Posted: 2/7/2008 5:01:15 PM EDT
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OK yesterday, blizzard, no school, understandable. Spent the entire day on a tractor plowing driveways for the elderly, single mothers, handicapped, etc. in my neighbor hood. Nine hours later I called it a day. I figured since I was already paid for the day by these people, I could do something nice.... School today, buses ridiculously late across the district. One elementary bus was 2 hours late...but school went on. Tonight get the call, due to the local gov't beeing shortsighted, they are out of salt, the roads are horrible and it would be too dangerous to transport the kids. I recall the blizzard of 79 and we had about 5 days off. This crap is nowhere near the same. I think the municipal streets manager should be taken out back and beaten. no salt? Piss poor planning on his part. Now I cannot do my job.  I think I will go start my truck, wife's van, and the car and let them run to help increase the global warming, so I can go back to work...anyone have any cans of freon they can spare? On a side note, leaving the school today, I saw some of the kids who walk, standing on the corner snow pile. They were actually leaning with their hand on the stop light, not the pole, the physical housing of the red, yellow, and green lights. I thought, if that kid falls, I am gonna have to get a new hood..... 
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My kid went to school today but buses were late. Tonight I get a call saying no school on Friday cause roads are unsafe. Why did they go to school today?  Gurnee is out of salt. Talked to a plow driver and he said MAYBE next week. We have gotten lots of the white stuff this season. I'm ready for spring |
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Up north so many of the roads are like washboards, because they didn't put salt down the night before, and it froze. My nephew did say his bus ride to school today was really rough, and he bounced out of the seat a couple of times, the bumps in the roads were so bad. My back is killing me from helping the neighbors with their driveways, even though I used the snowblower for most of it, because I had to muscle the snowblower around the turns and because the tires were constantly spinning. And, of course, most of the driveways are on slopes. That snow was very heavy. |
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Most Cities around Northern IL are running out of salt. We have less than 3000 tons on hand for the rest of winter at work.. The distributors for the northern IL area try to guess the weather in the summer to make sure they aren't stuck with salt come spring, and needless to say we got more Ice than snow this year and it ate alot of salt up. Go shooting, you'll feel better.
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If I remember correctly there is this crazy parkinglot on the north side of campus called Q-lot?!? (Help me out Kalahnikid) The damn thing was so long and had no wind cover at all just an open area as far as you could see. The wind would blow so hard and cold that we would rather stay in the dorms than turn into snowmen. |
Yes the barren tundra called Q-Lot. However, if you chose your dorm carefully, you did not have that problem. I did live briefly in the quad affected, during the winter, and it was not that bad.
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Cody you want to sell about 500 tons? We can use it bad? |
The Taxpayers might be a bit upset if I did that.
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I heard a guy on the news say no more salt could get here because the Mississippi is frozen and barges can't get through with salt. This is some of the worst stuff I can remember in years. |
Salt doesn't expire. The biggest problem with storing it is where do you store it? If you leave it out in the rain all year you will lose a certain amount to erosion and drainage. Then you have to deal with that amount of salt making it's way into the storm drains, which will result in EPA scrutiny. If every town could have a 1000000sq ft warehouse to store salt that would be fine, but thats not going to happen. The City of Chicago, for all it's faults, knows how to stockpile salt. They start buying in june and we still fight to get our deliveries before them even in december. We have heard the same stories about the Mississippi river being frozen. there could be some truth to that, who knows. it all boils down to, if people would slow down and think before driving, we could get away with using less salt. if you go to michigan, alot of cities/counties won't even put trucks out to plow till they have 8-10 inches. Anything less and you have to use your brain to drive. |
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Isn't there a budget too with salt and such? If you don't use your budget for road clearing it affects future reserves? I hear you on storage. It can be a hassle keeping it and keeping it "fresh." I hate to say it, but I'm really looking forward to my graduation date and where this schooling is going to take me. I have a pretty good idea that I'll be going to work somewhere and keeping the Pistolsmithing as a second job. I know as long as the government doesn't affect the gun industry, Miller Custom will be around for a long time. However, if my shop keeps growing and adding more customers to the wait list...I may find myself in a position to keep the degree as a back door plan. All I know is if I have a job opportunity someplace a little south where the weather is less cold, I'm going to be taking it. I don't like snow, I hate season change and the cold, and I would much rather be hot in the summer. I would miss the family and friends though....decisions decisions. |