
Ditches are filling up here in Nw Ohio.No roads closed yet.Saw a 10 engine power move on Ns when I got to work.Chores to do.
I may need an ark to get home this week.........
Saw lots of sobering pictures of the flooding on I44 in Missouri, going to be quite a while before it opens again......
Probably will be going home the same way I got down here, via Iowa. I49 is still above water........
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
Rain working it's way northward.Saw the local on Ns after work.Took Matt into town and CSX sent a westbound stack train.People were either mowing,had mowed or got gas for their mower. Matt took care of the yardwork.Guessers still say 3 inches + for us.Might need the boat.
joe
It's snowing outside my windo right now (not gonna stick) -- 50 degrees expected in 4 hours....We take the moisture any way we can get it. Finally greening-up around here. (no "moderate" weather here to hoard or send east.-sorry)
BOB WITHORNI thought it is, "April Showers bring May Flowers", NOT, 'April showers bring May Frost and Snow'!! Not expecting to wakeup to 30's in the morning.
Yeah - we'll see that here in a day or so.
Spent part of yesterday helping fill some 4,100 sandbags for use along the shores of Lake Ontario, which is some 22" higher than normal right now. Many lakeshore structures are in danger, especially if we get some sustained winds.
Happy May...frost advisories tonight!
Johnny, yes, I'm getting old...with a little help from radiation and testosterone deprivation. And now they're talking about adding chemo to the mix. Yes, I have an undetectable PSA, but they want to get any last remnants...kicking it while it's down, so to speak. I have to meet with my radiation oncologist sometime to see what, when, how much, what to expect (they've already told me to expect further weakening).
Back to the weather...this cold snap may keep our may flowers from prrogressing too quickly, which would be good, since the Lilac Parade is nearly three weeks away and the park is already purple.
Norm48327 Johnny, Please send us some of that moderate weather. It's been cold and rainy here and the Oaks are tucking their leaves back in in anticipation of the cold.
Johnny,
Please send us some of that moderate weather. It's been cold and rainy here and the Oaks are tucking their leaves back in in anticipation of the cold.
We don't dare put out seed or nuts on the ground - attracts rodents with frightening ease. Both verminators go beserkers at the window glass when one of those appears.
Norm
Spring seems to be here now. Right now, the temperature is about 63 degrees F., which is much closer to springtime that the forties that we had last week. We still get some rain, but not much.
Yeah, Joe, we in Michigan are still waiting for Spring to arrive. The calendar says it's here, but the weather belies the facts.
Ns had some empties uptown when I left work.Ok so we had May weather in March now we are having March weather in May.Guessers say 1-3 inches of rain forecast for Thursday and Friday.Better get the swamp mowed tomorrow.Chores to do.
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