Cold Miser

It is not the “harm “in getting off of fossil fuels, it is the logistics, the costs, and the threat to our fossil fueled economy that right now makes such a move almost impossible. Everything and I mean everything you do has fossil fuels/petroleum based production/ materials attached to it … From the shower you take, to the food you eat, to the lifesaving medicine that people take. Every one of us is using petroleum based product to type on this forum. When you go home and binge watch endless tv shows there is fossil fuels behind all of it. Without petroleum we would not be able to produce the amount of food we produce, and yes, for you vegetarians or vegan types that want to see this food consumed in mass quantities, that means you too. Do a search on the simple activity of performing a Google search and how much energy that seemingly innocuous activity is. You will be surprised. We are addicted to fossil fuels, and this addiction will be hard to quit. Sweet crude is where it is at, and once we go over the peak oil crest and start rolling down the slippery slope to where the oil is tougher and tougher to extract not much will be there to save us. Tar sands will not save us, clean coal will not save us, hydro power and natural gas will not save us, and solar and wind will not save us. All of the ‘efficient”, cleaner ways of producing energy still require some type of fossil fuel to actually produce the machinery and products. What do people think solar panels are made of? We are only prolonging the inevitable demise of our way of living. Technology won’t save us. The planet is finite, and we only have one shot here. Many people are just plain irresponsible and don’t give a sh*t about what goes on beyond their inner circle. As long as Karen can leave her 3,500 sf house, drive herself to Starbucks, then to work in her 8 seat SUV, leave work, pick up her sons Brad, and Chad Jr. at soccer practice, come home and have her Hello Fresh, prepackaged meal heated up for her kids and her husband Chad Sr …Then go into the living room and watch America’s Got Talent on the 80” tv, without any guilt or fear of consequences then this routine will continue until her and millions of others are forced to change their ways. By then it may be too late. Freedom has a price. We know the price, but would rather put off paying it until later, or hope that the fee goes away, and we won’t have to pay. On the one end of the spectrum we may eventually see a huge die off of people, with the rest of us living in a scaled back environment, almost pre-industrial age, with the possibility of the rich (in gold, and silver) hanging on a bit longer to their throw caution to wind life of extravagance (at the expense of the less fortunate). On the other end massive war, natural disaster may put an end to most of us anyway. But, I think all of this comes much later rather than sooner, so anything we can do to slow down the fall of man will help. This will include some of the more energy conscious ways of production, still using fossil fuels, but in conjunction with solar, and wind, etc. Enjoy the rest of your day!

...This guy last night.

Normally I don't lay things out like this, but last nights events over the course of about 60 minutes were too crazy not to document. I left Manchester at about 5:00pm and the sleet was just starting out. Not just sleet, but rumbles of thunder, and flashes of lightning. The temp was about 35F. By the time I got on to 84 east the sleet had picked up in intensity, as did the thunder and lightning. By the time I got to the STRIP CLUB and Tolland exits sh*t was starting to get real. The sleet was pouring down, visibility sucked, and the thunder was so loud that it shook the car. [My normal route to Brooklyn is route 6, which, after Bolton Notch (junctions of 384/44/6) only has moderate, graduate elevation changes... until I get to Chaplin and Brooklyn. But when I go to Melina's place in Dayville I take 84 East to route 74. This route is much different. As you can somewhat see with the topo map there are some decent hills and valleys. Some of them have a pretty decent incline. This is the roller coaster trip so to speak.] ...Once I got to the rte 74 exit all hell broke loose. There is an incline not to far after the ramp, and from there it was quite the treacherous ride. The temp was 32 by then and snow was now mixing in. Overall I passed 4 accidents, all of them ending with someone in a ditch, or hitting a pole or tree. The sleet was so sudden that people did not have much time to react. One accident had me arriving just after it happened. I got out to help the guy but he was fine. It has been a long time since I have driven in something like this, and with a 2 wheel drive I had to be real careful, and drive slow. ...Except at the inclines. I was pulling over to give the people enough time to get ahead of me so I could get enough speed and momentum to make it over the crests. A few times I thought I was going to be a chump and have to back down the hill, but luckily that was never the case. Sure, it was only about .75" of sleet , but that is all it takes for chaos to take over.

...All I want for Christmas is cutter after cutter after cutter after cutter after cutter.

37F Rain. Wonderful winter day.

Nothing left to melt except a few mounds of dirty, plow mounds. At least most of December was decent.

Do you actually think anyone posting on this board is in such a state of despair, and aggression (meltdown style) over weather in a way that that warrants a slap back to reality, ie, a trip to a children’s hospital where there are truly people suffering , and in some cases may be in life ending situations? …Do you think Ray is thinking right now that his life is over because he is not getting a white Christmas? I can see him now, “Honey, .it’s great that we have a new child and all, but f*ck it all, there’s no snow this year for Christmas so I am going to head down to the basement until sometime in January when the situation changes.” Do you think Scott is really thinking about taking that ride to the Tobin Bridge and swan diving into the cold waters below because we missed out on a blizzard that was depicted 10 days ago? Are Kevin, Will, Steve, and myself holding the scalpel over our wrists as we sit and watch the next putrid run of the Euro? People here are passionate about weather (currently, winter weather), but I guarantee that 100% of the people who get bummed out about a few warm, non-snowy days in winter, and especially at Christmas time get off of this forum and move on with their day as planned. The back and forth banter over weather is just part of the passion. People get worked up a bit, but again, in every case they move on with their routine. No foul, no loss, no pain.

(3 bun salute to you)

Over a foot of snow this month, with just about half of the month's days having 100% snow cover. Not bad, but I suppose it's on to January.

It's been a while.

lol @ Dave holding on to 2nd place on the table right behind JSpin.

Brown Christmas for many, even with the great start to the month.

Maybe .25" if I am lucky. The forecast I heard for this was not conservative enough. The 1" was way too generous.

Meh my way to an inch of snow and then some ice. I will take it since it's the only frozen we've got.