out of the Man Cave to be able to make a beer run.
Posted on 01/29/2014 1:46:20 PM PST by Dick Bachert
As this is written, Atlanta is still in the throes of another winter weather situation. The TV is filled with images of major highways littered with abandoned vehicles. Many of their owners are stranded in make-shift shelters until warmer weather makes the roads passable again.
The governor and other officials just concluded a news conference to explain how the mess unfolded and that they've learned much from this experience.
One of the lessons they “learned” is that, once the potential severity of this event became obvious, dismissing public and private employees all at once to try to get home was a really bad idea as it is many of their abandoned vehicles now clogging the roads, making it impossible for the salt and sand trucks to do their thing.
How unfortunate that so many of these state officials and private business management folks seem to be slow learners. We've had a number of these events in years past and the result is the same: Hundreds of thousands of gallons of expensive fuel burned, multiple thousands of people stranded, some folks even dying in accidents or from exposure, etc.
There IS a sensible solution for at least SOME of these folks and the problems they faced, a solution that could also seriously curtail the massive and growing year round Atlanta traffic rush hour gridlock and, just incidentally, conserve that precious fuel and reduce the CO2 and other emissions the Algore and the other “climate change” charlatans insist causes “global warming” (despite growing evidence that they're nuts).
In the 60s and 70s, Tom Peters, an American writer on business management practices, wrote and spoke extensively on what he called the “Electronic Cottage.” It was a very sensible proposal made possible by the coming of age of the electronic revolution.
In a nutshell, his proposal, even MORE sensible now that the electronic revolution has had 50 years to mature, is that, unless a worker's occupation absolutely required that he leave his home each day to drive to where he performs his duties, the need for him to do so was becoming unnecessary. If he or she was one of the growing number of INFORMATION workers from whom an employer needed mainly or only an INFORMATION WORK PRODUCT, that product could just as easily be created in an “electronic cottage” in some small portion of his or her home.
If I have to explain the societal benefits of that, please stop reading now as you may be one of Obama's no/low information folks and wouldn't grasp how it would save vast amounts of valuable energy resources and human time as folks no longer would need to sit in stop and go rush hours breathing noxious fumes for several hours each day. If you are one of those whose job requires you to navigate a rush hour twice a day, try to imagine how YOUR rush hour experience might improve with half or more of the vehicles removed from the highways?
Speaking of noxious fumes, I sincerely believe that these big city rush hours and those noxious fumes are damaging our brains, exacerbating the dumbing down begun in the government schools to the point where 47% or so of us actually believed the BS laid down my Obama and put an unvetted, unqualified, Marxist community organizer in office – TWICE – and still haven't noticed that his every act is designed to destroy America.
(I'm tempted to raise the issue of school busing but that's a topic for another rant.)
There is another reason why Peters' common sense proposal has not gained more traction. That is the ego driven flaw that dictates that the corporate guy who makes it up the food chain to a corner office feels the need to be able to periodically stroll from that office and gaze around at a mass of cubicle enclosed fellow humans and know that they are “his” people. Their absence from his sight would cause him to feel less important and secure.
And, speaking of security, it COULD come to pass that those above him in that food chain might begin to question just why HE is in that corner office. Can't have that sort of thing now, can we, lest it ripple up and down the entire food chain.
So, while I don't hold out much hope that the electronic cottage with all its many benefits will get any serious consideration, it is possible that coming events here might force it upon us.
We get a serious snow/ice storm that lasts two days every seven to ten years. Those tend to pop up expectantly. Otherwise, the winters are very tame. It would be foolish to invest a lot of money in road clearing machinery, snow tires/chains for use just two days every ten years.
It makes more sense to stay put in the office or stay at home when one knows it is coming. Also, it is hard to expect Southern drivers to become accustomed to such driving conditions with such infrequent foul weather. Those of use who are "imports" don't spin our tires or slam on the brakes like most people in these parts.
