see how easy Minis are to push in the snow.
Ok; I know some of you put up with snow and ice for eleven months of the year, and never once complain (What drugs are you on anyway?) When we decided to move from the Bay Area, Stephanie had read about this cute little town, Viroqua, Wisconsin, which was becoming a bit of a magnet for escaping urbanites. Well, let’s just say it’s a good thing I shot idea that down; she wouldn’t have lasted past December 15th the first winter, given that she’d only ever lived in balmy California. But we can’t seem to escape it here this year either; after a totally freak week-long arctic storm in December (story and pictures), we got hammered again. And this time it turned ugly at the end…Timber!
This Scion TC off-roading (why is it always TCs?) was just during the preliminaries on Thursday.
Friday brought 8+ inches of snow, so I put on the cross country skis and shot a few snow-bound CCs. Gravity is going to give this W114 diesel a head start when it comes time to clatter off.
I’ll let you decide what this tapering tower of snow is hiding.
It probably feels right at home.
The American “brick”.
This is a recent addition to the neighborhood, and you’ll be reading more about it soon. Let’s just say it’s not getting caned by its very youthful driver on this day.
Is that a smile I see? Guess it’s happy to be dry under cover.
Unlike this veteran. Its boxiness is being accentuated significantly.
On Saturday, it got ugly, with ice rain all day on top of the snow. But we (and the dogs) had to get out, and I couldn’t resist a shot of these spiked shoes. On our walk, we saw numerous big limb and branches come down, and hear many more all around. It sounded like a Civil War re-enactment in the neighborhood, with sharp cracks and reports nearby and in the distance. The dogs were not happy, and we stayed clear of walking under any trees.
Here’s one victim. And a convertible no less; a rather uncommon one at that.
That turned out to just be the preview…
Minutes after getting home, I got two simultaneous phone calls, from the tenants in these two rental houses of mine. Timber! I knew that tree was vulnerable, since it had a lean to it, and was an ash with lots of dense twigs to catch more ice.
Fortunately, there was no serious damage or intrusion into the house. The tree is mostly resting on that patio roof I built, although its steel roofing is probably pretty dented, and the gutter is gone. It’s supposed to warm up a bit on Monday, so I’ll be firing up the trusty old Stihl. Anybody need some firewood?
I live in Portland, and this is by far the most snow we’ve gotten since the nearly 2 feet we got in December of 2008. The fluffy white stuff doesn’t bother me, or my car, really. The freezing rain is the really nasty stuff.
I lived in Portland a few years ago when there was a rather sudden arctic blast that moved in from the gorge and turned the area into the proverbial skating rink. I managed to walk the 9 blocks to the bar just fine but fell a few times on the way home. Literally lost my hat. It was amazing how slick the world became.
The entire continent seems to be sharing the pain, with temperatures often 10 degrees (celsius) below normal highs.
Firewood?! I’d be right over, if it wasn’t a bit far to drive for one load. 🙂
We had an ice storm in early January that brought down a couple big limbs from the Sycamore tree that overhangs our driveway. My wife’s CR-V got the worst of it. Cost $4700 to repair, mostly paid through insurance. My pickup wasn’t unscathed either. Dented hood and cracked windshield. I’ll get that tended to in the spring. The tree limbs also took out our cable/internet/phone and threatened to take down our power line. I’ve wanted to cut down that Sycamore ever since we moved into our house, but my wife raised a fuss. After this mess, that tree is coming down this summer!
We’ve also had an extended cold snap. My garage is essentially unheated; I have a propane construction heater, but no sense even firing it up unless I’m going the be out there for most of a day, which means only on the weekend. When I want to go out there and work in the winter I usually just bundle up warmly. I’ve hardly gotten anything done in the past month on my current restoration project, mostly because of the cold. I’m ready for some warmer weather!
I hear you on the garage work. I’ve been planning to put a new right front kingpin in my ’53 Buick, and there hasn’t been one warm enough stretch where I even felt inclined to give it a go. I use a propane salamander, too, and my garage is uninsulated.
