See icon.

Yep, I hooked up the plow, turned the truck around to prep it for a straight shot down the driveway, and, if anything, the snowfall increased.

We will have plowing today!

And, if the weather folks are right ~ which they're not, by the way: this light fluffy powder we're getting is not a 100% chance of ice pellets ~ then this will last for three days. And then another storm Wednesday.

Already there's about an inch or so... and they're now calling for 8-12 inches by tomorrow morning...

The scene looks much better than it does in this picture from last week:



=)

I neglected to mention that the driver in today's truck crash was not injured severely. He was walking around, and later had ice on his shoulder, but other than that he appeared okay.

What happened? Based on the horns I heard and evidence I saw, someone cut him off. He swerved to avoid them, bounced off the inner guardrail, hit the lane barrier and broke partially through, and then came to a rest in a semi-jack-knifed position. I heard him talking to some other truckers, and one of them had said he couldn't see what had happened, but it seemed to imply another vehicle's involvement.

While workers were attempting to remove concrete from the southbound lane - a lane blocked off by the first reporting state troopers - some idiot decided the one lane wasn't fast enough, and the workers had to get out of the way quickly. The car actually went into the fast lane after they passed the cruiser! One of the troopers jumped back into the cruiser and hunted them down, so I'm sure they went home with a nice, big ticket to make up for their lack of patience.

~ ~ ~

In other news, the forecast calls for rain, and the window of the car is jammed in the open position.

Just watched the aftermath of a nasty crash - only 1 vehicle*, no one hurt badly, but nasty damage, and blocked the northeast extension of the PA turnpike for about two hours.

Pictures over on Flickr soon.


* - one vehicle at the scene. Others may have been involved & run.

Six, actually, providing only slightly obstructed 360 degree views.

For a couple of days this week, my view looked like this:



...although somewhat seasonally adjusted for mid-March vs. early-December and a slightly different angle.

Here's the office back in January:



This week I parked the office up by where that photo was taken.

I was far more productive working at the office than I had expected. Sure, it's a wireless hotspot, but I have to figure out if I already have an account for it or if I need to create a new one, so I worked distraction-free. I did finish things up last night at home, but it was definitely easier to stay focused at the office.

I completed the three design projects I needed to get done and wrote up some invoices for them. I was going to present them today, but that got moved until tomorrow afternoon. Before that, Justin and I will be bringing the office - and some wheelbarrows and shovels - to assist with the Spring cleanup day at the location in the photos - the Lehigh Gap Nature Center. If you're in the area, stop by Saturday March 22 - from 9am to 2pm - and give us a hand!

One more thing that we had a bit of trouble with - maybe even worse than lack of traction on the hill - was the windshield wipers slushed up again, as they did with the last storm. Thick wet snowflakes just cling to the wipers. They melt enough to stick, and then they stay.

I scraped each blade clean before we left, and we didn't even get to Millers Market before we were down to maybe 10% visibility. Almost ran someone off the road because I couldn't see. I stopped at the township yard and had to scrape them off again. They stayed clear after that, mostly because the snow was shifting over to more of a sleet or rain.

After filling up the rear tank, we stopped off at an auto parts place to see if they had a particular device I had heard of - they didn't, but as soon as we got back, I ordered some Slushbusters. I think next year I'll make sure I put heavy duty winter wipers on as well - visibility needs to be clear through those windows, especially when I'm aiming a plow at people.

Or, rather, avoiding aiming it at them. =)

As for the slipping and sliding business, I think an Onspot system might be in order. Maybe not for this winter, but certainly for the next. Chains are about one order of magnitude cheaper if you just look at material costs. The difficulty is that installing them is a pain. Justin and I have had personal experience installing chains on the snowblower, and that was difficult enough. And they only slipped off a half-dozen times. Chains on a truck would need to be put on and taken off repeatedly, in less than ideal conditions. There's been a lot of times the road to the nature center was clear and dry and the gravel road there was not - which would mean installing and removing them all the time. I'm thinking time spent swapping chains on and off - as well as a higher replacement cost (replacement cost for the Onspot chains are an order of magnitude less than the cost of another full set of chains) - would easily exceed the difference in cost between the two.

Not to mention, flipping a cool safety trigger switch vs. crawling around in slush and snow on a highway roadside during low visibility winter weather conditions.

Anywho, that's a high priority for Fall 2008. Unless I absolutely can't get up the hill next time I plow, I won't consider it for this season.

A challenge to the automotive design engineers who read this (who number, to the best of my knowledge, somewhere around exactly zero individuals):

Whereas windshield wipers (hereafter referred to as Wipers) are not mounted in the trunk nor are Wipers mounted under the dashboard by the heater nor are Wipers mounted on posts in otherwise deserted tropical islands;

Whereas Wipers are quite often found on the exterior of automobiles, trucks, trains, helicopters, and other such exterior applications;

Whereas exterior applications are, by their very nature of being exterior and not interior, exposed to the elements;

Whereas elements have a tendency, on a somewhat seasonal basis and driven by a chaotic system, to vary in such ways that include Wet or Cold;

Whereas certain regions have, at certain times of the year, the habit of experiencing both Wet and Cold at the same, or closely alternating, instance in time;

Whereas Wipers are designed to move by electrical and mechanical means;

Whereas those means may be halted in their tracks by even a small quantity of Wet that has become Cold;

Whereas at least one flavor of heat-application doesn't always reduce enough for the Wet to get out of the way;

Can you please design the frickin' Wipers so they don't burn their motors out or snap off their linkages or keep forcing their way in one immovable direction without resetting safely and calmly and waiting to try again later when the situation may or may not have changed; resulting in eventual success when the Spring Thaw happens or when whatever heating technology you allegedly have actually does what it allegedly should.

While you may consider it entertaining to design things in such a manner as they currently exist - akin to including a failsafe in all jumbo jets that forces the engines to prepare for takeoff any time they're started, even if that means flying at force into the nearest terminal - I'd really rather not have to replace any more wiper motors or wiper linkage or anything else involved in a fairly important piece of safety equipment.

A common problem - that of the blades freezing to the windows - would also be less painful if the wiper motors didn't continue to strain at the leash. This issue is the one that seems to be addressed when "frozen" and "wipers" are the query; sadly, this is easily handled manually, and a quick scrape and the basic windshield defroster can handle the issue. There's also these, designed to cope with the situation.

That low hanging fruit, the frost glazed squeegee stuck to glass, is not what I've been experiencing these last two years. Over a quarter century of New England winters and I've not experienced what I'm seeing now down here in the tropics. All three vehicles have had it happen this year, it's like an epidemic. All visible surface ice can be removed, everything you can get at without disassembling grills and so forth can be cleared and this problem still occurs.

It's one of those design issues that just shouldn't happen. Why, having those motors designed to hope against hope and commit suicide makes about as much sense as making commonly replaced items, such as headlights, difficult to replace. Or mounting sensitive electronic components in an environment exposed to extremes of heat and cold and oils and vibration, such as those experienced in the engine compartment of a car. Or knowing for at least thirty-five years that energy efficiency is a Good Thing and, instead of increasing both efficiency and performance, pretending that you can only do one or the other, and having delusions that the former can only happen if the car is butt-ugly.