Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

around home

From balmy to frigid, ice and snow–Winter roars back

February 1, 2011

Update — 2/2/2011:  We fared better than expected – no ice and just a trace of snow.  We just got the cold arctic air – 13° at 8 AM.

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Things have certainly changed in just a couple of days. Fortunately, we’ve had some warning, so have been able to make some preparations, just in case the storm is worse than predicted.

Even, though it’s raining for now, we’re in a winter storm warning, along with a significant part of the country.  Areas north of us and not too terribly far away are in a blizzard warning.

We’re hoping for snow and not ice.  Earlier today, the forecast was for a .2 to .4 inch coating of ice on exposed surface – tree branches, power lines, etc..

Fortunately, the forecast has changed to a thin layer of ice before the precipitation turns over to snow.

The temperature is currently above freezing.

Unfortunately, this monster storm is going to hit a lot of places hard.  Some forecasters are calling it a storm of historic proportions.

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A touch of winter weather

January 10, 2011

We lucked out and the worst of the storm went south of us.  I hear it snarled traffic near Little Rock into a multi-hour backup with some people stuck in their vehicles overnight.  This is the same southern storm that is hitting the east and may turn into a nor’easter for New England.

Top picture is with flash – bottom is with camera on a tripod using HDR feature of my camera.

January 9, 2011, snow, Arkansas

January 9, 2011, snow, Arkansas

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New car – the old car heading to the bone-yard.

January 9, 2011

wrecked 2004 honda cr-v

2004 Honda CR-V

Though we hadn’t really talked about, Karen and I had been looking forward to the day when we could get a newer car.  The 2004 CR-V was what Karen primarily drove and what we took, most of the time, if we were going somewhere together.

It also just happened to be the car we tow behind our motorhome.

However, it was 7 years old, with over 130,000 miles on it.  Though it has been extremely reliable, with that high of mileage, it’s getting closer and closer to the point where I don’t like for drive very far away – and, when I’m working, she periodically goes to see her mom, who lives about 2 1/2 hours from here.

The time was approaching for a new car, but we figured it would be a year or so away.

Then we had the December 26th car accident….

2010 honda cr-v 2010 honda cr-v interior

2010 Honda CR-V.

And, of course, we’ll be able to tow it behind our motorhome.

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“Are you Larry?”–more about our accident–and the blogging link.

December 28, 2010

2010 12 27 003ed

Our car

(continued from Our accident)

I remember Karen talking to one of the EMTs like she knew him.  It turned out she did – sort of.

I think the encounter went something like this:

Karen immediately recognized one of the EMTs when she saw him through the windshield as they were coming around the front of the car.

As they started checking her over, she asked, “Are you Larry?”

Somewhat surprised, he said that he was.  When Karen told him, “I know your wife, Vivian,” he asked how she knew her.

Karen replied, “Blogging, email, quilting.”

He responded with another question, “Are you C.J. or Karen?”

Karen, C.J., and Vivian had been commenting on each others blogs for quite some time.  Last year, they met for lunch and had arranged to do it again this week – tomorrow, in fact.  Karen recognized Larry because Vivian had just posted a photo of him making Christmas breakfast.

On her blog, Karen says, “– it felt really reassuring to me even though I had never met him.  It was like I knew I was in good hands.”

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Karen is getting around a lot better today.  Her chest still hurts a lot and she has pains all over, kind of like the all over pains you get from the flu, except she doesn’t have the flu.

Yesterday, I went to the wrecker yard and got all of our stuff out of the car.  It’s seven years old and I’d be very surprised if it could be fixed for the approximate $5,000 the car is worth on Kelly Blue Book.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the insurance information for the driver of the other car.  It’ll be in the police report, which my insurance company is supposed to obtain.  The other driver was cited by the police officer which establishes fault for the insurance purposes.

This car was the one we towed behind our motor home, so if it’s totaled, we’ll have make sure to get a replacement that can be towed.

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Our accident

December 26, 2010

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___”

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This isn’t our car and it’s not even the same model year, but the front end of our car looks something like this.

If I had just a moment and could turn back the clock, that’s what I’d tell the person that waved the kid through.

It’s what I would tell the kid, too.

We had just seen “True Grit” at a new theater that just opened about an hour’s drive from home. On the way home, we decided to go ten miles out of the way to go out to eat.

When it happened, we were driving on a road that  is two lanes in each direction with a center turning lane.

We had just gone through a traffic light as it turned yellow. The next light had just turned green and the cars stopped there had started to move.  We were in the southbound lane next to the turning lane and there were fewer cars ahead of us than there were in the other southbound lane.

Just after we made it through the light that had turned yellow, a car that I hadn’t seen darted through a gap in the other lane of traffic.

They had been waved through by a driver in that lane.

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___s”

We were about three blocks from the restaurant we had decided to go to.

I hit the brakes and thought that we just might make it – but realized, just before impact, that we weren’t going to.

We hit hard, but not so hard that the air bags deployed.  The impact moved us a little sideways, so that the front, driver side tire was over the yellow line of the turning lane.

Shortly after the impact, the kid backed his car back into the drive of the convenience store, clearing one lane of traffic. The __-___ driver that had waved the kid through didn’t even stop to see if anyone was hurt.  The accident happened right in front of their vehicle, but they just drove off.

Our car wasn’t going any place under it’s own power.

“My chest hurts.”

Karen still had her seatbelt on.
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Karen’s brother brought us home after she was released from the Emergency Room.

Karen is still hurting, but nothing is broken – according to the x-rays – and her heart is fine.  She got a shot for pain at the Emergency Room and got a prescription for the same medication – something that doesn’t cause nausea.

I’m fine – no pains that I can attribute to the accident. Tomorrow may be a different story.

The car is 6 years old with quite a lot of mileage on it.  It’s probably totaled. The cost of repair will probably be more than the value of the car.

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Tornado Warnings!

May 1, 2010

Last evening was one of those interesting severe weather evenings.

We knew that storms were approaching and I had just seen that there was a tornado warning for our area, but it looked like the storm cell was going to pass south and east of us.

Then our phones started ringing – all three of them.

We’re subscribed to a severe weather warning service from one of the Arkansas television stations.  It calls us when there is a tornado warning for our area.  It is a lot more specific than the National Weather Service warnings.

It was time to head for the storm shelter.

We only stayed down there for about ten minutes.  We waited until we could tell that the intensity of the thunder and lightning was dropping.

Some areas got hit pretty hard, from what we’ve gathered so far.  One of the tornadoes had gone very near the Little Rock airport and they had to shutdown operations for a while.  Fortunately, our daughter, who had been in Dallas for a week on business, had been on a plane that landed before the severe weather got to the Little Rock area.

Our forecast for today includes the possibility of severe weather, but it’s much less likely than yesterday.

Here’s a short video from my new phone of some of this morning’s rain.

I’ll try to look for opportunities for short videos of places while we are traveling, but they won’t take the place of or impact my photography.

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