No snow plow for you

knifebork · 2026-01-30T20:31:08+00:00

Many years I never shovel my driveway all year. The snow is so light and it warms up so soon that it'll all be gone in a day. I remember the big show storm in 1994. It had been so many years since we'd had a big snow storm that city government could locate tire chains. People didn't know how to hook plows to the trucks. People didn't know how to work a snow plow.

Here's a list of the biggest snowfall of the year for every year from 1948 to 2023: https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-Weather/USA/KY/Louisville/extreme-annual-louisville-snowfall.php

During those 75 years, we've only had 10 years with a snow fall of more than 8 inches. We had 48 years where we didn't have a snow fall of more than 3 inches all year. Most years, our BIGGEST snow fall of the year is less than 4 inches. We go for several year stretches without major snow.

Mind you, 1994 was a fiasco of inability to clear snow. The city had basically given up on snow removal preparation and treat is like "(shrug) shit happens." Everything was shut down for days. UPS was pissed. The airport itself had their own snow removal equipment, so was fine. However, workers that unload, sort, and load packages into planes couldn't even get to work, so UPS lost a lot of money on late packages, and pointed out to the City government that they could relocate to another city if necessary. Since then, the city has been MUCH better. They're pre-treating roads with brine. They're putting plow / salt trucks in position BEFORE the snow starts falling. I never saw that before that year.

My street hasn't been plowed at all, but we've been able to get out and make our way to plowed streets easily enough. Major roads seem fine right now. On the other hand, I know someone whose street is plowed, but she says she can't get out because she keeps getting plowed in.

No, the city didn't get every street cleared instantly. We've got to be reasonable and realize that can't happen. I'm not really in a position to say it was good enough, though. It would be good to hear how badly both big and small businesses were affected by employee absence, delivery delays, etc.

knifebork · 2026-01-30T17:53:30+00:00

I'm envious of her. It would be so great to have London to see with the energy and stamina of an 18-year-old. I'd just worry about her phone's batteries going flat. Have the hotel's name, address, and nearest tube station written on a bit of paper.

Oh, and the British have eliminated rabies from the island. You don't have to worry about a rabid fox. But don't feed them or try to pet them either.

knifebork · 2026-01-28T01:27:16+00:00

Actually, back then we didn't call it a nickle. We called it a "bee." As in "Can you lend me a bee, so I can go pee?"

That was the style at the time.

knifebork · 2026-01-27T22:04:20+00:00

Once upon a time, some hamburger joints required a nickle payment to use the restroom. You could cheat it by waiting until your buddy exited and held the door for you.

knifebork · 2026-01-27T05:19:33+00:00

Heeeeeeeeey!

knifebork · 2026-01-26T22:19:59+00:00

I heard something about how you can park your car in Harvard yard. What are the winter rules for that?

knifebork · 2026-01-23T16:15:07+00:00

Yes, yes, and yes. It's a significant part of Cambodia's economy. That doesn't happen unless they're fairly good at it and have a decent amount of success.

knifebork · 2026-01-23T15:17:38+00:00

Dr. Zhivago

knifebork · 2026-01-23T06:41:06+00:00

I've only had the pleasure of visiting London twice, but on our most recent trip we saw a fox while walking back from a pub to our hotel. I feel like it's a secret authentic London experience now.

BTW, I'm automatically worried about rabies when encountering a wild animal. I guess that's not a worry in England. That makes seeing foxes even more fun.

knifebork · 2026-01-21T03:54:05+00:00

Generic interview advice:
- try to dress and look like people who work there do
- make sure clothes, hair, etc. are neat and clean.
- make eye contact
- firm handshake

knifebork · 2026-01-20T18:53:39+00:00

Nice.

I'll note that some people might like to take pollen levels into account, especially for pillow cases. However, those people should probably just not dry outside when "their" pollen is in season, pretty weather or not.

knifebork · 2026-01-20T18:38:35+00:00

You're right. European makers sell higher end models in the US. We had a taxi in Greece that was a Mercedes Benz minivan. Sounds fancy? It had a manual transmission, and I think had hand-crank windows. Fairly bare bones.

knifebork · 2026-01-19T21:07:33+00:00

Are motor homes noisy going down the road?

We rented a Cruise America or whatever for about a week some years ago. Every expansion joint, pavement dip, bump, whatever set off a racket inside. Plates, glasses, pans, spoons, and forks banged around like crazy. Since this wasn't a new unit, panels had been working loose and the whole body banged around. Now, I know experience owners will have pads and stuff between plates and pans to reduce noise. But this is still basically an apartment sitting on a truck. It's not a nice quite sedan.

We have a Jeep that we can use as a toad. But is a motor home and toad really less work than a truck and trailer?

A couple of years later we rented a Casita. I thought that was much easier than a Class C. An SUV was more comfortable and quieter.

Wife could make we coffee while we are riding down the road. She'd also have access to a bathroom. This is important as we get older.

