Obligatory post banging on about the snow. Imagine your surprise.

[hirez]

I'm given to understand from the hysterical media (hysterical media is hysterical) that this is the worst winter since 1981/2. (Gloucestershire version, anyway) This rings true because I/we got some serious sledging in that time. We'd become bored with the field behind the house, I think because it wasn't quite steep enough and the snow had come from the other direction so that side of the field was more scrape than swish.

Small Brother's mate James (aka Dipstick, because he was an AF spanner in the box of metric sockets) had a complicated sledge built by his dad that used wide slabs of Formica as runners. As any fule no these days, given the number of moulded plastic items, it's all about spreading the load. Since this was rural Gloucestershire, and the shiny new learning about low ground pressure vehicles was still a gleam in the agricultural equipment supplier's eye, SB and self were rather startled by this. (Sb's sledge was a traditional narrow-runnered thing in the 'Rosebud' style.)

Because I had no sledge of my own (I know, I was a poor, deprived little sod) I blagged some Formica and boshed one out of 2x4 and whatever else was in the shed(s) the night before. The road up the side of the hill from Charlton Pool to the Camps is straight and about 1 in 5 at its steepest. Conveniently, that was the bit most exposed to the wind, so the snow was in lumpy drifts to the height of the hedge. It had also frozen, so it was an ideal surface for propelling teenagers who should have been in school head-first into whatever was in the way, closely followed by the sledge that they'd just been bounced off.

A few years after that, I discovered that Mk2 Escorts are bloody twitchy on hard-packed snow. Good job there was no bugger around to see that 180.

Which more-or-less leads me to the point. I rather like snow. It's fun to play in and makes the grimmest place look cleaner. However, I'm packed in with a thousand fuckwits who can't drive, don't carry shovels and don't understand that ABS won't save you if there's no traction at all.

Look, the bargain we make when we move into a town is that in exchange for using up less space, not keeping old cars, not setting fire to things.. Y'know, not having any fun[1] basically... is that the Powers That Be will take the rubbish away (no bonfires), keep the streets clean and generally mind the infrastructure for the good of all.

If they're not going to do that, what's the bloody point? Bastards.



[1] Buying things is not 'fun'.

Comments

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

This evening I slid *upright of course* almost halfway down the v, quiet hill road i live on. Wz GOOD : D

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Winter 81? I remember skiing on the hills of suburban Liverpool

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

I was just telling my kids about my childhood sledding exploits. We had an awesome hill that went from my front yard, through the back yard, into the neighbors yard, and down into the cul-de-sac in the street below us. We used to build what amounted to our own luge chute, packing the snow then pouring water on it and 'polishing' it into smooth ice. Now THAT was sledding!

[jendama.livejournal.com]

Hmm, then you'd really enjoy Pullman in the winter. Lots of snow, lots of hills, and just about everyone drives a Subaru so the roads feel pretty safe (even with a state university here--the kiddies stick to buses or the campus, mostly). However, other than sledding and shoveling snow, there isn't much else.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of young lads with powerful Subarus here - hardly a day goes by without a mangled wreck featuring on the front page of the papers, and that's in the summer! That said, it seems that I've passed fewer cars upside-down in fields this year.

[cutietrol.livejournal.com]

Having ranted on about Other Drivers, I since discovered I'd been attempting the whole trip on summer tyres (like a lot of other people I suspect). Which explains a lot. To make amends I've ordered some winter tyres, which guarantees the snow will now disappear. Or that the truck carrying the tyres will be snowed in until after all the snow has gone...

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately my father was a welder. Not that there's anything really wrong with that, except that he made the kids a sledge, and it was somewhat.... industrial. It looked great, but move it would not. Poor guy.

My first driving experience on ice resulted in me having a second or two to ponder the strength of flyover crash barriers - fortunately they won, and the Manta ended up a foot shorter. I've been rather more careful since!

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

"...please don't call me Reg, it's not my name."

[hirez.livejournal.com]

[FX: Applause]

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I only vaguely remember the winter of 81, though I'm sure my parents have some very cute pictures of me mummified in a snowsuit.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

'81 would have been the year that my Dad dug us a snowhole a la John Noakes up on Coscombe Hill, and did the run to the shops for the entire willage on his John Deere.

Best sledges round our way were ICI ferti bags stuffed with straw and tied up with bailer twine which served as a handle/steering device.

Not enough proper snow up her in Meltin' to do that today.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wires/]

1) I was once informed (at his memorial service, sadly) that a very cool teacher at my school once skiid to work as it was too trecherous to walk. He also spoke Norgwegian and taught the best chemistry lessons known to man.

2) I never saw the end of Citizen Kane. Where were the spoiler warnings, you bastard?!