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mneme.
Aye lass, That's how the rest of the world views the Scots - dour, miserable, haggis eating, bagpipe playing, kilt wearing, scrooge-like drunks.
We know of course that is just a cover for our scintillating, generous, adventurous, spirit of genius. The spirit that has -with our Irish cousins, quietly conquered the world and the moon. The spirit that has bred innovators, scientists, adventurers, inventors, doctors, explorers, and Star Trek Engineers. Not that I'm bragging you understand, but when we do settle on Mars, the name of the planet will be changed to MacNab.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 14, 2007 at 1:08 PM
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johnmacnab
Scots, dour and miserable..? Not the ones I know. Part of the fun in my dim and distant past. Pass me the SAD lamp.
posted by
mneme
on January 13, 2007 at 11:34 PM
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mneme
No you weren't - kidding about it being summer, that is. Remember I've been there. As for grass between Glasgow and Greenock, do you think there will be any nowadays? The weather here has been damp, dreich and miserable for weeks on end now (apart from the odd freezing rain episode), and people are complaining and talking about buying SAD lamps. Ell and I just smile. Ell said yesterday, "Now they might understand why we Scots are dour and miserable all the time - it comes from wading through one of whisky's ingredients day in and day out."
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 13, 2007 at 2:43 PM
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johnmacnab
You're welcome... It's true, the way the weight of the ice makes trees droop and look very sad and sorry for themselves. It also reminds me of the way the grass freezes in a ripple effect, in frost and cold winds along the road from Glasgow to Greenock (in my dim and distant past). It was the first time I'd noticed that phenomenon. And it was summer too...! (Just kidding).
posted by
mneme
on January 13, 2007 at 5:03 AM
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mneme
Thanks for the photographs, mneme. The ice storm in Canada was in 1998, long before I arrived to alter the balance of the country, but the effects can still be seen as you drive past the forests. I couldn't grasp how ice could break trees until I saw the effects of the ice on New Years Day. I must write a post of all the anecdotes I've heard.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 11, 2007 at 6:23 AM
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FactorFiction
you might have ended up as a walking ice-sculpture..
posted by
mneme
on January 11, 2007 at 2:47 AM
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johnmcnab
I've been trawling the internet for ice-storm photos - all mine are pre-digital camera. Here are a couple of the better ones.. a nice nostalgic moment.
http://www.hesston.edu/Experience/icestorm05/icestorm05.htm
posted by
mneme
on January 11, 2007 at 2:46 AM
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FactorFiction
It could have been dangerous, FactorFiction. perhaps your eyelids would have frozen open or something similar. Death by ice??
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 10, 2007 at 10:16 AM
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Well, it looks like everything worked out all right...
I think I must have had a brief experience with freezing rain in upstate NY years ago. I was walking home from a college class when it started to rain and luckily had an umbrella. When I finally got home it was frozen open. Hate to think what it would have been like if I had not had the umbrella.
posted by
FactorFiction
on January 10, 2007 at 6:09 AM
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.Dave
Aw! You've defrosted my fingers, Dave - that snow good! Just as well my name isn't Jack and I'm not a Shepherd.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 9:48 AM
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strat
I just learned another lesson, strat. Don't simply check up on one website and take it as Gospel. The Wikipeadia site said freezing rain only occurred in Eastern Ontario and New England. After reading your comment, I checked up again, and was amazed to read that it happens all over the States. I don't envy you going out in it. Seemingly during the 1998 ice storm up here, the troops who were sent out to help, had to be rescued by the locals when their vehicles skidded into the ditches.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 9:44 AM
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Pat_B
Aren't microwave ovens marvelous for warming up cold coffee? All I seen to do when I'm on the computer is pour coffee and warm up coffee - drinking it? - that I can't remember. I think that driving should be banned when there is freezing rain - or better still, ban freezing rain. I think I might start a petition....'Freezing Rain leaves me Cold.'.....Freezing Rain leaves me Cold.' Ban it, Ban it, Ban it.'
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 9:31 AM
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It happens here, too, John.
And the worst thing? Southerners already do not know how to drive in any precipitation, much less winter weather. So on those odd occasions we do get this, it makes a field day for auto body shops and never ending drudgery for adjusters.
I hate that stuff, because I have to go out in it and take pictures and report the news.
posted by
strat
on January 9, 2007 at 9:27 AM
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It's always ice to read you, John.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on January 9, 2007 at 9:26 AM
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.Dave
LOL, Dave. I hope your neck is better - mine is still aching. Thank you for the compliment - I'll have to read it again just to make sure you are talking about my post.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 9:25 AM
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Holy_Grail
Thank you for the compliment Holy_Grail. I am really surprised that you get freezing rain down in Texas. I've only been there once, to Houston and Galveston, and I would have thought that melting heat would have been your biggest problem.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 9:22 AM
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I'm glad you're okay and Ell was right.
