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  • neon4891

    Feb. 9, 2010 12:22 a.m. neon4891 UberDork

    Seats at a premium on planes, trains out of DC (AP)

    On Craigslist, owners of four-wheel drive vehicles were selling rides to residents in northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs. One classified ad read: "Stay safe on icy streets — 4x4 Tahoe available."

    Time to head south for a business oportunity

    In Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, Jeff Patmore, 43, was digging out his Jeep. The State Department employee's family was running low on supplies — particularly milk for his three young children.

    Patmore attempted a grocery run Saturday, but didn't make it far.

    "I thought my car could do anything, and I was wrong," he said. "My wonderful neighbors dug me out, and I limped back with my pride injured but everything else intact."

    Schadenfreude

    OTOH, my Father is suposed to fly into DC on Thursday morning from Kuwait, then up to here, so maybe I shouldn't get too smug.

    None the less, it is odd that farther south keeps getting hit and up in CNY it has been rather mild. I haven't touched the snow blower in almost a month.

  • PHeller

    Feb. 9, 2010 12:34 a.m. PHeller HalfDork

    my friends have learned that over the last couples of a days a big vehicle with chains and a plow gets stuck much easier than a little one with a big winch.

    Big lift < big winch

  • davidjs

    Feb. 9, 2010 7:16 a.m. davidjs Reader

    I was supposed to fly out of DC this morning to Milwaukee for a meeting, then fly back tonight. Luckily the flight back got canceled so I didn't get to hit the same storm in two different time zones.

    // I'm just pissed that my awesome all-metal snow shovel started to bend on the last one, and there are none in stores, so I may be digging out with a garden spade... ugh!

  • slefain

    Feb. 9, 2010 8:39 a.m. slefain Dork

    I hear there is total gridlock in Washington D.C.

    ...and they have a ton of snow too!

  • mad_machine

    Feb. 9, 2010 9:23 a.m. mad_machine PowerDork

    yay.. 2 more feet of snow.. and I have a job interview on thursday. the roads better be clear.

  • Giant Purple Snorklewacker

    Feb. 9, 2010 9:25 a.m. Giant Purple Snorklewacker SuperDork

    mad_machine wrote:

    yay.. 2 more feet of snow.. and I have a job interview on thursday. the roads better be clear.

    Now here is an opportunity to show some drive... Leave a note on the desk asking where everybody was when you show up.

  • mad_machine

    Feb. 9, 2010 9:36 a.m. mad_machine PowerDork

    it's funny. In the last storm, that left us under 30 inchs of the white stuff. I was about and about in my BMW.. with almost worn out summer tyres... and yet the only accidents i witnessed were in all wheel drive cars and trucks.. including the pilot of a WRX who thought Subaru's all wheel drive system could thwart physics

  • Hal

    Feb. 9, 2010 10:40 a.m. Hal HalfDork

    Great, I finally got the driveway and the front walk cleared just enough to get thru and now it has started to snow again.

    There was a steady stream of dump trucks hauling snow past my house all day yesterday. Trying to get it out of downtown since there is no place to put any more to get the roads open more than one lane.

  • minimac

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:02 a.m. minimac Dork

    The coolest thing I ever saw was in Toronto. The Streets Dep't. guys(or whatever they call them,eh) work at NIGHT! They have bobcats running around scooping up the snow and dumping it into zamboni looking things that melt it and then dump the water down the storm sewers for processing. When everyone comes downtown in the morning, there's no snow! Shop owners keep their walks cleaned during the day and the streets workers clean it all at night.

