Journal mcgrew's Journal: Blizzards 4
I'm getting too damned old for this shit.
I HATE WINTER!!!! Every year I hate winter more than the previous year, and that goes triple for this year.
Half a century ago when I was in grade school I loved the snow. One year we had snow like I'd never seen in my young life, only I didn't see it fall since it started snowing about the time my parents made me go to bed. It was a kind of snowstorm I've only seen twice now -- thundersnow. The next morning saw probably three feet of snow. Schools were closed and parents were warned by the media not to let the kids go outside and play in it, because the snow was radioactive. They had tested an aboveground atomic explosive in Nevada two days earlier, and the fallout passed over the St Louis area right when the snow hit. Of course, there was no way that parents could keep their kids inside when thre was that much snow, and every kid in the neighborhood was playing in the radioactive snow that day.
We were asked to donate our baby teeth for a Strontium-90 test. I can envision thousands of teeth in plastic baggies, glowing so brightly that the lab didn't even need lighting. It's a wonder I haven't contracted some sort of cancer by now, especially since I smoked for decades and rode my motorcycle in what I didn't know were hazardous waste dumps that would later be pegged "EPA superfund sites." I wonder how many of my playmates have died of cancer by now?
Twenty or so years later I was a student at SIU in Edwardsville, married to Evil-X and living on campus. Those were some of the best days of my life, with art, music, drugs, booze, learning, sex, and... did I mention music? They had the Mississippi River Festival during the summer, but that's a bit offtopic and I'll have to journal about it some other time.
One winter evening after classes we headed to Wood River to the Tiajuana Lounge, where they always had good bands, cheap drinks and no cover charge. It was right around freezing, overcast, and as it started to flurry it thundered. "Somebody blew up an atom bomb", I said as we walked to the car -- the lot was about a quarter mile away from the apartment. We got in and started it, and the radio said there was a lot of snow predicted. We didn't stay in Wood River long, and the streets were getting treacherous. We decided to park way away from the other cars to make digging out easier -- we had a Chevy Vega, a rear wheel drive car that sat very low to the ground and got stuck in the snow easily.
The next morning we went out to the car -- and it was gone. It was a good thing classes were cancelled that day, since I had no way to get there. But where in the hell could it have gone? Nobody would have stolen a Vega, it was paid off and therefore couldn't have been repossessed, and was parked legally so it hadn't been towed.
I finally found it, parked next to the van, completely buried in the snow that had drifted up over it. It took hours for me to dig it out.
Thirty years later I was divorced and had just bought a small house. It was February 13, 2007, and a lot of snow was predicted. I decided to put the car in the garage so I wouldn't have to dig it out. Big mistake! I should have backed it in, because it cost me sixty bucks to get it dragged out of my driveway the next day (the link inaccurately says 2006, it was the next year); there was a foot of snow, and I was stuck.
Last week they predicted another big snowfall of fifteen to twenty inches, and expected the amounts to break records for the area. When I got to work I put in paperwork for a day and a half vacation, because I really didn't want to fuck with it. It was supposed to get colder as it snowed, there would surely be a "snow emergeny" and I wouldn't be able to park in the street as I usually do at work. It flurried as I went, and was snowing heavily when I got off at noon. Snowflakes were mixed with ice sand, something I'd never seen before. The first place I went was the bank, as I probably wouldn't get a chance to get out for a few more days. I went home, made a big lunch, rolled my last doob and sat on the couch watching the snow. And MAN but it snowed! The snow came down so heavily that I couldn't see across the street and could barely see past my short front yard.
I decided to go see if I could find some more weed before I got completely snowed in. I was lucky; my dealer, who lives down the street from Felber's, had plenty. I stuck my baggie in my pocket and walked back to Felber's, where I'd left the car. It was still snowing very heavily. I drank two beers and walked over to Gail's house, which sits behind Felber's, and smoked a couple of hitters with Dewey and Gail and Gail's girlfriend, and and watched TV.
"I'd better get home" I said, looking out the window. There was probably six inches by then, and I was afraid of getting stuck.
"Um, maybe you ought not, just crash on my couch tonight." But I wanted the car in the driveway before it was too deep to get it in. I pulled out, had little trouble navigating the snow despite the bald tire and need for a wheel alignment, and went to pull into my driveway. I got the font wheels in, and was stuck tight. The tires spun, but the car wouldn't move. I went inside, disgusted with myself for not coming home earlier. I opened a beer and put on Avatar; Gail had loaned me a burned copy. I hadn't seen it at the theater, and when the DVD came out they were sold out at WalMart. I rented it, and the rented copy skipped and stuttered and froze, and I shut it off about twenty minutes into the show. Seeing that twenty minutes made me want to see the rest of it. So at least I had a movie I hadn't seen. Halfway through I paused it, ready to go outside and try and free the machine, but the flashers had quit flashing -- the battery was dead. Damn!
About the time the movie was over there was a knock on the door. "Police!" I opened the shade, and the cops had flashlights out, shining at their badges. "Yes?" I said after openeing the door.
"You have to move your car." They were polite and professional.
"I tried to call my tow truck guy but he's not answereing his phone, probably really busy."
"Well, we're going to have to tow it if you can't get it moved" they said. "Do you have a preferred tow operator?"
"Yeah, Larry Hanley.'
"Never heard of him" they said. "We'll see what we can do," and left. I watched the end of the movie and went to bed. I was awakened by another banging at the door -- it was tow truck guys. I bribed them fifty bucks to push it the rest of the way into the driveway and keep it out of impound and me out of a fine.
