Forgot how to walk on ice again?

[MerchManDan]

Yup, and - despite wearing my winter boots - I've got a bruised elbow & tailbone to prove it. Man, first serious snowfall of the season and I turn into Bjarni. Avatar has been changed accordingly.

[jwhouk]

Did a lady with two kids drive by you in a Volvo - and laugh?

[Julie]

The last time I walked no ice without assistance I ended up with my very first concussion and ambulance ride ...though a bruised tailbone sounds pretty painful.

[Catawampus]

Last month I got to walk about a kilometer up a rocky slope covered in half a foot of snow and ice, compacted and polished nice and smooth by strong winds. I have a pair of ice crampons, but I can't seem to find them right now and so didn't have them in my pocket where I usually keep them for such occasions. It was an interesting and lively walk. Not made any easier by Bitey the horse shadowing me half the way.

. . .And now I just remembered where they were, and so now I have them for the next time when I need to go out. Or the next time I feel like stepping on somebody's toes to get their attention. Yay!

[shadowinthelight]

I was going to say most people here forget how to drive on the ice every year but then I realized they probably never learn to begin with.

[MerchManDan]

Did a lady with two kids drive by you in a Volvo - and laugh?

Fortunately, no; traffic was scarce, being Sunday morning. Extra-lucky too, since I was crossing Main Street to get home.

The last time I walked no ice without assistance I ended up with my very first concussion and ambulance ride ...though a bruised tailbone sounds pretty painful.

Yowch! That certainly beats my tumble; the worst I have to deal with is some tenderness in the small of my back whenever I sit down.

[scantrontb]

I was going to say most people here forget how to drive on the ice every year but then I realized they probably never learn to begin with.

reminds me of a story my older sister tells... we're originally from Michigan, and when my sis had just moved to Virginia she hadn't yet gotten her new licence when her first winter in VA showed up. apparently when there is *ONLY* 1/2 inch of snow on the ground they shut everything down... buses go into "snow routes", goobers that can't walk on ice get stuck at home, and of course... traffic slows to a crawl... being from MI she's tooling down the interstate doing 55-60 ish (whatever the posted limit was) and sees dozens of cars off in the ditches and she's giggling about their lack of driving skills... soon enough she looks back and sees the lights from a state trooper behind her... she pulls over and the cop is like "do you know that you were going at an unsafe speed for the road conditions?, I'll have to see your licence and registration please..." as she handed them over, he took one look at the MI licence, said in a flat monotone "Oh..., you're from Michigan... sorry to bother you ma'am, have a nice day!" turned around went back to his car and drove off...

[Fairportfan]

The only person who ever lost it sufficiently on snow/ice in Atlanta to hit my car (a very light glancing tap just before he slid off the road backward down a fairly gentle bank) was visiting form Illinois (or maybe Indiana - one of them).

He said he used to laugh at TV video of Southerners having all kinds of trouble with only a half-inch of snow.

He also said that what he hadn't realised was that under that half-inch of snow was am eighth of an inch of smooth ice over the entire roadway.

[Julie]

I was going to say most people here forget how to drive on the ice every year but then I realized they probably never learn to begin with.

Truth!! My husband makes fun of all of our friends (and the metroplex in general) whenever people are freaking out over a couple of inches of snow, and he thinks that the only problem with driving on ice is that no one here learned how to do it. He's from South Dakota, so I guess his perspective is a little different than most Texans'.

[bmonk]

My dad was driving through Georgia one day, with a bit of snow on the roads. He approached a farmer with his tractor at one point, who flagged him down. The farmer offered to pull him up a little hill. For $10. My dad, who grew up in No. Dakota, and lived for 30 years after that in Chicago, smiled, turned him down politely, and drove up the hill without a problem.

I used to enjoy driving DC in snow conditions. 1" or 2" of snow shut the city down, so I could drive without worrying about the locals or the tourists who didn't know how to drive...

[DinkyInky]

I was going to say most people here forget how to drive on the ice every year but then I realized they probably never learn to begin with.

Truth!! My husband makes fun of all of our friends (and the metroplex in general) whenever people are freaking out over a couple of inches of snow, and he thinks that the only problem with driving on ice is that no one here learned how to do it. He's from South Dakota, so I guess his perspective is a little different than most Texans'.

Yeah, Here in More than Corn land, They shut down the schools only when the snow is coming down faster than can be plowed and visual conditions are horrible, or it's more than -10 for the day.

We've had a few Snow Days here due to extreme cold(one day at the height of it it was -48 with the wind chill). I live where we get Lake Effect, and the dumpage is twice as bad. I drive unless it is snowing too hard to see, or when the car won't start(and since my battery is an overachiever in the CCA department, that will not happen). I have specialty tires designed for this weather, and have yet to slide even a little(but won't jinx it by saying it would never happen) on the ice. I love the vast amounts of 4X4's ditched because their owners thought that made them invincible. I dislike the idiots speeding along like they own the roads, only less than the idiots that either drive through my yard with their snowtoys, or "skitch" on the roads at toodamnearly o'clock. Tempted to string logging chains throughout my front yards trees.

That said, I hope you feel better soon MerchManDan!

[MerchManDan]

Heh, thanks DinkyInky; it's been a couple of months, so I am feeling better. Well, the bruises are gone, at least, but the ice & snow remain - for at least another month or two. Sigh.

[scantrontb]

Tempted to string logging chains throughout my front yards trees.

don't do that, it will only mean that you lose a few TREES the next time they come thru, sure they may get a bit of paint and chrome damaged, and if they are doing that kind of crap in the first place, they obviously don't care about the damage in the first place, and you'll still be missing the trees...

what *I'd* do... built a few "tank traps" that have their bases WELL dug in, and DEEP posts in the dirt, then when they hit... heh, heh, heh... it'll look like this

[GlytchMeister]

what *I'd* do... built a few "tank traps" that have their bases WELL dug in, and DEEP posts in the dirt, then when they hit... heh, heh, heh... it'll look like this

_ _

DEAD

[scantrontb]

DEAD

yeah, in another forum i'm part of, one of the guys there kept having to get his mailbox replaced because the snowplow driver would PURPOSELY knock them over all along his street, yet when they complained he got away with it by claiming that "the road was slippery and i lost control, sorry..." yet there was a very PRECISE distance between the times of total control and the times of total LACK of control, that distance was defined by the distance between mailboxes... i told him to try and get video of the driver doing it, and to walk the road following the incidents to get proof that isn't just the "he said, she said" kind... and that if THAT didn't work, then to build one of those around his mailbox and hide it under a pile of snow... no clue if he took me up on it yet...