  • bluej

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:17 a.m. bluej HalfDork

    mad_machine wrote:

    it's funny. In the last storm, that left us under 30 inchs of the white stuff. I was about and about in my BMW.. with almost worn out summer tyres... and yet the only accidents i witnessed were in all wheel drive cars and trucks.. including the pilot of a WRX who thought Subaru's all wheel drive system could thwart physics

    this. i get a lot of funny looks running around in my miata all over. the problem is that even with vehicles that can handle most of this stuff, the majority of people here don't know how to drive them. every vehicle stuck on the news is a truck/jeep/suv something that is stuck because the driver didn't know how to use their vehicle.

    to be fair the roads were still pretty horrible through last night. driving over the ice pack on 395 cracked my rear plastic window right down the middle.

  • GameboyRMH

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:20 a.m. GameboyRMH UltraDork

    1. Buy Samurai or Sidekick

    2. Get big wide tires, apply chains

    3. Drive on top of snow.

  • bluej

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:38 a.m. bluej HalfDork

    In reply to GameboyRMH:

    mmm, the answer here can still be miata. with that much snow it's a bit like skipping a smooth stone over water. it takes just the right flick

  • Chris_V

    Feb. 9, 2010 12:22 p.m. Chris_V SuperDork

    bluej wrote:

    mad_machine wrote:

    it's funny. In the last storm, that left us under 30 inchs of the white stuff. I was about and about in my BMW.. with almost worn out summer tyres... and yet the only accidents i witnessed were in all wheel drive cars and trucks.. including the pilot of a WRX who thought Subaru's all wheel drive system could thwart physics

    this. i get a lot of funny looks running around in my miata all over. the problem is that even with vehicles that can handle most of this stuff, the majority of people here don't know how to drive them. every vehicle stuck on the news is a truck/jeep/suv something that is stuck because the driver didn't know how to use their vehicle.

    True. I like using the Rangie to pull out all sorts of other vehicles stuck in the snow, including all those wannabe SUVs with drivers that don't know how to use them.

    Although with 2 feet of snow, you're not getting around in the Miata until it's plowed. Not necessarily true in a vehicle with ground clearance and traction control/viscous coupled axles designed for sand/snow/jungle/arctic conditions...

  • pigeon

    Feb. 9, 2010 1:08 p.m. pigeon HalfDork

    Bah. I used to get around fine in 2'+ of snow with my Hakka1 equipped Miata, although it was more challenging to see with all the snow piling over the hood. It's not necessarily about the tool so much as how you use it.

  • mtn

    Feb. 9, 2010 1:27 p.m. mtn SuperDork

    Hal wrote:

    Great, I finally got the driveway and the front walk cleared just enough to get thru and now it has started to snow again.

    Trust me, its better this way than the alternative. I get paid by numerous neighbors to shovel their snow, and if I see the forecast for more than a foot, I'll try to shovel it in the middle. Twice shoveling 6 inches is a lot easier and faster than once shoveling 12 inches.

  • Chris_V

    Feb. 9, 2010 2:23 p.m. Chris_V SuperDork

    pigeon wrote:

    Bah. I used to get around fine in 2'+ of snow with my Hakka1 equipped Miata, although it was more challenging to see with all the snow piling over the hood. It's not necessarily about the tool so much as how you use it.

    Powder or wet stuff? Pushing through the icepack of the edge of the plowed streets or just unmarked snow? With a run at it to get started or just fire it up in deep snow and push your way out?

  • nutherjrfan

    Feb. 9, 2010 3:48 p.m. nutherjrfan Reader

    It's killing me as a waiter downtown, until the Feds return I don't got much in the way of customers. Oh yeah, and people are so feckin' rude here, no "thank you" when you stop and make room for them on the side walk, with precious few sidewalks being cleared to start with, and the streets, jesus, Fenty actually thinks his govt. has done a good job?! I love the Toronto description above! One can only dream of that. Oh well, I'll be at work an hour early as usual, 2blks from the White House, hope we're open!

