Southern question.

[Batesmotel]

How many southerners bought a couple bags of rock salt in case it gets cold this year.?
 

How many had a water shutoff valve installed?

[railfancwb]

I’m half there. Have valve

[ChuteTheMall]

I have a pair of socks, somewhere.

[gwalchmai]

My service entrance and meter is in the front yard, and I have a wrench. No salt, though. 

[jmohme]

We have a salt water pool, so plenty of salt around. Not that I would waste it on the driveway. If it is that bad outside, I am staying inside.

We have water shut off valve too. Did that when we built the house along with burying my water lines much deeper than code requires. Also always have plenty of gallon jugs of water on hand. I use them mostly in the RV that I spend so much time in. My wife used to complain about me refilling them and keeping them around, but she is fine with it now after having to deal with the water shut off for almost a week last winter.

Our fireplace will keep the house a quite livable temperature when there is no power.

I guess all that leaves is food. That is covered too.  No, I am not a preppier. I just spent too many years in the great white north and learned to always be ready for when Mother Nature flips you the big frigid finger, spins something up in the gulf, or some idiot in DC shuts down the country.

[Mrs.Cicero]

Ugh.  I'm in the north, and my genny just died... gotta get that fixed asap.

[MO Fugga]

Gotta have it. They sell it year round.

[21 shooter]

Got both but if it’s bad enough I need rock salt I’m staying home.  The rock salt is mostly for home made ice cream.  

[Walt Longmire]

I only have salt for the water softener. Folks up north are used to dealing with bad weather. We're not a bunch of softies here.

[Swampfox762]

I have NO idea what ya'll talkin bout.  I got a Chlorine pool.  Rock Salt???  For What, in Florida....??

[Huaco Kid]

7 hours ago, Swampfox762 said:

Rock Salt???  For What, in Florida....??

Margaritas and tequila.

[Huaco Kid]

I've never used salt.  Hockey guys are good on ice.  I haven't shoveled a driveway in 50 years.  It'll pack down.

[LostinTexas]

On 9/22/2021 at 8:14 PM, 21 shooter said:

Got both but if it’s bad enough I need rock salt I’m staying home.  The rock salt is mostly for home made ice cream.  

^What he said. ^ I'm sure most of us in Texas are going to be a bit better prepared, but doubt we will see conditions like that week in February. That was record setting, once in a lifetime, mayhem, and to tell the truth, nothing in building codes probably changed much if any.

Had the power grid held, a lot of problems that occurred would have been avoided. Did they get that problem remedied? Doubtful on that one too. I hope we don't have to find out.

Otherwise, I just became the proud owner of a Subaru.  If we have to get out, we can. 8 inches of snow would not have been fun in a sedan. The idjits that think they can drive in the conditions aren't that fun either, so set up, grocery up, water up, and stay in until things settle, just like before. On a side note, that 8 inches of snow was very welcome by some of us. Insulation for the ground.  We don't bury water lines very deep in these parts. A foot down is several inches below the normal freeze line, by about 8-10 inches.  

[aomagrat]

Hasn't been any accumulation of frozen stuff around my area since 2014. I hope it stays that way.

[Historian]

It does not get bellow 26 here often.

No salt.

[21 shooter]

 I’m currently without a 4-wheel drive and I’m not about to pay today’s prices, assuming I could find one.  I don’t know if truck prices will come down when the economy takes a swan dive or not.  

[Huaco Kid]

4 hours ago, aomagrat said:

Hasn't been any accumulation of frozen stuff around my area since 2014. I hope it stays that way.

We haven't had real snow it 20 years.  (except for that one lake-effect 3 footer.  And we were out of town.  And my daughter was watching the dog.  And her husband dug out parking spaces)

When I was a kid,  it wasn't uncommon to not be able to find the mailbox.

[Silentpoet]

I have the salt, looking for friends with limes and tequila.

 

[Huaco Kid]

I remember laying in bed,  and hearing the snowplow go by.  You could hear it coming from two miles away.  It was a very relaxing sound,  like a train,  with the yellow flashing light lighting up the bedroom walls.

It was good,  because the more times you heard it go by, every hour, or two,  the better the chance that school was gonna be cancelled tomorrow.

[Huaco Kid]

And if the school bus was 30 minutes late,  you got to go home.

And we all had TI red-LED watches.  To the second.  NASA on our wrist.

If you hit 30 minutes, +1 second,  and you could hear the bus grinding up the hill,  it was too late.  We all ran from the bus stop, screaming.

Snow Day!

[Huaco Kid]

I shoveled my last driveway when I was 10.  Because Dad made me.  He enticed you with money,  but he rarely paid up.  We got back-of-the-head-slaps for free.

But all the other kids had smooth black asphalt driveways.  Shwing! Shwing! Done!

Our driveway was gravel.  Break-wrist.  Break-wrist.  Break-wrist.  That's what we got.

 

 

[Huaco Kid]

"Dad!  I finished shoveling the whole driveway."

"Great! Are you hungry?"

"No?"

"Exactly.  Good job."

[Huaco Kid]

We called back-of-the-head-smacks "Dad Hits"

When your big brother,  or sister,  got one,  it was great.

I think it was, officially, "a cuff".

Sometimes,  you didn't even deserve it.  It was just for good measure.

[Huaco Kid]

Mom was a Home-Ec teacher at a prestigious college.  She could cook wicked-good food.

But, sometimes,  she'd feed us,  I don't know,  we'd just look at it.

And I was the youngest,  out of reach of Dad, at the end of the table,  so if bro and sis stared at dinner too long (ever have cold stewed-tomato-soaked bread?  for an appetizer?  Eat it up, yum!), they'd get their face pushed into the plate of delicious food.  It takes the indecision out of the dilemma 

Dad's hand always came from behind,  where you couldn't see it coming.

It might be a slight head-slap,  for leaving the water dripping,  or a nudge,  into a face-full of cold tomato-milk bread.

[Huaco Kid]

I once bitched at Dad too much,  "I'm cold"  "I'm cold"  "I'm cold"

His standard was, "Well put on a damn sweater!"

But I was whiney.

He said, "Go under the porch and get the biggest armload of wood you can carry."  So I did.  In a t-shirt. 

I At -20*

He locked the door.  And left me out there for ten minutes..

When he let me back it, he said, "Nice and warm now. Huh?"

I had it coming.