We had our freezing rain and power outages in early December. I didn't need to go outside, and now that I've read your tale, I'm even more convinced it was a good decision. But reading your story made me chilly. I've got to warm up my coffee. :)
posted by
Pat_B
on January 9, 2007 at 7:29 AM
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Terrifying. And superbly written. I was with you for every millimetre.
And now my neck aches.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on January 9, 2007 at 6:39 AM
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bel_1965
Me too, bel. Thanks for your comments - it was a hairy drive.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 6:32 AM
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mneme
I was surprised that you got freezing rain in NC, mneme, but now after reading Holy_Grail's comment about driving in it in Dallas, I realize that i don't need to export the stuff - you've all already got it. Way to go.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 9, 2007 at 6:31 AM
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Holy crap, I got scared just reading it. I'm scared to death of drivin gin that stuff. We don't get a lot of winter weather here (Dallas) but when we do, unfortunately it's usually not snow - it's freezing rain, ice, sleet, that kind of lovely thing! Glad you're okay.
posted by
Holy_Grail
on January 8, 2007 at 7:50 PM
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I am so glad you made it home safely!
posted by
bel_1965
on January 8, 2007 at 7:34 PM
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mneme
'Disbelief' is exactly the right word to describe the conditions, mneme. If I were younger and it had been daylight, I may also have looked upon it as an adventure. And, strangely enough, I did take photographs of the ice laden branches the next morning. Watching the sun melting the solid ice and laughing at the birds as they flipped upside down trying to land on the icy twigs was a treat.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 8, 2007 at 12:58 PM
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word.smith
You are quite right, word. When I think about it, the shiver starts at my neck and travels down to my big toe. Never, ever, again.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 8, 2007 at 12:28 PM
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TAPS
Meeting an oncoming semi would have been a REAL horror, TAPS. There is no way to control one of those monsters when they decide to take a detour. As it was, the two or three vehicles I did see coming the other way, sent shivers up my spine. I was telling a friend at the gym about the journey and he told me he once had to drive to Toronto (a five hour drive in normal conditions) in an ice storm, and he drove at 25 mph all the way with two wheels in the gravel.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 8, 2007 at 12:27 PM
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Whacky
Thank you Whacky. All the way home I kept thinking 'IF we make it home,' not 'When we make it home.'
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 8, 2007 at 12:22 PM
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I imagine it would give you the shivers still...
posted by
word.smith
on January 8, 2007 at 9:48 AM
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johnmacnab
definitely a challenge.. I've had the pleasure(?) of driving in these conditions when we lived in NC, but at least it was daylight and I was idiot enough to rather enjoy it. Good tyres and a slow pace helped.. the aerial froze even as it emerged from its slot when I turned the radio on and I laughed with disbelief. The reward came the next morning with the beauty of every twig and leaf cased in glassy ice -winter in fairyland.
posted by
mneme
on January 8, 2007 at 5:31 AM
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Johnmacnab
I'm really glad you didn't meet any 18 wheelers along the way, jack-knifed or otherwise. They have quite a time in that kind of driving. I'm so glad you made it safely. Good grief, 20 miles of that?
posted by
TAPS.
on January 7, 2007 at 8:41 PM
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Yikes! That was scary!
Glad you made it safe and sound.
posted by
Whacky
on January 7, 2007 at 8:12 PM
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word.smith
Hi word.smith. I was going to write that post the next day but it wasn't funny then, and I couldn't write it without the article sounding whiny, so it had to wait. In the 25 years before I retired I was in the driving industry, and I have never come across anything like that before, where I felt so helpless. It still gives me the shivers.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 7, 2007 at 6:59 PM
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jacenta
It was absolutely terrifying, jacenta, and I made a vow that I would never drive in freezing rain again, unless it was unavoidable.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 7, 2007 at 6:51 PM
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Presley
My shoulders and neck were rigid the next day, and the migraine didn't help, Presley.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 7, 2007 at 6:48 PM
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How you can manage to tell a harrowing tale like that
and still make it funny in parts is beyond me, but the good thing is that you both got home safely. I think Ell will think twice about insisting on going home in weather like that next time. I thought she was telling you 'it'll be all right' because she sensed your terror, but I understand her also trying to reassure herself that she would get home in one piece.
posted by
word.smith
on January 7, 2007 at 2:32 PM
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johnmacnab
John, thank God you and Ell made it home safe. It made me shiver just reading about it. You know I felt like I was riding in the back seat with you two. Oh my, that had to be scary! Obviously it was a dangerous time to be out on those roads, but I am thankful you two are ok. I hate driving on bad roads and that sounds like the worst of the worst.
posted by
jacentaOld
on January 7, 2007 at 11:53 AM
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McNab
It seems poor Ell was so terrified she couldn't hear a word you were saying! LOL Glad you made it home safely, though I'm sure your body was pretty tensed up the whole way home!
posted by
Presley
on January 7, 2007 at 7:37 AM
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