ice

I just got home from Dallas last night. I've never seen a place so unprepared for any type of winter weather. The drivers are complete idiots. All of them in 4wd trucks and suv's thinking, I'm invincible... Eh, not...lol

I was talking to a friend, and they say they get something like that every year, yet No salt, sand, pretreating, or god forbid, a plow... I guess a road grader sorta counts.

Another example of a low tax, low service state. The roads are in horrible condition. Potholes the size of Texas...lol Y'all can keep it...

Oh, when I got back, our roads were clear, and even my car in the airport parking lot had been cleared and dug out... (we got 10 inches on Saturday...) And it's snowing now...

 

Part of this is true, we're not prepared for the freak storm that happens every year (I should just buy a snow shovel). The roads are a mess because everything is under construction. Say what you will about us (and I've said it all), we have jobs. Therefore the people come, the roads get over used, and we build more stuff. Snow and ice? We have no time for that because we know it will warm back up and we have things to build! Cheaper to have a two day lull in the action.

 

Heres what a 4 foot drift on the side of a dirt road looks like. Went to turn around didn't even know it was there.

You will survive a little ice.

 

Studs are outlawed in my area.

But I had a set of tires in the past that worked well on ice and snow, called Green Diamonds. They were embedded with hard silicium carbide granules into the tire tread, providing great legal traction.

Too bad their distribution system sucked, or I would have them on the Taco.

 

Quite true!

 

Bridgestone Blizzaks have embedded silica also, I believe. I've run those tires on previous vehicles and loved them.

I suspect other manufacturers have similar tech in their winter tires.

 

I wonder what the insurance bill is going to be after all the wrecks. I'd bet it will be bigger than the cost of some emergency snow and ice equipment, along with the lost productivity and wages. Like it or not, you are paying for it.

Same with your health care insurance enrollment (lowest in the nation). Uninsured people get sick and injured, they go to hospitals and they get treated, you guys are already paying for that. Usually with the most expensive emergency room care...

 

Mine is, same with the snow brush. Just stays behind the back seats. No sense taking it out since I use them about half the year anyway and they don't take up much room.

Sure, but for the average person who has to drive in winter conditions I doubt there's much that a 4x4 Tacoma with snows or studded snows couldn't handle.

 

Well no matter where you go dumb will surround you. They managed to pile up 75 cars on I 95 south of Bangor Maine these are people that have some clue how to drive in the snow but they apparently never read the part about speed too great for conditions.

 

That's incredible! Especially since south of Bangor the speed limit is still 65. Imagine if all of them decided to go 75 MPH "because they could" north of Bangor?

Actually, scratch that...I don't think I see 75 cars all the way from Old Town to Millinocket.

 

9 inches of snow. No problem, don't even need to plow really. Just have the right vehicle and go slow.

0.1 inch of ice. Death and destruction pretty much anywhere no matter what you drive. Don't fuck with ice. Now many places of course have plenty of road crews to deal with ice, but even hear in Maryland where they throw salt like mad all the time it just takes one missed forecast for a little bit of ice to go down on unsalted roads and there are more crashes than you can count.

 

Saw that even on the backwater news we have here Maineah
. Now that was a dadgum pileup!

 

I came back from Caribou one Sunday morning and only saw 5 cars until I got to Bangor. The Etna pileup was on a weekday morning so traffic was heavy but that's still a lot of people going too fast during a snow squall dumping 4" an hour and people wonder why I don't mind route 1.

 

The amazing thing no one was killed. I particularly like the Dodge pickup that was bent in the middle with the rear bumper 4' in the air.

 

Check it out Maineah...that is a SERIOUS bend right there.

 

It's time for you guys to bring out the Hillbilly snow shovel.