Mild Weather Brings Them Out

[special-K]

This winter has been crazy all over. Here in the Mid-Atlantic we are having a crazy mild winter that so far has barely left any snow. Lots of southern air up from the Gulf with a few colder days every now and then from the NW. It's driving me crazy because I should be able to drive my '72 this winter. BUT...they still keep drizzling that cussed salt brine every time they predict the slightest possibility of snow within a couple hundred miles. Then, we have also not been getting much of any rain. My rule has been not to drive till after the second good rain once the last salt was spread. Just hasn't happened that way.

I don't think a week has passed I haven't seen motorcycles out and about. Last weekend was the big cycle show at the state fairgrounds. It's the first time I've seen people ride to it. There must have been 200 bikes ridden there. Today was t-shirt weather. I saw a topless deuce and a quarter rolling along with three people wearing t-shirts. Ok, we all have something to say about our strange weather, such as drought stricken CA getting all the rain they've missed just this week... it seems.

But that's not really what this thread is all about. Here I am afraid to take my tough 4wd truck out for fear of it turning to crust and at the Safeway today I see this beast in the lot. Some grocery gitter, ey?




I guess the rear tag had to go right where the chute belongs. Gotta have a tag to be street legal you know

[mongocanfly]

Haha..I read the title and thought I was gonna see a snake picture..warm mild weather brings them no-legs out here..

[Cape Codder]

I'll Take this weather for mid Feb. 40 degrees when I got up,washed the truck before church and went rowing with my buddy this afternoon. Temps hit 60 a little windy but we toughed it out for 5 miles.

[special-K]

Yeah, blustery yet warm. I found out later that Saturday started out at 27 and it got up to 71, as it turned out. I was home all weekend. My road is a very popular road to take a nice drive on. Turn right and it gets better and better. All the nice country roads you could imagine. I see everything go by from bicycles, to packs of motorcycles from road rockets to H.O.G. chapters, Porches and such, a couple Cougar convertibles together, pro-street ground pounders, antiques, you name it. Locals with classic cars to people from to city and suburbs coming up. .They were all out yesterday.

I'm still not taking my '72 out till some good rain. I'm a freak about that, even though it's dry. If it's putting up dust that stuff lays up in there and all it needs is moist air. Looks like a chance of rain a few days this week, still warmer than normal, but same as it's been, just scattered light occasional showers... wimpy stuff. Saturday looks like a good rain, but we'll see. Can't wait! Heck, I kept so busy both days I never got a chance to even fire it up and let it run a while like I wanted. No big deal

[Cape Codder]

When we do get a warm day for washing this time of year I do stick the hose down inside the fenders and up inside the bedsides for a good wash. I have my hose running off the outdoor shower so can even give it hot water to dissolve salt. My truck is my daily so working from home I try to drive it as little as possible in snow but have to sometimes.

[midniteblues]

I'll take every bit of warmth we get.

I unplugged the bike checked the oil and pushed it out of the garage too let it run for a bit.
Meanwhile i uncoverd and checked the fluids and fired up the camaro inside and hit the exhaust fans.
Back outside I figured awe why not, hopped on and took a quick scoot around (what we call)the block about a 2 1/2 mi. Jaunt....way too many cinder patches out there yet for my two wheels too be on the road.

I picked up a mobile home furnace last summer too install and keep the garage warmed up.
I procrastinated all summer and fall hooking it up.
well I finally got'er all buttoned up and fired up last week but i guess I'll just save my fuel....for now.
Im sure I'll need it soon enough.

My wife seems too think we are gonna pay for this nice weather and get hammered before spring....we'll see, like usual i HOPE she is wrong

I think that guy in the 57 put his groceries in the trunk next too the spare tire.

[CG]

Whats a cinder patch?

[midniteblues]

Originally Posted by CG

Whats a cinder patch?

It's small gravel they spread on the roads.sometimes it's mixed with the salt.

It gathers in pockets/patches on the road and on a bike it can make your shorts brown in a hurry.

[CG]

Oh yeah I would hate to hit one of those ... slide, fall, ouch!

[slomotion]

Cape Codder, have you ever done the "Snow Row"? I did it a couple times back in the '90's when "Messing About In Boats" used to cover the event. Did that, and the "Blackburn Challenge", a couple of times, but in the cruising class, didn't want anything to do with a 24 mile pulling race!

