Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts

06 June 2008

Heckvua storm

It rained last night. And I don't just mean it rained, I mean it rained, rained hard. Cats & dogs one might say. It was a regular cacophony of thunder and lightening and rain hitting the roof and windows so hard it almost sounded like the house was being bombarded with tiny little pieces of gravel.

The, the almost unthinkable happened. Something that has so rarely happened in the 7 years we've been in our house, it was nigh unfathomable. The power went out. Completely. Not just a little, but all of it. Across the street, in perfect Topeka fashion, they retained their power. Usually it is the other way around. The folks on the eastern side of the street lose their power, while our side maintains theirs.

My first thought, of course, was that we had to finish drinking what coffee had been made before it went cold because, well, I didn't want to heat a cup of coffee with a candle. The migration from beautiful, electric powered light to flashlights and candles was pretty smooth. The batteries mostly still worked, and which flash light batteries didn't work, we had spares.

So, we headed out to the front porch. We recently bought a table and chairs to put on the front porch. We put them there with the intention of being able to sit around the table and do whatever people do when sitting around a table on their front porch. I don't have much experience with that, so I don't really know. We'd bought the set a couple of weeks go, and it has sat dutifully on our front porch all that time just waiting to be used. So we sat and listened to the rain fall, and watched the lightening flash. And yelled cautioned the kids that since we really didn't need the flashlights right here, right now, they would be best to leave them off lest they run down their batteries and then, later, could not find their way to the bathroom in the dark.

I looked out across the street. I could see their lights on over there. The blue glow that can only come from a television. Their porch lights slicing through the wet darkness. All that light and electricity...glaring towards my house, which was dark, and powerless...mocking me. Now I knew. I knew what it felt like to be on 'that' side of the street. The one without power. The one which has been, in an instant, transported to time and space back to the dark ages. Well, maybe the late 19th century anyway (which was pretty dark at night, not being any electricity and all).

None of the other neighbors were out on their porches which, quite frankly, surprised me. I had fully expected them to be out. Better to sit outside in the darkness, than inside in the darkness. At least that is my point of view. We would watch the cars come roaring down the street. I keep threatening to make a giant sign and nail it to the tree near the curb. I'd make the background of the sign bright yellow. And in big black block letters, I would write "SLOW DOWN". Our street is wide. About three and a half lanes wide. Back in the day, the trolley went down our street, to the college. So even with cars parked on both sides, there is plenty of room for two cars and a motorcycle to fit across the street comfortably. All this with a 6 block stretch and no traffic control. No yield signs. No stop signs. So people tend to drive fast down our street. It is currently being restored to a brick surface. We're all hoping it has a traffic calming effect.

The cars would come barreling down the street, and slow quickly before continuing on. No. 1 Son noticed a car had stopped about 1/2 down our block, and somebody was out of the car and walking around. I went to the curb, the rain was dying down now, not much more than a light drizzle at this point, and looked. I saw two flares in the road in front of a branch. I beckoned the boys to come with me and see if we could move the big branch out of the road so nobody would hit it.

As we walked towards the branch, No. 1 Son said "Dad, I don't think we can move that branch". Indeed, it seemed the branch was grow exponentially as we neared it. Like something from some cheesy Sci-Fi channel movie. In fact, upon inspection, it was not a branch at all, but a tree. It had been hit by lightening and fell right into the street. The police had put some flares around it so people wouldn't hit it. I ran back to the house and got my camera because, with the smoke and the red flare fire, and the lights from the po-po car shining through the tree from the other side, it was all pretty cool looking. I stupidly neglected to get my tripod, so all my pictures had to be flash pictures. It would have been cool to get some extended exposure pictures of that scene.

I'll update with some pictures once I get them off the camera. But since my power was out last night, I couldn't really do it then. And since my work - as generous as they are - gives me a laptop with no card reader, I'll have to wait until I get home tonight before I can get the pictures off the camera.

After a bit, the 5/8 and Little Sister joined us. The the neighbors started trickling out of their houses. We talked about what happened "Did you see it?", "Did you hear it?" "No, but I heard the transformer blow". "Is Doc home?" "No, we don't know where he is." "Is there a car underneath the tree?" "Doesn't look like it". And other chit-chat about the tree, which then migrated to other things. All in all, I'm glad the tree fell. We were able to have some nice conversations with the neighbors. In these days, when it is either 90+ degrees, or raining, the neighbors are not out and about, sitting on their porches and what not, like they are in May or in September so we don't get to see them so much.

The 5/8 was restless though. We ended up going to bed about 9:30 last night. I mean, what the heck else you gonna do? No power. Sure, could mess on the computer for an hour or so before the battery finally declared that enough was enough - but no power = no Internet. And really, what good is a computer if you don't have it plugged in and online? I can play solitaire with real cards. The 5/8 made the comment "what did they do in the old days" to which I replied "sleep".

06 February 2008

SNOWFALL

"They can put a man on the moon, but they can't keep this white crap from falling from they sky?" - Alex P. Keaton

Actually, I love the snow. It is my firm belief that cold weather is a complete and utter waste of time without snow. And we got the snow. Truth be told, we got more snow before Christmas this year than we normally get all year long. It hasn't snowed this much here in Fly-Over Country since I was a kid. I love it. My kids are lovin' it. The 5/8 is hating it.