Yes, my son’s Grand Marquis was in desperate need of universal joints, but with this weather, old Dad decided that writing the modest check to the mechanic was a better deal than the “supervising” required on a u-joint job in the cold, cold garage.
Or in the driveway. Here are the frosty Panthers.
Nice shot!
Aw, come on; you weren’t going to get under there to fix your son’s car? 🙂 Think how easy it would be to slide in and out on the snow. Just use a toboggan instead of a creeper.
Firewood? Do you deliver? 🙂
Plenty of cold and snow here in the Hoosier state as well. This particular boy from the north is glad to have his trusty snowblower, which has been getting a workout this year. We had an ice/snow storm in December that took down a lot of trees, fortunately the only one really vulnerable in our yard was taken out a year ago.
My other source of happiness this season is that late last fall we finally replaced our 1978 gas furnace (made by General Electric, figure that one out). Maybe I should have written a “Basement Classic” on it. But as it is, I have no worries of the old thing conking out in some of the nasty subzero (F) cold we have been dealing with.
When we moved to St. Joseph, Missouri (where everything is billed as Pony Express this or Jesse James that), in 2001, Mrs. Jason and I looked at a house in a historic area of town. Apart from the psychedelic striped carpeting in the upstairs that swayed under the fluorescent lights, there was a true gem in the basement: a gas furnace with a Pentastar and proudly proclaiming it to be a “A Proud Product of the Chrysler Corporation”.
I’m jealous on the furnace. My old GE heat pump in Hannibal only lasted thirty years.
Many people do not know that the Airtemp division was started under Walter Chrysler’s headship. That division was a pioneer in air conditioning in large buildings. One of the first installations was in the lower floors of the Chrysler Building in New York, completed in the late 20s.
For my money, they would have sold more Chrysler Airtemp furnaces if they could have made them sound like the car starters when they cycled on. 🙂
I probably shouldn’t do this but…A Chrysler furnace?
Who wants a furnace that goes like hell when it’s warm and dry but won’t start when it’s cold or wet.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
LOL! I can just see the repair guy: “Yup, it’s your ballast resister. Let’s try er out now.”
“Na-Rayre Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm”
“Yup, all fixed.”
Ha My house had one when I moved in Thing was huge and reliable But a little gas hungry as it was almost 50 years old. It started to develop a crack in the heat exchanger so we got a new one 1/4 the size but I pulled off the airtemp badge before it left.
JP your basement classic was probably an early example of badge engineering. During that period virtually all the gas furnaces were made by Consolidated or Duquense(sp?) (pronounced Du Cane) and sold to whatever company needed them. GE itself sold it’s design to Trane. Trane was a Texas company and had a separate design. Now they all look like modern versions of the GE condensing unit. Btw they bought the plumbing company American Standard. They put a virtually identical unit under that nameplate and sold it as a builders model. I left full time work in that field in 93 so memory might be a little faulty. Faulty or not, I’m guessing your gas furnace came from a factory other than GE. Probably Duquense. I have greatly enjoyed watching companies eat each other since I left the field.
I am happy to say that my portion of Texas has not been beset with the weather that all of you are seeing. I do remember my first winter in newfoundland. A guy parked his VW between the wings of the barracks. He had an oversized antenna that wore a fluorescent tennis ball. When we came out after the first snow the ball was all that was visible. Wasn’t even a bump in the drift. No ball would have meant waiting for the melt. Turned out that was standard for him
Our furnace was of early ’70s vintage and made by Singer (yep, same as the sewing machines). Had to cut it up to get it out of the cellar.
Pffft, we’re not even halfway through February! Everyone knows that the worst snow comes in December, the worst cold in January, and the worst ice on, let’s see, last year it was APRIL 30TH. In my junior year of high school it was March 31st; I can vaguely remember a freak snowstorm on my sister’s birthday, May 18th, about 15 years ago.
Watching the Olympics the other day, there was a report on some athlete who lives in Montana (or some stereotypically frigid state) from November to April or so and then moved to New Zealand for the rest of the year to have a perpetual winter for training. My first thought was they were a masochist.
