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From: Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Pearls Before Swine: Rat The Luddite
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2024 09:34:15 -0400
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On 9/3/2024 4:50 PM, rkshullat@rosettacondot.com wrote:
> William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Paul S Person wrote:
>>> On Fri, 16 Aug 2024 17:31:43 -0400, William Hyde
>>> <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Paul S Person wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:22:11 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:
>>>>>>> On Wed, 14 Aug 2024 18:13:46 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>>>>>>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> <snippo mucho, response is to plastic reusable shopping bags>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I use cloth bags....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a box with handles (e.g. a document storage box) that
>>>>>> I keep in the car.  Tell the checker to leave everything in
>>>>>> the cart and transfer from cart to box at car.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No bags necessary.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm non-motorized, so I not only need bags (currently boxes, as noted
>>>>> elsewhere) but need exactly two of them (having exactly two arms to
>>>>> tote them with), which affects how much I can buy at one time.
>>>>>
>>>>> But walking to and (especially) from the store is great exercise!
>>>>
>>>> To, yes, but from is a cardiac arrest waiting to happen. Or a fall,
>>>> given the state of the sidewalks here in winter.  But then, why not both?
>>>
>>> Walking is aerobic. It strengthens the cardiovascular system.
>>
>> I am aware of this, but in current circumstances I must be careful.
> 
> At one of our houses the closest grocery store is 5.4 miles, at the other
> it's 1.9 miles. No sidewalks, no protected crossings. The 5.4 miles is all
> two-lane roads with 50-60 MPH speed limits and a drop from the narrow and,
> in some places, unimproved breakdown lane into the bar ditch. The other is
> not so bad, but it requires crossing a six-lane road. I contemplated it one
> time (needed to drop off a car for service) but it felt too much like immersive
> Frogger.
> 
>>> OTOH, the "freezing rain" we had a while back defeated me. I'd never
>>> encountered it before. I'll be paying attention to it in the future.
>>
>> After one particularly gentle freezing rain event I was standing on a
>> sidewalk and slowly sliding down a hill I had never known was there.
>> Seemed flat to the eye, but not to gravity.
> 
> That's the most common winter "weather event" in the places I've spent most of
> my life (central Oklahoma and north Texas). Dangerous stuff. I was headed
> home from work early one afternoon with freezing rain coming down. About a
> mile from home I was waiting to turn at a stop light. It was an out-sloped
> rural road with a deep bar ditch on the downslope side. The car in front of
> me, completely stopped, suddenly started to slide sideways and fell into the
> ditch. The driver waved at everyone to indicate he was ok and got on his
> phone. I made it home, but it was several days before we could get out of the
> neighborhood.
> We were lucky...a really bad ice storm left my dad without power for over a
> week. He was able to convince someone to deliver a good quantity of firewood
> and both he and the dog slept in front of the fireplace.
> 
>      Robert

Freezing rain is pretty much the worst weather event I experience here
in New England - I'd rather have a two foot blizzard.

I live in a pretty rural area, and there are trees around my house and
a forest behind it.

Freezing rain can coat trees and overhead wires with enough weight to
bring them down.

Back in 2008, I lost power for 8 days due to an icestorm.

Its not unusual for an icestorm to be followed by a clear, sunny day,
and the effect of having every branch and twig encased in clear ice,
twinkling in the sun, is extraordinarily beautiful - the world
is dipped in crystal.

pt