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Feb. 13th, 2007 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday at work I mopped floors. I also shoveled snow. Or maybe I shovelled it. I dunno. Whatever. I took a snow shovel and I used the fucking thing to remove snow from sidewalks. That thing there? I did it. Then I got home from work and shoveled or shovelled or whatever my driveway. Then I drove up to the lodge and commenced with the plowing.
Uhm. It went. Sorry about the garage door, Dad. It, er, slipped down a little between me taking the truck OUT to go plow and me coming back home to put the truck in the garage again. I didn't rip it all off its hinges or anything, but it's slightly bent and a little wonky. I'll have to check it again tomorrow morning if/when I drag the truck out to address the road further. (Hell, if it keeps snowing like it was ten minutes ago, I might be out to check the road around 11 PM tonight -- but it comes and goes in intensity.)
Of course, I might not wind up plowing anything tomorrow. It's entirely possible that the road will turn into a skating rink due to the sleet/freezing rain/wintery mix bullshit that we might get instead of snow. The weather reports are inconclusive and their dividing line for snow vs. sleet/rain is, as always, the fucking PA turnpike, which is not a mile from my house. What to do, what to do?
I considered this question while engaged in mopping and addressing various sidewalks. If I left the five or six inches of snow on the road and it "wintery mix-ed" all over it in quantity, then the dumptruck would not be able to move the resulting slush and I would have to plow it (easy, an hour sitting out in cold, vibrate-y noise.) with the dozer. It's supposed to be like fifteen. Not sure I want to be sitting on the dozer when it's fifteen out. Also, it does not feel warm enough to wintery mix (tm) all over my road. It's too cold for that. I'm not feeling the wintery mix love, here.
Also, if I didn't plow the snow and it kept snowing (it's supposed to keep doing SOMETHING straight through until morning), there would be too much snow to move with the dumptruck. In good conditions, with a reasonable subsurface on which to work, the dumptruck will happily move about eight inches of fluffy snow. It does not do as well for soggy snow or for fluffy snow exceeding eight inches. If you are expecting to get more than eight inches of snow, the best course of action is to plow every six inches or so. This may mean you don't get to sleep until it quits snowing. (Some users are willing to aim Truckie at snow exceeding best-practices depths. I am not one of those users.)
The only way I could win with not-plowing would be if it stopped snowing right away and then I'd still have to plow the road in the morning. Given the available outcomes of not-plowing, I plowed the five and a half inches of snow from the top of the road around the lodge and to my house. If we get wintery mix or sleet or whatever, I will address that when it's sitting on the road. Until that time, I have five and a half FEWER inches of snow on the road.
Also, special for grandma: I'm not dead. Nothing is (very) broken. The garage door, well, no lives were lost, okay? (It caught on that thing that sticks up above the lip of the bed of the truck. That thing, there. Look. I'm sorry about that. The truck drove OUT okay. I figured it would back up in okay some forty-five minutes later. I figured wrong. I am an idiot.)
Keeping track of time I am employed in Valley activities: 1 hour, from 4:15 to 5:17, engaged in assorted snow-removal activities on 2-13-07. (Does not include prep or warming up afterwards.)
Also: Grandma just called to make sure I was OK and ask after the state of the road. (Not making this up.) I did not tell her about the garage door.
Uhm. It went. Sorry about the garage door, Dad. It, er, slipped down a little between me taking the truck OUT to go plow and me coming back home to put the truck in the garage again. I didn't rip it all off its hinges or anything, but it's slightly bent and a little wonky. I'll have to check it again tomorrow morning if/when I drag the truck out to address the road further. (Hell, if it keeps snowing like it was ten minutes ago, I might be out to check the road around 11 PM tonight -- but it comes and goes in intensity.)
Of course, I might not wind up plowing anything tomorrow. It's entirely possible that the road will turn into a skating rink due to the sleet/freezing rain/wintery mix bullshit that we might get instead of snow. The weather reports are inconclusive and their dividing line for snow vs. sleet/rain is, as always, the fucking PA turnpike, which is not a mile from my house. What to do, what to do?
I considered this question while engaged in mopping and addressing various sidewalks. If I left the five or six inches of snow on the road and it "wintery mix-ed" all over it in quantity, then the dumptruck would not be able to move the resulting slush and I would have to plow it (easy, an hour sitting out in cold, vibrate-y noise.) with the dozer. It's supposed to be like fifteen. Not sure I want to be sitting on the dozer when it's fifteen out. Also, it does not feel warm enough to wintery mix (tm) all over my road. It's too cold for that. I'm not feeling the wintery mix love, here.
Also, if I didn't plow the snow and it kept snowing (it's supposed to keep doing SOMETHING straight through until morning), there would be too much snow to move with the dumptruck. In good conditions, with a reasonable subsurface on which to work, the dumptruck will happily move about eight inches of fluffy snow. It does not do as well for soggy snow or for fluffy snow exceeding eight inches. If you are expecting to get more than eight inches of snow, the best course of action is to plow every six inches or so. This may mean you don't get to sleep until it quits snowing. (Some users are willing to aim Truckie at snow exceeding best-practices depths. I am not one of those users.)
The only way I could win with not-plowing would be if it stopped snowing right away and then I'd still have to plow the road in the morning. Given the available outcomes of not-plowing, I plowed the five and a half inches of snow from the top of the road around the lodge and to my house. If we get wintery mix or sleet or whatever, I will address that when it's sitting on the road. Until that time, I have five and a half FEWER inches of snow on the road.
Also, special for grandma: I'm not dead. Nothing is (very) broken. The garage door, well, no lives were lost, okay? (It caught on that thing that sticks up above the lip of the bed of the truck. That thing, there. Look. I'm sorry about that. The truck drove OUT okay. I figured it would back up in okay some forty-five minutes later. I figured wrong. I am an idiot.)
Keeping track of time I am employed in Valley activities: 1 hour, from 4:15 to 5:17, engaged in assorted snow-removal activities on 2-13-07. (Does not include prep or warming up afterwards.)
Also: Grandma just called to make sure I was OK and ask after the state of the road. (Not making this up.) I did not tell her about the garage door.