Knock on wood, but we have avoided any heavy snow, but it’s been consistent. The cold is getting to be a pain after the sub-zero Fahrenheit days of late. It’s hell on my arthritic hands.
Oh you don’t have to be a masochist to come to New Zealand! (But it helps!) 😉
Oh no! New Zealand (or anywhere) in the winter where it is cold can be so unpleasant. Saying things in two dimensions is so tough sometimes! 🙂
Actually, I threw the idea out the other day of selling everything and moving to your neck of the woods. Mrs. Jason wasn’t totally opposed to the idea.
I snapped more than enough pics for a write-up but I’ll put the highlights here.
The end of the Odyssey?
Luckily this CC was just grazed with no noticeable damage.
Too comical. It even has the original early 80s paint combo. I really liked some of the two tones from that era. Excluding the Citation though…
And in front of the house, with Paul’s new LTD still waiting for him to pick it up.
When the price drops to $2000, I’ll be there with a bag of cash! 🙂
As long as the bag is worth 2 grand itself it’s a deal!
Front Upper Subframe is bent so that Odyssey is no longer in an Oasis and will be towed to the junkyard.
Avoiding trees and not parking under them during bad weather seems to be an afterthought for a lot of people.
While these events are extremely rare here, we did have a day or more of constant news and facebook postings warning everyone of freezing rain, which can lead to downed trees and powerlines. I’m amazed so many people just let their cars sit under these old giants.
A quick question from someone who has never seen actual snow- what happens to the coolant in this weather? Can it freeze and crack radiators and blocks? Don’t some cars have plug in electric blankets in the engine bay?
It is rated for a range of temperatures, like -50 Fahrenheit to 250 Fahrenheit – or somewhere in the general neighborhood. So unless you are running straight water, you should be okay. You can purchase an engine block heater; the two varieties I’ve seen will heat either the coolant or engine oil to a specific temperature.
A friend was nursing a car with a coolant leak and had been using straight water due to 1 cost and 2 mess of antifreeze dripping onto his garage floor. When nighttime temps got down into double digits below zero (F) his cooling system froze up big time, even with the car in an attached garage. He got lucky, only damage was several freeze plugs (including one in the turbo housing) and a burst heater core, so at least there was not a cracked engine block. But it was an expensive addition to what would have been an inexpensive leak repair. Hindsight.
I wonder if modern aluminum blocks are less prone to cracking from frozen water in the cooling passages than were blocks of cast iron?
Here in the great white north 99% of all cars have coolant block heaters. Most folks run coolant with enough anti-freeze to protect down to -40. Oil pan heaters are sometimes seen on heavy trucks and equipment. Modern vehicles handle the cold much better than vehicles even a generation ago. It’s been -25 to -30 every morning here for the last week or so. I plug in just before hitting the sack and at 06:00 I duck outside, start the truck ( one twist of the key is all it needs), finish my coffee inside and off I go.
A generation ago the drill was to bundle up, cross your fingers, start the truck and then babysit it for 10 minutes or so until you were sure it would continue to run. Winter got a lot easier when carburetors and automatic chokes went away.
It is possible to crack a block, damage a head gasket or freeze up a radiator but that’s really a maintenance failing. Being ready for winter is just part of life around here, but I do feel sorry for people in places like Atlanta when an unexpected arctic blast hits them like happened last week.
Paul,
Take care working on the large limbs. Don’t want to see you banged up like Jack Baruth was in his car wreck.
Good advice, and already taken. After taking a closer look, I called in our neighborhood wood chopper, who’s going to get it down to the ground. We’ll take it from there.
You have a couple of great still life pics there Paul. The Mini belongs in your calendar. It’s a charming shot. The runners are pretty great too.
My city is $24 million over their snow removal budget already. So, they are saying they may have to do minimal removal now, for the rest of the season. Which could be trouble, if we get any significant accumulations.
There’s already been several whiteout and multiple pileup incidents since Christmas on Ontario Highway 401, which is one of the busiest freeways in the world. And an important commerce route.