  • oldsaw

    Feb. 9, 2010 6:30 p.m. oldsaw Dork

    nutherjrfan wrote:

    It's killing me as a waiter downtown, until the Feds return I don't got much in the way of customers. Oh yeah, and people are so feckin' rude here, no "thank you" when you stop and make room for them on the side walk, with precious few sidewalks being cleared to start with, and the streets, jesus, Fenty actually thinks his govt. has done a good job?! I love the Toronto description above! One can only dream of that. Oh well, I'll be at work an hour early as usual, 2blks from the White House, hope we're open!

    Doesn't DC have an ordinance requiring businesses to clear sidewalks within specified hours of a snowfall?

    Seems like a oportune time to crack-down on the scofflaws and help balance the city budget.

  • Claff

    Feb. 9, 2010 7:57 p.m. Claff New Reader

    It blows. They keep closing the government so the wife doesn't go to work, and when she doesn't go to work I can't sneak off to the garage.

    Thinking of blowing off some steam and taking a Miata out tomorrow to do some donuts in the cul-de-sac. But I'll probably be too pooped to drive anything after another day of shoveling.

    On the plus side, we're a bit south of DC (Waldorf MD) and shouldn't be getting hit as hard as those north of the city. Shouldn't.

  • Pat

    Feb. 9, 2010 9:33 p.m. Pat Reader

    I'm on the northwest side of DC in Rockville, MD and I can say for certain, this freaking sucks. It's been snowing for hours already.

  • CivicSiRacer

    Feb. 9, 2010 10:21 p.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

    I definitely agree about shoveling a couple times instead all at once. Last week I felt like Superman shoveling 4 people's driveways after I did mine. But I did mine 3 times from 6pm-midnight. So when I came out the next morning it was fluffy. I helped my neighbor next and he got home from work around 9pm. He was exhausted and left it for the next day. When I went to help him his snow was 3-4x heavier UGH. Then I went across to help the neighbors and it was also fluffy because the dad did what I did.

    I took the Civic out tonight with Hankook Winter Pikes on with no problems. Coming down the main road past the grocery store witnessed 2 semis going sideways down the road. Lucky they were not carrying a trailer or they would have taken out everyone on that road. About 4-5 cars had their hazard lights on at the bottom of the hill because they couldn't even move.

    Only thing I'm going to do next year is raise my car up LOL :) Yeah still lowered from the autocross season.

  • confuZion3

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:39 p.m. confuZion3 SuperDork

    Chris_V wrote:

    pigeon wrote:

    Bah. I used to get around fine in 2'+ of snow with my Hakka1 equipped Miata, although it was more challenging to see with all the snow piling over the hood. It's not necessarily about the tool so much as how you use it.

    Powder or wet stuff? Pushing through the icepack of the edge of the plowed streets or just unmarked snow? With a run at it to get started or just fire it up in deep snow and push your way out?

    I'm assuming the answer is just going to be a resounding "yes".

  • confuZion3

    Feb. 9, 2010 11:41 p.m. confuZion3 SuperDork

    All of this snow in the United States... The Winter Olympics start in a few days, and they can't keep a single snowflake on the ground!

  • Chris_V

    Feb. 10, 2010 10:14 a.m. Chris_V SuperDork

    confuZion3 wrote:

    Chris_V wrote:

    pigeon wrote:

    Bah. I used to get around fine in 2'+ of snow with my Hakka1 equipped Miata, although it was more challenging to see with all the snow piling over the hood. It's not necessarily about the tool so much as how you use it.

    Powder or wet stuff? Pushing through the icepack of the edge of the plowed streets or just unmarked snow? With a run at it to get started or just fire it up in deep snow and push your way out?

    I'm assuming the answer is just going to be a resounding "yes".

    Then I'd like to see pictures of it, 'cause often moving in the wet stuff that's taller than your car is like trying to push into a concrete wall. I've seen this stuff tear off air dams and bumpers on relatively low slung cars.

  • Chris_V

    Feb. 10, 2010 10:16 a.m. Chris_V SuperDork

    More appropo to the season, I didn't know Priuses were SUVs...

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