When I got out of bed this morning, I looked out the window to the dark, snow-covered street below, it was calm and serene looking. A neighbor had his truck running, headlights casting shadows up the street as I heard the distinctive scrape, scrape, scrape sound that can only come from a shovel, shoveling snow off concrete. It didn't look that bad. I figured the kids were going to be in school, and the 5/8 would hate it even more for having to drive in it. But, being the dutiful and generous and loving husband I am, I sneaked downstairs and fired up the web browser and hit the local news station website.

WIBW Channel 13. That is the news station that everyone turns to for closings and cancellations. Oh, the other stations have the list, and run the ticker along the bottom and read the list on air. But if you were to ask any state employee, city employee, school teacher, pastor or just about anyone else, WIBW has the de-facto official list. Sister Corita would tell us it doesn't matter what is said anywhere except Channel 13. If Channel 13 doesn't say school is closed, then school isn't closed. And for those of you who know her, you know there is no arguing with Sister Corita - ever.

I took another look out the front door window as I worked my way to my cramped little den and turned on the monitor and logged in. Still, it didn't look that bad. Opening the school closings page, I was shocked to see that the schools were closed. 'Maybe it's because it rained all day yesterday, and the streets are really slick' I though to myself 'Oh well'.

I gingerly worked my way back up the stairs. Trying to make as little noise as possible on those creaky old stairs. Told the 5/8 that school was canceled and turned her alarm off. Watching the news as I was preparing for work, they were saying we received 7 inches of snow overnight. Looking out the window, it still didn't look that deep to me. They had some young lady out in their parking lot, making snow angels and sticking a ruler in the snow. Poor kid, she was probably and intern, they get the worst assignments. She measured 9 inches with the ruler. I don't know how scientific that measurement is.

Heading out the back door towards the garage I was stunned to see how much deeper the snow looked up close and personal. Oddly, it seems our street had been plowed. We live on a wide street that I would have thought would be a priority for plowing. Back in the day, the trolley used to run down our street. Even with cars parked along both sides, two fire trucks could drive down our street side-by-side, that is how wide our street is. But until today, I don't believe our street had ever been plowed. Today it was, and that was a pleasant surprise.

I was prepared (I thought) for the drive into work. I knew that other people, even people who lived in Kansas way back when it used to snow like this all the time, didn't really exhibit the skills required for snow driving. Having lived in Alaska for around four years really taught me a lot about driving in the snow. Add to that about three years of driving my Jeep through the mountains of Colorado, I learned how to keep a vehicle moving forward with minimum traction.

The key is using the front tires to constantly seek new traction. Let's say you're at a stop sign, and you have little-to-no traction starting out; one thing that has never failed me (yet) is to turn the wheels left to right continuously. I'm not certain exactly what this does, but I do know it works. I drive that little POS Honda Insight (which is great for highway commuting, but pretty much worthless other than that) and I didn't have any problems with traction or getting stuck. The folks at work were amazed I could get in to the office in that little thing. I told them I have skills - with a z.

The worst I had to deal with was somebody driving up Huntoon St. They were scared I'm certain, being very cautions, driving about eight miles per hour. I don't have a problem with people driving slow in the snow. If they are comfortable, and I'm certain that the slower you drive, and the more confident you are behind the wheel, the safer it is for everyone. But this guy was on a four lane road, and driving down the middle of it. Taking up two lanes, going eight miles per hour. I don't know why they didn't pick a stinking lane. I know my vehicle, and I know what I can handle. I know how fast I can drive in what conditions. And I knew that I would be comfortable and safe at around 20-25 miles per hour. But this guy would not relinquish the middle of the road so that I, nor anyone stacked up behind me, could get around them.

But other than that, it was a fairly easy drive in.

14 December 2007

FREEZE TURKEY!

We had quite an ice storm this week. Tuesday and Wednesday the kids were out of school. Heck, even work was considering closing the office on Tuesday based on the forecast. Thankfully, while the ice was horrendous, the folks in the public works department did an exceptional job at keep the streets clear and safe. Wednesday night I went out and snapped some pictures. Here is the most impressive. The sleet drops on the lens give it a strange, surreal appearance. I thought I'd share.

icestormsmall

01 March 2007

I am so ashamed.

I simply can't believe some people. Last night this area was rife with severe thunderstorms and tornados. All of the big three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) in Kansas City went to full-time weather coverage due to the severity of storms and the presence of tornados in their viewing area.

While no tornados actually hit the Metro KC area, the smaller towns and rural areas around KC were affected by the storms. Listening to the Shanin and Parks show today on the way home, I was astounded by the number of callers into that show that complained because they didn't get to see Medium, or Lost, or Jericho or some other television show they wanted to see.

The sheer selfishness and lack of concern for their fellow man completely floored me. This is actually the first time that I have to admit I am ashamed of those fellow midwesterners that acted in such a childish manner. I would expect behavior like this from the east or west coasts - but in fly-over country, we are supposed to be more civilized.

Only in Kansas...

Yesterday the temperatures reached into the balmy 70's. It was beautiful. The sun was shinging brightly, the wind was blowing softly and gently. It truly felt like a spring day. Last night, more signs of spring. As I drove to my parents house to (once again) show my father how to use his VCR (sometimes it stinks being the smart one of the bunch - but I manage), I was able to witness a spectacular lightning display off to the southeast of Topeka.

Seems there was a super major storm system, which gave the folks down there the years first batch of tornados. And this morning, after hitting the gym, it was snowing. 40 degrees outside, and the snow is falling large, heavy and fast.

In less than 12 hours, we go from 70 degrees and sunny to thunderstorms and tornados, to snow storm - We must be back in Kansas Dorothy.