The contrast here in Victoria, Australia couldn’t be greater. A few days ago we had 40 deg. celcius with winds. Bushfire season is peaking right now. The cap city-based radio on Sunday was filled with fire alert warnings. The most disgraceful aspect for our delicately situated regional communities is the high proportion of fires started deliberately.
Daniel M. Is right. Despite the reality of the situation over there, there is something lyrical about some of these side-on pics.
I was going to say, no firewood needed here there is already too much burning. Over 35 houses lost I gather, many right on the fringe of the suburbs.
My van at work last week. It looked so pathetic I took a photo.
I’ve had to replace both batteries in our cars this winter due to the cold snap. My curbside classic is safe inside my garage too.
I’m ready for spring now…
I assume you cleared off more snow before driving away, your headlights cannot see.
Oh yes, the snow comes off but the ice doesn’t. I’m having a lot of trouble with doors frozen shut now too. Need a couple of warmish dry days to fix that.
Oops I posted a massive picture too, sorry ’bout that Paul.
I once tried to get the sliding door on my Voyager open and I got it open 5-10% of the way, but no further due to cold and ice. I could not shut it either so I just drove 10-15 miles with the heat cranking and I pulled over then managed to shut it. Other times I could not get it open at all due to ice and you do not want to break the handles.
The door sensor went bad after I fixed the door at my neighbor’s for some other issue so I just put a piece of tape over the door ajar light and would get a few door open dings if I drifted above and below 15 MPH.
Snow and ice conditions………..
The only time you are continually fighting for traction with 42 HP and EVERY car is way too powerful. Lots of fun with the right attitude and some empty parking lot practice.
Oddly enough the only time I’ve had any trouble driving in this snow (I’m in Eugene, same as Paul) is in the parking lot next to my house where I park. Got stuck about 100 feet from the house on the slightest of inclines and had to dig my way out with a frisbee golf disc.
And this gem is still around and kicking. And for sale! $1,700/OBO.
I bet the engine stomps like a disco…
I see what you did there, but I’d hate to see it dumped in the bay.
If they can deliver it to New Zealand…
So the price has come down a bit, then? HMMM… Flash-O-Matic or Three-On-The-Tree? Aluminum or Iron block? (My preference would be Iron + Flash.) By now, some of you may have noticed that I have a bit of a 1962 Rambler fetish…
I’m walking that way in a minute; if it’s still parked there I will look at the interior. And get a pic of the for sale sign.
$1,700 you say? This is what I should do with my tax return. Take a week off work, fly in and drive the Rambler back Cross Country.
Rambler Wagon? Cross Country? I see what you did…
The windows were too fogged to see the tranny.
But here’s the sign. GIve ’em a call.
We’re having a superb summer here, warm cloudless days, cool nights, what could be better! I guess that’s not helping much…
On a serious note though, I feel for all of you who are experiencing winter storms. We’ll get ’em down here soon enough. A large part of New Zealand, especially the North Island where I live, doesn’t get snow like shown in the pics, our winter storms seem to be more wind and rain. Having said that, I was caught in a blizzard in 2010. We were staying in an isolated government-owned camp ground where all the heating/cooking/lighting was electric. When the snow brought down the lines, we were trapped in there for 3 days with no heating/cooking facilities/lighting. It was fun for about 3 minutes 49 seconds…
a couple of years ago this country had practically no winter at all.
Yeah… That’s my Nissan under that tree. 🙁
Right on the A pillar…
Is it soon to be a fond memory or is it able to be fixed? I hope it missed your pickup.
Given the safety inspections sticker, the red Ford Explorer, and the lack of front plates I assume those photos are from PA. If there is damage I doubt it will pass inspection (unless you get crafty) and probably be totaled since no repair person wants to go near damaged pillars with a 10 foot stick. Sorry about your Nissan, but perhaps someone in a state without safety inspections will buy it.
We’ll see what the insurance company wants to do with it. The good news is that it missed the truck… And the house.
Holy file size! 6.6megs….
ANyway, are you in or around Eugene?
He’s trying to see what it takes to choke our new server 🙂
Seriously, we need to find a program that limits uploads for comments like for us writers in the back end. Many of these comment images are way to big; it’s the reason TTAC eliminated that option.
