Northern Va Ride II

[DNA]

2 feet of fresh powder is not easy skiing unless you know what you are doing.

Sounds like fun - reminds me of my senior year of HS.

[Joey Stalin]

2 feet of fresh powder is not easy skiing unless you know what you are doing.

Hah! Who said anything about that?! I told ya, I ski like I ride a motorcycle. It's the wrong way to do it, but it gets me down the hill. You're welcome to give me free lessons whenever you'd like!

[DNA]

you go down hills pretty fast - I have nothing to add.

some of the more frustrating days I have had skiing was in really deep powder.  Once you stop (or crash) getting moving again is not that fun.

[DrD]

Pens just got beat up by the Caps.

Did they go skiing once they got home to feel better?  

[twist]

Did they go skiing once they got home to feel better?  

Hopefully they went home to cry.

[hovmaven]

Just got power, thanks for the earlier offer of digging out.  It's crazy deep here.  The generator fired up Saturday and apparently kept the house warm, until it ran out of gas.  Someone left two empty gas cans in the garage before leaving for Chitown.....  

Its amazing what you don't know about your friends.  My flight was late, canceled, reinstated, then delayed.  Needless to say, we arrived late, like 1:15 am late.  And guess what we found -- no taxi service.  Zip.  Nada.  Bupkus.  

Now, IAD is a bit of a haul from the casa, and I had a wheelie bag to drag, and no. 1 daughter had her gear.  Figuring that I had an alien chit to play, I called DNA.  He was there in ten minutes and we were on our way.   He said he hit no aliens on the way over, and I wanted to believe him.    At that point, my hope was to get to the neighborhood, the side streets of which haven't been plowed.  

Here's the gem I learned.  DNA is a nut.  It turns out that when he was still a wee lad, he and his friends took their trucks and blasted through drifts in Colorado (the original "drifting"   ), then made a day chaining and rescuing stranded cars.   Sooo, when we got to my neighborhood, the roads of which sucked, I honestly saw a little glint in his eyes as he stopped, backed up and made space, hit the high beams, and gunned it, right through the plow drifts, and then displayed mad skilz keeping the Exploder moving forward and between the ditches through the unplowed side street snow.    I can only imagine how he skis....  

I admit that we watched him spin the truck around and head home, and waited to help him push out should he crater.  Needless to say, we watched the tailights dance back and forth, side to side, but the truck never stopped advancing.  A last punch through a plow drift and he was on his way.  

Big props to DNA.  

But if you ask him, I honestly think that he was having fun.  



He d

[DrD]

Big props to DNA.  

But if you ask him, I honestly think that he was having fun.  



He d

He 'da man.  

Now, hov, how long will you be sleeping out in the doghouse?

At work today since Dot had to get to work.  So I am in the office twiddling my thumbs.  I got laid off since they had no work for me.  I have this other job lined up, starting next Tuesday (two week notice and all that).  Got the handoff stuff done last week.  Now there is absolutely nothing to do.  Heck, I am ready to go home and shovel out the neighborhood just to do something productive.

I will have something to do tonight: The new windscreen for Otto arrives today.

Edited to add:  OTOH, sitting around for a week while still on the rolls of the employed is a lot better than some alternatives.  

[Joey Stalin]

HOV's entertaining story reminds me of another time where DNA saved a stranded comrade in the Exploder.

[twist]

Who's ready for another 10"-20" tomorrow night?  I hope my roof can take it.

[vulcanbill]

Who's ready for another 10"-20" tomorrow night?  I hope my roof can take it.

Ow.  Kim and I just spent a couple hours removing snow from the roof.  She got up there and I stayed down but used an 8 foot ladder to drag off what she pushed down to me.  Ow.  We didn't get all of it but 2 sections (of the 4 it can be broken into) have significantly less load than they did.  The other 2 get more sun and are obviously not as deep thanks to what melting occurred in 2 days.  The snow beside my house is now 4 and 5 feet tall and will be there forever.  

[hovmaven]

This snow stuff is getting a bit stupid.  Topped off both generators, refilled both cans, hit the market, and then helped neighbors.  We still aren't plowed.  Mine is the only vehicle with clearance to get out.  And even with a 4WD with 17" wheels,  I have no room to spare.  

Tomorrow I'm setting up the chain saws and clearing the gutters.  If twiddling thumbs in a warm indoor space is too tedious to endure, Dr. D is more than welcome.    

On the Exploder pics, this was one of my all time favorites:  

[twist]

I'm actually considering getting my hose out and spraying hot water onto my roof.  Sure, it'll freeze again, but by then it'll be on the ground.

[hovmaven]

How do you get hot water to the outside?

[twist]

How do you get hot water to the outside?

Hose from the kitchen faucet.  I don't think I'm going to do it though - the gutters will probably freeze and get clogged, and might collapse from the weight.

[vulcanbill]

Hose from the kitchen faucet.  I don't think I'm going to do it though - the gutters will probably freeze and get clogged, and might collapse from the weight.

I don't think the water would stay hot long enough to do any good.  We used boiling water to try to melt ice on some stairs in our rental cabin a few weeks ago.  Boiling water directly ( as opposed to hot-ish water traveling through a cold hose and then cold air ) onto the ice did far less to melt it than I expected.  Turns out that ice makes hot water cold pretty quickly.  It would probably just add to the weight.  

Good luck.  I feel your pain.

[twist]

I'm just going to leave it alone and hope the roof holds.  Did I mention I hate wood houses?

[DNA]

HOV - thanks for getting me out of the house - did I mention I love blasting through snow?  I actually felt bad that I didn't try to get you to your door - that could have extended my fun a block or 2 - or gotten me totally stuck - which is not that fun - but still better than being house bound with 2 young uns.  

I thought about finding a plowed lot and doing some doughnuts ont he way home - but that fun was not to be had.

[hovmaven]

The burban was the only vehicle out.  So I'm not sure the exploder would have worked.  And to make that happen, I used the power trucks knocking down about 4 inches for all but 60 yards of the street.  I gunned it through the fresh 60, and the first time, made it, just barely, 61 yards.  The extra clearance from there on made a huge difference.  

The fun thing -- watching neighbors try to replicate and get stuck.  The cool thing -- extracting a 87 year old widow to her relatives home.  Like us, she'd been without power for three plus days. . ..  

[DNA]

 

Sounds like fun - wish i'd tried.

People have no idea what stuck is until you high center a 4x4 a few times.

[Joey Stalin]

The real question is, have you taken the GS out yet? I'm betting it could unstick a few cars.