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Good morning. It's a balmy 18 degrees and it's sunny. The high today will be 47 or so the weather guesser says. He hasn't been right yet but there's always the possibility of a miracle.

The major items on my schedule today are nothing, nothing and nothing. While I'm getting all that accomplished I may have time to clear off part of the layout and do some general house cleaning. There's a small pile of boxes and paper that have to go out in the trash plus the kitchen garbage has to go out as well. Since I can't make repeated trips out to the cans the cans will have to be brought inside then taken back out. Packing it up in trash bags is inadvisable because the door is too narrow (been there and done that) and will easily rip the bag. That will eliminate a lot of trips. I only have to set the cans at the rear of the trailer, my neighbor will collect them and take them out to the road as that is slightly beyond my ability at this point. I can do it if need be but my feet would be VERY sore afterward. I talked to my father yesterday about the car problem and he's making agreeable noises about having it fixed. To him that's much easier than keeping one of his ready for use at a moments notice plus mine is set up for me to drive easily.

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/Running-Bear/PC180299.jpg
 
lraK, my condolences. I will still pray for you and your family for the strength and wisdom you all will need in the coming days. But, you have the knowledge that he was not alone when he was called. I missed Dad's passing as I had to get back home to get clothes and my paycheck. Out of money and my clothes were a tad "over-worn". In the two hours I was gone, he passed. All of the rest of the family was wit him, though. I hadn't planned on spending the whole week, but Dad held on longer than we had anticipated.

Again, my condolences and prayers.

Bob
 
Karl, my sincere condolences to you and your family. I know you are blessed with knowing he lived his life well and understand that it was his time to go. May this knowledge bless your family with strength to overcome the sorrow.
 


Karl, my deepest sympathy to you and your family. Even when it was expected, losing a parent is one of the toughest things to have to go through. It sounds like he was at peace when his mortal body decided to quit, but his soul and spirit is very much alive and waiting for the rest of you to show up. If I may intrude, Hospice usually offers grief counseling services. It was very helpful to me when my late wife died and I hope you'll consider giving it a try.

Steve, I like the red and yellow checkerboard striping on your engines. Really helps make them stand out from general truck traffic. I noticed that the same type of checkerboard pattern was common on police cars when I was there. Again, it helps the cars stand out from non-emergency vehicle traffic. Our typical black and whites are almost impossible to see from the front or rear. Some departments have gone to reflective striping in the rear but the bright patterns would be a lot more helpful. My biggest worry was always getting hit on the side of the road after a traffic stop or accident.

Matt, the rule changes started in the late 70's, with final implementation about 1986. After that, no firefighter was allowed to ride on the truck using a handrail, even with safety harnesses. This was a combination of OSHA and NFPA rules. As you might imagine, this was a very hard rule to follow in rural departments. Many bought vans to carry firefighters to the scene until they were able to afford crew cab replacement trucks. These rules don't apply to federal government or private company apparatus. USFS didn't complete the changeover until the late 90's and many industrial fire departments still use non-compliant trucks. I don't know about the foam tenders in the UK, but they are used here to supply chemical specialty rigs that have monitors with foam or light water when fighting chemical and gasoline fires.

Chris, it looks like the entire orange and strawberry crop may be wiped out this year. OJ futures are actually dropping because you can use ice damaged oranges to make juice, and much of the crop is being diverted to juice. The Tropicana trains will still be running, but the juice farmers are going to take a big price hit on the downside because of the freeze. Most table oranges come from California, Arizona, and Texas, and those crops haven't been affected to any degree. The strawberry crop shortages will be mostly filled in with Mexican imports. What the consumer will notice most is grapefruit. Damaged grapefruit cannot be used for juice and almost all the table grapefruit comes from Florida and south Texas. Last I read, about 70-80% of that crop has been lost. I don't think the cold snap is going to do much to affect beef production. Florida is a small time producer of beef cattle compared to the big states in the Midwest and west coast. The cows may be a little cold but they will come through it fine. Some of the cattle herd has been hurt far worse in the upper Midwest, where the unrelenting snow and cold is causing significant cattle weight loss and death. Can you tell I trade in agricultural futures? :)