I do this by accident all the time… I always forget that the pictures from my phone are a ridiculous size.
I had that same thought, although it’s the compression that matters more than the actual pixel structure/size. That picture would look exactly the same compressed down to half a meg or less.
Sorry about the file size. I forgot that my new phone takes ridiculously sized pictures. I’m in PA. We were also treated to an ice storm after a wet heavy snow which brought down many trees.
UGHHH bummer 🙁 I hope the insurance company takes care of you, at least.
Viroqua a mecca for escaping urbanites? Wow, growing up in nearby La Crosse, WI in the 70s I think nearly everybody would have been happy moving to California. The only thing eventful I remember about Viroqua was nearly getting killed on my Honda 550 Four by a woman who unexpectedly pulled out in front of me from a side road onto Hwy 14/61 on my way back from Madison. Now Westby, WI that’s a town! Full of the offspring of its original Norwegian settlers, they even have a ski jump there. Hasn’t been above 20 degrees back there since I think early December -tough winter.
She read an article or two back in 1992 or so, how some families with kids moved there and loved it. Who knows how long they stayed? I’m sure there’s lots of employment opportunities there 😉
Yeah I’m definitely over snow and this colder-than-usual winter. And we haven’t even got the “multi-day power outage” storm yet.
I’m not too fond of driving in any amount of snow either. Especially with the heavier V6, weight distribution is something like 63/37 in my Acura. It does a lot of fishtailing on snow. I’m considering putting sand bags in my trunk.
My ’08 TL has performed well on snowy roads so far (knock on wood), even with the cheap Wanli tires the previous owner installed. Getting up my steep driveway is another story, but nothing some sand can’t solve.
Oddly enough, here in my part of the Maritimes, we are having a relatively easy winter. Temperatures are pretty much normal, except for that cold snap for a week or so in January.
As for snowfall, we had lots in December (multi-day power outage for lots of people, but luckily not us), but January was pretty light. No storms resulted in more than 10cm (4″) of snow at a time.
The fun is supposed to start again later this week. Some reports are calling for 40+ cm (16″) between Thursday and Saturday. I guess mother nature has been saving it up for a month or so. I’ll have to check the snowblower, since I haven’t started it since before the new year.
It’s my first year with a heavy V6 car in the snow. It has snow tires, but traction control kicks in with only a little throttle. If it’s too bad, I just take the 4×4 truck to work. It likes the snow.
Oregon is in a significant drought we need all the H2O we can get so bring it on! One of the side effects of these storms I am seeing is the knuckleheads who cannot drive in snow and/or have crappy tires then crashing. Aside from a 94-97 Accord all of the cars lost have been unimportant fodder. I saw one sedan with a smashed rear window, but parking under a tree during an ice storm is just asking for trouble.
I am one of those drivers with inadequate tires, but then again the last time it snowed this much in Portland Kurt Cobain was walking the Earth. Not sure if that statistic is for just February or the entirety of Winter. I ventured out on Saturday with snow chains since the Portland Metro Area’s lackadaisical approach to snow clearing made them pretty much a must if you did not have AWD/4X4 and/or Snow Tires. There were times I bit off more than I could chew, but I never got permanently stuck or needed help getting unstuck. Sticking to surface streets and ignoring the those who wanted me to go faster than 5-30 worked out just fine. The trees I parked near at the end of the day passed muster and I did not venture out on Sunday, which was probably the worst day.
Today only the buses and delivery vehicles were using chains. A few people were driving around with chains on bare pavement and going to fast ruining their chains and damaging their cars.
I don’t really understand snow chains. How do they not horribly fuck your tires up? Also seems like something that wouldn’t cooperate with ABS or traction/stability control at all. If you’ve gotta drive on plowed or even semi-plowed surfaces where there’s even a little bit of pavement poking through, wouldn’t they immediately become very unsafe? I’ve never seen them on anything except city buses.
The guy driving the Mustang with low profile tires behind you doesn’t get it either 😉
Tire chains work fine IF you know how to install them and IF you realize they are strictly for slow speeds. They can do a lot of damage if you don’t. They have to be cinched tight, and properly sized so you don’t have a loose end whipping around. If you are on plowed snow or bare pavement it’s time to remove them.