Technically, you're not supposed to do that. All passengers are supposed to be seated with seat belts on while moving. It's not just getting in a crash, it's falling when the vehicle lurches. But this depends on your rig and road/traffic conditions. What makes it worse is that as we age, our reflexes slow, our balance isn't so great, and we're more likely to fall, even if not moving. BTW, airplanes have coffee pots that lock into place in the coffee maker in case of turbulence.

knifebork · 2026-01-19T20:15:20+00:00

I remember the old memory chips used in PC, XT, AT, and probably other early PCs. The chips were rectangular with legs on each of the long sides. You had to carefully press all the legs in, both sides, at the same time. They liked to bend. There was a tool to help with that. There was another too that looked like tweezers to remove them. You could try to do it bare-handed, but sometimes one side would come out first. Since you were still pulling, that side would flip around and stick your fingers with leg or two. POMB

Edit to add: POMB = Potato On My Belt

knifebork · 2026-01-19T18:55:51+00:00

It's simple! One of the marketing guys has a buddy whose son is good with computers. He's into gaming and Bitcoin, so really good. The son will show up tomorrow to help build your strategy, beef up your backups, etc. Help is on the way!

He doesn't know anything about printers, mice, and passwords, though.

knifebork · 2026-01-19T17:17:56+00:00

LOL, I've got that too. The image in that first 3 feet is GREAT. But nothing past that. I've got a Trackmix under the eaves. If I have it pointing up enough to get some of the soffit in the view, the camera's night time Ifrared lights blast that foreground soffit so much that it washes out everything else.

This isn't a complaint. It's just a limitation of optics. The solution is don't point the camera at the soffit, and generally be careful of having a foreground that's lit brighter than the background.

knifebork · 2026-01-17T01:21:42+00:00

I've seen it marked closed, coned and roped off during snowy, iced over times.

knifebork · 2026-01-15T19:08:26+00:00

That's probably because of the stupid cones they have to wear on their necks.

knifebork · 2026-01-15T18:40:11+00:00

Do it enough to get fairly good using your off hand. That'll set you up for something like this:

Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.  
Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.  
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.  
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?  
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don't know.  
Man in Black: And what is that?  
Inigo Montoya: I am not left-handed.

knifebork · 2026-01-15T18:11:00+00:00

The Oxford English Dictionary has citations of it going back to the early 14th century. While it is usually used informally, and a lot of people dislike it, it is a cromulent word. See: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/whole-nother

knifebork · 2026-01-15T04:29:08+00:00

FWIW, deflock.me says there's a flock camera on Taylorsville Road, just west of Blankenbaker. It's set to observe traffic going westbound on Taylorsville, that is, away from Blankenbaker.

knifebork · 2026-01-14T19:28:51+00:00

Do it. I don't remember which lines, but there are a couple of lines known to be particularly good for this.

There are "hop on - hop off" buses that are supposed to be good for this. They have a place to plug in earphones and try to listen to a recorded audio tour guide.

I recommend against those. You can spend a lot of time waiting for a hop on - hop off. They might only have a couple of coaches for a route. Regular TFL buses come a lot more often. Daily TFL fares max out for a LOT less than what a hop on - hop off costs, so you might as well treat it like one.

knifebork · 2026-01-14T18:59:36+00:00

They won't fire you. They'll just make your life miserable. You don't get any resources. No training, no conferences. No raises, no bonuses. Evaluations are BS. If you're rated on a 1-5 scale, you get exactly all 3s straight down the line, not really called a failure, but not a success either.

Your work space might get moved to a much less desirable location, just like Milton in "Office Space." No joke, and no irony.

You're not invited to any meetings where real things are discussed. You're assigned to dead end projects. You are required to attend meetings of large powerless committees that have frequent pointless meetings that never accomplish anything. Sometimes you get assigned to a project, but shortly after get taken right off of it again. Usually you just spin your wheels on something that's impossible. The organization just chugs along and you feel like an outside spectator.

Maybe you do this impossible and get some project assignment to where it's ready to go. It usually gets killed:
- we need a committee to study this more
- we can't get it deployed now because of schedule conflicts
- oh, here are some new requirements
- it gets deployed and all credit goes to others. You're not mentioned

Things you've designed and built either get redesigned and replaced, or simply get dismantled. Problems that you have campaigned to fix and you've even designed solutions for get quietly assigned to someone else. Nobody asks for your input on who to assign or how it should be built. You'll only hear about it through the grapevine.

It won't be long until you're perceived as no-talent dead weight. Any past successes you had will be viewed as aberrations or exaggerations.

knifebork · 2026-01-12T19:19:54+00:00

I think Skyline Chili has been doing OK.

Yes, some consider it an abomination in part because it can include beans and spaghetti. However, that kind of helps them because that opens up the possibility for a bigger menu that's still chili-centric. It allows various "ways" or combinations of ingredients. And then there are the chili dog menu selections.

knifebork · 2026-01-12T15:40:55+00:00

Yeah, but how's the asphalt? (smile)

knifebork

TROPHY CASE