Tim, we've got so much snow on the ground the roads will be a mess for another 6 weeks. We may not get a lot more snow, but the melt keeps the salt/sand mud stirred up and the on-coming traffic takes a dim view of swinging into their lane to avoid a four foot wide puddle on your side.
I'm guessing middle April for the '68

[Cape Codder]

I did the snow row last year and two years before that. The year in between I had wrist surgery. I just sent in my registration for this year a couple days ago. March 4th this year. Great fun. I am in the single work boat master class. Meaning old guy in a skiff.

[special-K]

I've been seeing how Maine has been getting some big snows. That's saying a lot when they say it's a lot in Maine. This has been yet another odd season in yet another odd way. The jetstream is missing us for the most part when it normally determines our weather. We are getting Pacific warm air as well as the normal moist gulf air we normally can have from time to time. I have never seen air coming straight across Mexico, across the south, and up the coast. Today is still above average (54 high) but cooler due to a cold front out of New England. I have never seen a cold front drop straight down the coast like that. Out northeasters are normally storms off the coast spinning (counter clockwise) air off the Atlantic to the north. This is dry air coming straight down, just as it normally does from the NW out of Alberta. It will be warmer today in far western MD in the mountains because they are west of this cold front...weird.

Southern MD/Lower Eastern Shore and Northern VA, just south of us have gotten snow we missed here in the Piedmont and just above me on the MD/PA line and north has gotten snow and/or cold air we have missed. Our reservoirs are low. No talk of a drought, but we air in a very dry pocket weather is avoiding. Let's see what these "possible" rains bring

[61_FL_Apache]

That'll get the groceries QUICK!!

[special-K]

I've never seen one like that driven around town. Not in February, July, or any month.

Well,on the news tonight the big story is a big field fire. Yesterday or this morning there was one near here in the traffic report and I heard about another before that. The weather guy is as of tonight talking of drought and they showed a map defining it's area, which we are right in the middle of.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I can't believe it's actually street legal. Pretty cool in an ugly kind of way.

It looks like one of those 'glass bodies where the whole thing lifts up at the front?

Our electric bill has been $60-150 less this winter than comparable previous years.

Weather Channel is showing high 60's to mid 70's for us all the way through the first week of March (NOT normal). Looks like we never got winter and we're not going to. Mid March is when it typically starts hitting back in the 60's here.

[Indian113]

The Ground Hog said six more weeks of Winter, with temps in the 70's in February I take a Whole winter like that. But I still won't get my Harley out until we get some Heavy Rains to wash the sand off the road. Besides people in cars don't look for us to be out in the winter and only use one eye on us in the Summer.

[Nick_R_23]

I still have 4 feet of snow in my front yard!

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Nick_R_23

I still have 4 feet of snow in my front yard!

Is it usually 8?

Man, on my way home I passed a field that had just been disked. NEVER seen that! Usually the ground is frozen or at least way too wet and soft from thawing. I see buds on the maples and the early flowers are popped up. Geese are also on the move. Oh, and State Troopers out in force along the interstate. Usually that's April, the first nice warm days when people day dream and their happy good feelings find them rolling faster than normal with your guard down.

All I know is I've been happy with myself getting a lot of little things fixed or improved in my house as a winter project. Trying to start a new year of not looking at what needs to be done but going ahead and getting it done. But now I feel like I'm behind with more to get done and now feeling it's time to start with yard work. I like to get the initial yard work done and out of the way soon as possible. Also, truck stuff. I got new wheels last fall figuring I'd wait till spring for tires. So is it spring? It's going to rain this weekend and I will start driving the '72...till they spread salt (maybe). So now it's "Gotta get the wheels powder coated" and "Gotta get me some tires" time when it's already "Gotta order standing seam roofing", "Gotta buy tile", "Gotta buy trim and paint", and "Gotta buy thumb latches and strap hinges" time.

I also have a couple bathroom jobs to start. I had hoped to already be on them (same house). Now I will be getting the Springtime type calls for outside type work, which is my forte and where I want to be...especially when we are having exceptionally nice weather.

I'm not complaining, I'm confused!!