At one time I owned a share in a highway tractor on a contract running between Vancouver and Calgary. When the regular driver couldn’t make the run I’d sometimes do it. I’ve had trips where the chains were on and off 7 or 8 times in the Rogers Pass. Guarantees a good sleep when you get where you’re going. Chaining up really isn’t fun, but sometimes it’s the only way to keep moving.
Abs and traction control don’t really notice chains unless one comes loose and tears out the sensor wire, as long as you aren’t driving too fast.
I sometimes drove half in the turning lane or half in each lane to avoid bare pavement. The two or three bare bridges I had to cross I slowed down to 10-15 and cussed a bunch. Even where the snow was plowed there was a good bit on top of the pavement so I was fine then as well.
MMM out collecting a trailer load of boards for firewood today incase winter comes here, mind you I’m not expecting anything like you guys are getting as Scott said we dont get much snow on the North Island around the hills here but not on the flat by the coast makes me feel cold just reading this post.
This is why I love Southern California. 70 degrees in February and perpetually sunny.
Ah yes, the Santa Monica Mall (or whatever it’s called now). We lived just a few blocks from there….that store on left side corner was called “Europa” back then.
I’d like to be down there for a couple of months in the winter, but in the summer,it’s heaven up here, without all those people and traffic 🙂
The Promenade. Actually Europa (Wilshire & 3rd) is Barnes and Noble+Starbucks. I’m just north of the Promenade.
Just back from NYC tonight – the temp diff between JFK and LAX is pretty striking at present. Back to shorts tomorrow!
Y’all are running out of water, have terrible smog, and are too crowded. I know I sound like an ass, but I grew up in the countryside of New York where there are not 12 million people in a desert the size of Connecticut. To each their own.
Personally, I love the snow… BRING IT ON!! I’m not as big a fan of the extreme cold, but I’m getting used to it. I walk about 5-10 miles in the course of a workday, so I don’t really have much choice in the matter!
Right before winter started, I bought a cheapo Buick LeSabre and it’s been a great snow/cold car. Probably the best and fastest working heater of anything I’ve owned, and even with some crappy all-season tires it blasts through unplowed snow with ease. The only damage it’s sustained is a stretched out parking brake cable from trying to drive it like I’m on a WRC special stage whenever the snow is fresh and the roads are empty. I figured by the time I was 30 I’d either be dead or “a grown up”, but I find that making a big, dumb car slide all over the place is still just as much fun as it was when I was 16.
Local weather says Detroit has had 70.8″ of snow so far this winter, 5th on the all time list. I figure, if you’re going to be miserable, make it historic. Places 4 through 2 are all in the 70s and doable in the remaining 6 weeks or so, but the record from 1880/81 is over 90″. Normal season total for MoTown is about 40″
Muskegon, on the Lake Michigan shore, usually gets twice as much, thanks to lake effect. They must be feeling cheated this year, only 80″ so far. Their record, from 1981/82 was 174″
I would have posted a picture from outside my door this afternoon, but I figure enough people hate me as it is. I grew up in snow country but learned my lesson many years ago and don’t intend to ever go back.
I don’t hate you. I like your conversation.
Little late to the snow party, but up here in flatland Manitoba,Canada…we don’t have too much in the way of elevated topography, except for the man made snow hills. The City of Winnipeg has 4 of these areas called snow dumps. This is where commercial snow removal companies can haul their snow from roads and parking lots, when there is no place to pile it up anymore.
Those are D9 Cats pushing snow. (could have used some of these photos for big truck/equipment week 🙂 . Those pics were taken about 3 weeks ago, and that snow hill you see is now a 1/3 higher, and we are just into February. Afraid to see what height and size they will be at the end of March…sigh.
When will this winter end………….
Here in Albuquerque we have had one snow storm (2 inches!) since mid-December. Send us some snow and stop parking under trees. Your city government could also take more of an active role by trimming tree limbs away from power lines. It can make the trees look a little strange but you won’t lose power.