Sunny but still danged cold here. It's up to 46 after an overnight low of 19. The wind is still gusting to 28 mph, bringing the windchill down to the mid-teens. I feels like it when you walk outside. :eek: We've now had nine nights below freezing, three days where the high didn't get above freezing, and five nights with lows in the mid to high teens. This breaks all out previous records, going back to 1867. It should get up to 50 tomorrow and the wind should slack off, so might not have to wear the parka. :) It still doesn't look like we'll see an overnight low above freezing until Thursday. As usual, my propensity to bring bad weather with me continues. :rolleyes:
 
Taking a break with a large cup of joe. Only 35deg here with a sharp wind. Otherwise, just a lazy day in T-town and my layout work is still moving forward.

Jim: Did you know that Alabama is 17th in number of cows. It used to be in the top 10, but since most of our ranches are privately owned and can't compete, many have chosen to get out of it. Cullman J(of all things) has the most followed by DeKalb and then Montgomery Counties. Same story in east central Mississippi.
You talking about fire engine colors, i remember the huge resistance that came about when several cities wanted to go with white or yellow. The traditional firefighters would have no part in that. About the light bars: you know as well if not better how our idiot driver do not respect emergency vehicles, more lights, more attention...maybe. I love the horn on firetrucks. That thing will sure get your attention and would love to have one in my F150. That thing will put any loco's horn to shame LOL:D.
Still don't know time on getting things ready to have some of you over. I may get you here sooner and maybe a few since I wouldn't need so much prep and I know you can put up with the mess...right...yes??? LOL

All the rest of you nuts have a good day of fun on the layout or just plain relaxing.:)
 
Karl Deepest condolences from our family as well--

Busy bunch in here today---everyone enjoying the ice box I see?:rolleyes: INNIT FUN?:eek:

Chris I think the cattle should be able to deal with this---probs a lot better than us!!:eek: This morning our low got to -22C with a windchill sitting at about -27C!! :eek::eek:

I got a 3-in-1 printer scanner copier from Audrey's brother and SIL yesterday--now i be doing a learning curve on it as well as Canon Rebel camera:D:eek::D:eek:

Catch everyone inna bit----
 
It's warmed up here to 42. Finally something above freezing. I've lived in parts of the country where it gets really cold in the winter, that's why I live way down here in Louisiana now. Looks like the cold front is lifting a bit. The low tonight is projected at 23 and the lows will be getting warmer throughout the week. High tomorrow is supposed to be 54.
 
Karl...I pray that you and your family will have peace and comfort at this time. Even as we get older, it is still so hard to lose a parent and my thoughts and prayers are with you.


Sandy
 
Good evening folks.

Sorry to hear of your loss Karl.

We are on our way to twenty degrees folks!:eek: Holy cow, that's an increase of almost forty degrees since two days ago!:D Maybe some of this crud will melt off of the streets. We will reach our high for the day at midnight tonight.

Good night everyone.
 


Karl you have our deepest sympathies.

Made it back from Winter Survival. I have been trying to get warm all day. More details tomorrow.
 
Evening, everyone.

Karl, I know you are busy, but we are all thinking of you and sending along our best wishes, hoping things are going as well as can be expected.

Rex, indeed, I do know that Alabama was a big beef producing state at one time. One of my firends form chruch owned the biggest cattle ranch in Alabama, almost 10,000 acres at one time, plus the Montgomery Stockyards. He has sold off about half the land and mostly grows soybeans now, with a few hundred head of cattle left.

As far as fire negines. sudies have proven over and over again that that lime yellow has the best visibility under all weather conditions, but fire departments are very resistant to change. Prattville still has the standard fire engine red color. emergency vehicle lighting has also undergone a lot of sutdy, most of it ignored by agencies. The best type of light in terms of driver's response is the old "Mars" style oscillating that used to be mounted right in the center of a fire truck's hood. I t wa
 
Evening, everyone.