Yup, my point exactly!
Sales of Evil 4x4 SUV’s and Subaru’s are going to SOAR now.
This generation has had to lean, the hard way, the lesson that we learned in the winters of 78,79, and 81.
No matter how politically-correct that little hybrid sh*tbox you are driving is, is that political correctness worth killing you or your family over?
>> “Carry chains in your 4x4?” <<
.
All four of our vehicles are 4x4s and we have tire chains and tow chains in all of them from October to the end of June.
Forget the Subarus!
They don’t have enough torque to crawl over an extension cord.
A day's rations would be a helper in the SE in these daze of Global Warming. ;-)
out of the Man Cave to be able to make a beer run.
I never cease to be amazed at how many government employees at every level are referred to as non-essential when it comes to not reporting for work for any number of reasons. If they are non-essential, why are they even on the payroll?
OTOH I’ve never understood why any company in the service industry thinks employees have to commute to an expensive office building to work every day. Call centers for every business could easily be located totally in the U.S. and allow the employees to have a computer and work from home.
Not to call them industrious, but the folks handing out building permits, collecting utility bills etc can certainly take a day off but are required in some form eventually.
We have freeze dried meals, water and sterno in all of the vehicles, along with ponchos, space blankets, lighters, and lots of paracord.
Beat me to it.
Of course there is always personal responsibility.... My daughter and her husband both took the day off. The weather was in fast and furious here in the north and neither one of them wanted to try and navigate what they knew would be out there.
Because we Georgians were warned well ahead of time, each of us could have made different choices
that’s great IF you have a four wheel drive vehicle and a place to buy chains.
Most places don’t sell chains or even snow ropes. And in the metro area not that many people drive 4 wheel drive vehicles.
Let’s see..... people here do not know how to drive on these roads under black ice conditions; no one has snow tires on their cars because no one does ( Saturday it will be 60); It is not as if NYC or other cities do all that well under similar conditions, in fact the cities in the northeast have waaaay more equipment and really don’t do as well
I think GDOT and generally every one did a good job. People went to work KNOWING that snow was coming and that temperatures would be in the teens after sun down. The city had their deicing trucks out and working.
What people forget is that sanding and deicing have to happen at a specific time in the storm. Too soon and it is all gone by the time temps drop; too late and it is ineffective; PLUS there is always the case where the stuff works and then temps drop again really fast and refreeze.
You exactly right when speaking of plowing equipment and deicers. The state has quadrupled the number of plows and increased the deicing trucks as well. They even found a new brine solution that helps break up the ice on the road way better.
I think the state was as prepared as they could possibly be. I have seen empty street shots of NYC when they get hit with snow. Denver is notorious for housing the snowplows in a location that no one can get to if there is a storm.
Come on folks how unreasonable can one be?
And since you didn’t ask... no one was injured or killed in the metro area. There was one death in Coweta county.
Though I agree that schools should have been closed. Many did but no all are
And you live in place that obviously needs them. You don’t live in Atlanta or even northern Georgia.
Snow tires can tear up the tarmac on most highways ( depending on the type of snow tire). Moreover it is hard on the tire to be driving in normal weather (temps 60 and above)....
I grew up in snow country and I know how to be prepared and stay safe. Now that I live in an area that only occasionally has snow it takes on a different meaning
oh ! the huge.manatee
(Back in the day) After my wife and my very young son had to leave the road to avoid a head-on, they got an old skool (but new at the time) double solid axle 4x4 Suburban to use in the winter. Fortunately no further issues were encountered, but that sukker would get me to work even on the worst days (when the rest of the fam didn't need it 'cause they stayed at home).
Naw, I run new snow tires in the winter and then use the older ones in the summer as they make good rain tires.
Just now Blizzaks.
I even have qa set of studded snow tires for the sates where they are allowed. I just pull the studs from the worn tires to use them in the summer 'till they are done.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.