Snow Day

Yeah, this is fucking ridiculous. The "Winter Wonderland" part is long over and now I just want to be able to go to the god damned store to buy a case of Steaz energy drinks. Leigh Ann tried to leave today, after I dug her car out of five inches of hard-packed snow and ice, but she spun out trying to leave our neighborhood. Hellfire Club was supposed to be tonight, but we postponed to next week. And we were really going to do Die Macher this time...

And of course, my office is in California, so it's work as usual for me.

Sandi had to go to work. The commute home was FOUR HOURS. Just from the Perimeter Mall area.

I figure inside the Perimeter they've already started resorting to cannibalism.

I like all you guys from the ATL so you need to do all of your fellow F:ATties a favor and DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DRIVE ON UNCLEANED ROADS WITH SUMMER TIRES!!!!

Seriously. I've done it before on a bet and never will again. This is coming from a, born and bred, Montrealer who's used to winter driving.

Stay safe y'all.

Yeah, I'd imagine there are an awful lot of RWD cars with summer tires in Atlanta. Bad Idea.

Winter tires? In Atlanta? Seriously?

No one has them. No chains, either. There is NEVER a reason. Snow comes down, places open late (11:00AM) and the snow is gone by noon. That's how things work here.

I did go out briefly late yesterday. The secondary roads are mostly clear-ish. I did hit a 100 foot section of mostly ice, and some patches. Fortunately no one else had braved it and screwed up, which is the incredibly common occurence that made for Sandi's 4 hour commute home.

Gary Sax wrote:

Yeah, I'd imagine there are an awful lot of RWD cars with summer tires in Atlanta. Bad Idea.

This is why the UK doesn't really rate as a snow-at-risk country, I had never heard of snow tyres (for ordinary motorists, I knew the tyres existed) and changing to them for the winter until a few months back when it made the news after people in the more snowy parts of northern UK were having their insurance raised because their cars were being 'modified' - yeah, the insurance companies didn't know much about snow tyres either.

You certainly don't need winter tires or anything in Atlanta. You just need non-summer tires. Let's just say I'd be taking some extra care when driving behind that Mustang GT with 20 inch rims on stick summer tires about now.

Most of your normal sedans are going to have all seasons so won't be quite so bad save for the idiot drivers. There's just something about you warm climate folks and driving in snow that activates the moronic driving button.

Actually, Sandi noticed that the cars on the side of the road are mostly SUVs. They ARE invincible, you know.

Her truck is a rear-wheel drive Toyota Pickup (Hilux everywhere else). It is roughly the same model that Top Gear mounted to a plinth after they blew up a 15-story building under it and it still ran.

ubarose wrote:

moofrank wrote:

Actually, Sandi noticed that the cars on the side of the road are mostly SUVs. They ARE invincible, you know.

Her truck is a rear-wheel drive Toyota Pickup (Hilux everywhere else). It is roughly the same model that Top Gear mounted to a plinth after they blew up a 15-story building under it and it still ran.

I hope you weighted the back. Rear wheel drive pick-ups are crap in the snow and ice unless you throw something heavy into the bed. Up here we carry a few tubes of sand in the back of our pick-up trucks in the winter. It does double duty - weights the back and you can crack a bag open and pour the sand under your tires for traction if you do get stuck.

People who drive SUVs often take risks that they shouldn't. They think that four wheel drive gives then superpowers. Also, never try to drive over a pile of snow that's deeper than your ground clearance, isn't that right KingPut.

Hehe! Tell the tale!

A, lot of my friends that have pick ups run spiked tires in the back along with throwing something on the bed to weigh it down.

The funny thing about 4WD is how treacherous it actually is: my bro-in-law is from Calgary and used to race quite a bit of Rally in his youth- he was even an instructor at one point. The way he explained it to me is that once you loose the rear end of a 4WD vehicle all of the necessary maneuvers are so counter intuitive that it's practically impossible for someone without any training, or racing experience to get themselves out of trouble-- this ,he says, is especially true while cornering.

I have been living in Minnesota for 19 years now, and I've never bothered with winter tires. The only change I made was to make sure that I only buy cars with front wheel drive. SUVs are highly overrated here. The vast majority of the time in winter, the issue is slippery roads, not deep snow on the roads. So the idea of recklessly zipping around on icy roads in a vehicle that has a high center of gravity is just foolish.

A couple of days ago, MSNBC said that there was snow on the ground in 49 states. Hawaii has been having a rough time, too, with torrential downpours and flooding.

Shellhead wrote:

I have been living in Minnesota for 19 years now, and I've never bothered with winter tires. The only change I made was to make sure that I only buy cars with front wheel drive. SUVs are highly overrated here. The vast majority of the time in winter, the issue is slippery roads, not deep snow on the roads. So the idea of recklessly zipping around on icy roads in a vehicle that has a high center of gravity is just foolish.

A couple of days ago, MSNBC said that there was snow on the ground in 49 states. Hawaii has been having a rough time, too, with torrential downpours and flooding.

I did the all season thing once or twice-- until I couldn't make it up the slope of a hill in downtown Montreal during rush hour. It's been winter tires ever since.

Theres nothing hard about winter driving in straight line, at a constant speed. It's the emergencies that'll get ya. Ever try braking on ice with all seasons and no abs? Have fun with that.

Took the day off today. The fine assclowns citizens of Glastonbury can do with what I made for them yesterday. Just got done shoveling out my car.

Ouch.

Only a 2 hour delay for the Federal Government today, but there were numerous reports of 12+ hour commutes home yesterday. My boss's was around around 8. Many were just abandoning cars or sleeping in them overnight. One of my in-laws said screw it and got hte last room in a hotel.

Ah, good to know our nation's capitol can handle such terror as... 4-8 INCHES OF SNOW!

Uba, hope your furnace is holding up!