The next day I shovelled snow. And shovelled snow. And shovelled snow. At my age I was lucky not to have had a coronary. I decided to walk to Felber's.
Not a good idea. The National Weather Service said we had twelve and a half inches, but they didn't measure anywhere around my neighborhood, because even it its shallowest it was up to my knees. No way to cut through the park, no sidewalks, busy streets to walk in. And it was getting colder. Despite having bundled up with layers, I was pretty damned chilly by the time I reached the bar.
Luckily, I caught a ride home and watched some ancient TV shows on tape before going to bed. Nine hours later the alarm clock rang. It doesn't do that very often, because I'm usually awake by then.
I was miserable. Every muscle in my body was on fire; I could hardly walk. I was nauseated, which was probably from my heart being as overworked as all the rest of my muscles. My sedentary life had caught up with me. I called in to work and went back to bed.
When I got back up I was still in pain, and still had trouble walking, but walking seemed to make it hurt less. That afternoon I went out and shoveled some more. The next morning I wasn't much better, but walked to work anyway. By the time I got there I was in sheer agony, and sweated the day out before trudging home through the snow and in the busy streets. A taxicab came by as I walked home, honking his horn angrily as if there was a sidewalk one could actually walk on or something. "This is one hell of a pedestrian-hostile town" I though to myself after screaming at the cab to fuck off and raising both middle fingers at him in defiance.
Finally home, I cooked and ate dinner painfully. I sat on the couch and watched TV and read and did little else. About noon the next day Tammy called. "I haven't talked to you in a while, how ya doin'?"
"Not so good. I was going to call you, my car's stuck in the driveway and I wanted to see if I could catch a ride to church with you tomorrow."
"Sure, give me a call."
By evening the pain in my legs lessened and the nausea went away. Thank God for reefer, the very best antinauseant in the world. I trudged back up to Felber's. Gail said he'd help me get my car free the next day, and gave me a ride home.
Sunday morning I was even worse. Every joint and muscle in my body was screaming, and I felt like throwing up. About eight Tammy called again, wanting to know if I still needed the ride.
"I don't think so," I said. "I'm miserable." Later that day Gail got me unstuck. I'm still miserable and my legs are still on fire.
I'm getting too damned old for this shit.
the other side of the coin (Score:3)
The temperature here is usually 5-10 degrees centigrade cooler than when you move a few k's inland, and you can feel the difference when you are driving - especially when you are driving home and the F3 north of Sydney is a fucking hot drive - sometimes during this time of year it's not unusual for the freeway and rail lines to be closed because of bush fire.
There was a cyclone about 1500Kms north of my home and the cyclone dragged all of the air from the dessert out to the coast but still it was cooler here than inland. I don't have an air conditioner, and generally I can get away with it, but for the last couple of days it has been 39 Centigrade (I think thats about 102F) *inside* the house - fu-ck-ing un-be-ar-ab-le - lots of cold showers - but hard to escape the heat and you can't take your skin off. It is good down at the beach but getting burnt is not hard so I wait until the afternoon. The heat broke yesterday and there was a massive thunderstorm, i went out then to get rained on and clean the leaves out of the garden gutters while it was easy to do. Soon the sun will be back and all that rain will make it pretty muggy humid and sweaty and I'll catch a wave if I get time. So there you have it, this is what it is like on the other side of the world right now - friggin hot.
Did they tell you if they found any trace of Strontium-90? I doubt you got exposed to much Strontium-90 isotopes, it's possible but unlikely there is just not enough mass of material in a bomb to be a big deal - initial radiation - for sure. I'd be more concerned with chlorine-55 (I think CL-55 - go with that for now cause I'm to lazy to look it up) in the snow getting in your eyes, nose or throat - at the time. Strontium-90 would be a fall-out product but chlorine radioactive isotopes could be activated by the bomb exploding and activating in the water particles in the air - just a thought. Obviously one wants to minimise exposure in any circumstances but probably nothing to be overly concerned with though.
Use it or loose it Mr McGrew, the shovelling probably did you good, even though it sucks. Did you use both sides of your body to do the shoveling or only one side? I actually love that feeling after a big workout, you can feel how sore you are even when you are asleep and it's a good excuse to eat a big steak and sleep,, oh the sleep. The other thing is to get a massage while you are still sore - it kinda hurts but the sleep is so deep that it's worth it - also creatin supplements in a drink will help you recover.
My dad is still a tough physical old bastard and he is over 70 - go get a deep tissue massage and deal with it as it happens - you'll feel heaps better afterwards.
and the sleep...
Re: (Score:2)
How cold does it get there in the winter? Your summer sounds a lot like ours. Without ac, here if it was 90f outside it could easily hit 102 inside, especially if there are no trees and anything inside was producing heat (computers, cooking, people, etc).
I heard about the cyclone there, doesn't sound like much fun (you probably read my JE about the hurricane and tonados).
I never found out what the results of their testing was, but I do remember that there was a particular radiological or chemical reason to
Re: (Score:2)
What I meant was it was cooler inside than outside where it was about 45-48C, I think about 113F. The humidity is the killer, steeaammy.
Winter here is pretty mild, compared to your winter. Sure it gets cold but it never snows, the storms are something to
Re: (Score:2)
I think you are very lucky to be able to walk to work
Yes, I am. Few people can here.
Strange thing is we only seem to have two seasons now, winter and summer and it's like a switch gets flicked.
We had a string of weather like that maybe ten years ago, didn't see really pleasant weather for over five years.