Karl, I know you are busy, but we are all thinking of you and sending along our best wishes, hoping things are going as well as can be expected.

Rex, indeed, I do know that Alabama was a big beef producing state at one time. One of my friends from church owned the biggest cattle ranch in Alabama, almost 10,000 acres at one time, plus the Montgomery Stockyards. He has sold off about half the land and mostly grows soybeans now, with a few hundred head of cattle left.

As far as fire engines, studies have proven over and over again that lime yellow has the best visibility under all weather conditions, but fire departments are very resistant to change. Prattville still has the standard fire engine red color. Emergency vehicle lighting has also undergone a lot of sturdy, most of it ignored by agencies. The best type of light in terms of driver's response is the old "Mars" style oscillating light that used to be mounted right in the center of a fire truck's hood. It was similar in concept to Mars and Pyle Gyralights on locomotives. Good long range warning and the oscillating beam gave the driver a good point of reference about the location of the fire truck. With the new fire trucks and police cars covered in LED warning lights, it's actually more confusing to drivers, especially if you've got three units behind you. The LED's appear to jump around the location they are actually installed, and the effect is even worse at night, since the effect is nearly blinding to a driver. They are, however, extremely cool, so the more the merrier. The best warning light I had was my post mounted spotlight. I had an aircraft landing light in it and I could aim it right at a driver's rear view mirror and flick it back and forth a few times. That moved traffic better than all the warning lights I had, day or night. The steady up and down wail siren combined with an air horn have also been proven to be the best at getting a drivers attention...but they are not as cool as all the phaser type sound effects you can get today. It's really the same all over the country. Given the choice between proven methods and cool, firefighters and cops will pick cool every time. :rolleyes:

No problem with a mess, I'll even help you clean up. :)

Barry, 22 below? Man, I'm way too old to deal with that kind of cold now. :eek:

Corey, strange how what would normally be considered cold isn't so bad after a long stretch of really bad temperatures. It does look like another shot of cold air is headed your way though. :(

Tom, having done the winter survival thing, I can't wait to hear your story. I hope the circulation has returned to your extremities by now. :p

The sun was out and it did make it all the way up to 45 today, but the wind chill made if feel more like 35. It's 23 now, a little warmer than last night, so we should bottom out at about 19 or so. That will make seven straight days of lows below 20, smashing our old record of four, set in 1889. It looks like we may stay above freezing Thursday night. If so, that will bring to a close a 13 day record of lows below freezing, destroying the old record of nine days, set in 1902. We've only broken one low temperature record during this cold outbreak, but it's been the persistence of cold temperatures that has been very unusual for us. I have a plant watering bucket on the side of the house, and it has been frozen solid since last Thursday. I've had quite enough of this. We may actually get above normal by Friday, with highs in the 60's. I sure hope so.
 
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UP2CSX said:
As far as fire engines, studies have proven over and over again that lime yellow has the best visibility under all weather conditions, but fire departments are very resistant to change. Prattville still has the standard fire engine red color. Emergency vehicle lighting has also undergone a lot of sturdy, most of it ignored by agencies. The best type of light in terms of driver's response is the old "Mars" style oscillating light that used to be mounted right in the center of a fire truck's hood.
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The lime green color and the oscillating lights are also the most distracting things that can be done to emergency vehicles and often cause more accidents as drivers are distracted by the bright colors. For that reason many departments (including mine) repainted their equipment red. As for a light in the middle of the hood, those were more of a hazard to the vehicle driver. The place for the lights is on the roof and the bumpers. Some departments here experimented with oscillating (wobblelater) lighting and were dismayed to find that they caused more problems than they solved.


UP2CSX said:
With the new fire trucks and police cars covered in LED warning lights, it's actually more confusing to drivers, especially if you've got three units behind you. The LED's appear to jump around the location they are actually installed, and the effect is even worse at night, since the effect is nearly blinding to a driver. They are, however, extremely cool, so the more the merrier.
Click to expand...
The new LED lights have an effect on many people that wasn't intended. They make them sick. I've been to scenes where the LED lights triggered seizures. My best tools for getting through traffic in my car have been my roof mounted Whelen 12 strobe bar with flashers and electronic air horn. That can be heard a long ways off.
 
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Karl, my deepest sympathies to you and your family.

Jim, Birmingham made it to 34` yesterday. Over the weekend, the wife and I went to LR to see Aiden, and oh yeah, his mother too.:D

One the trip over it snowed on us from just north of Hamilton, all the way into Little Rock. It was a light snow, and there were no problems driving in it. On Sat the forecast was supposed to be cloudy, with snow showers, but we woke up to clear skies. It was warmer there than it was in B'ham over the weekend. Made it all the way to 40`, but the wind, when it blew, would cut you like a knife. When we left LR the temp was 30`. The further east we went, it got colder and colder. The were several areas that we went thru that the temp was in the low 20's. When we got home the temp had "risen" to 24`. At the current time, its 15`.

I'm not too sure about any severe weather this next weekend. The temps are gonna be hard to call, and the air is supposed to be very stable with little to no shear. But who knows, some on the weather forums I'm on, talk about how this is a classic type Miller B set-up and they say there is no severe weather in a Miller B. I don't know. Its really too early to say anything except its gonna rain! And hard! Some of the models are even depicting a wrap around snow as the storm leaves. Again, too early!
 
Good morning. The weather guesser missed again. The low was supposed to be 23 and here it is at 19. The high today should be 54.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing today but any reason to get out of the house will be good. I was too tired yesterday to do much so I have that much more to do today.Still have to get the trash situation taken care of as pickup is tomorrow morning. The car will probably be taken to the shop today. The layout still needs clearing off. What happens will happen.

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/Running-Bear/PA280110.jpg
 
Littlefoot14 said:
Chris- Id imagine they arent doing to well, funny you mentioned the "undocumented workers", the farms and quarries around here are employing them and im amazed everyone has kept to themselves about it. The crops up here really dont have to deal with the cold usually, with the exception of apples :D. I didnt know cattle was raised in florida, ive always associated that with the north and the west. If theres no more oranges, does that mean no more tropicanna juice train? :p
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Cattle ranches are floridas LARGEST industry! Citrus groves are being torn out in favor for Hay and cattle ranches! I would say hay would be our second largest industry.......Three years ago I saw 3 box cars on a Team track getting loaded with rolls of hay bound for the north!
 
kbkchooch said:
Hi Gang
Dad finally passed over to his reward this morning about 7:30 this morning. True to form, he always did stuff early in the day, so he left us the same way.
I want to thank you all for your kind words, prayers and well wishes. Also I would hope that everyone else connected to this band of hooligans has all thier prayers answered too.

Oh and Chris, it's 12 degrees outside on my patio. Wanna trade?:confused:
Click to expand...

Sorry Pal for your FIL Passing, You and your are still in my thoughts and prayers.


BTW........Right now we're 14* We are beating all records for florida!
 
Good Morning

We be going up to -5C for a high with periods of light snow amounting to a little less than an inch. Rest of the week gonna a little milder but dull dull dull.

Jim Our fire dept. had the same issues with the coloration a while back. They were a visual distraction which led to more accidents than anything. The LED lighting effects do almost the same thing as the old strobe lights. If the frequency is set too high on them they'll produce "flicker fits" in some people. There was awhile back a couple of police cars that did just that. I got a phone call from our neighbour one night after some lady ran her car into a light standard. She was OK--turned out she passed out when she got both of the police cars in her rear view mirror----she had a flicker fit and passed out. I've a couple of friends who have been studying these affects that keep showing up and they are thinking of it as a sensory overload effect.

Chris Audrey wanted to know where the biggest cattle area is in Florida---I was thinking the central part but --?

Gonna get some runnin' 'roun' done today that I could not get done last week

Have a good day people--:):)
 
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