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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Wet Gloves

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Wet Gloves

by Anne Laurie|  January 27, 20154:43 pm| 126 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Weather extremist. RT @davidsirota: Waiting for God to be put on US govt's terrorists watch list for daring to attack America with snow.

— Billmon (@billmon1) January 26, 2015

How’s the shoveling in your area, if you can still lift your arms to type?

And can those of you who aren’t in the Northeast snow zone come up with any “funny” comments we haven’t already heard ten thousand times?

ETA:

I would watch a supercut of political pundits unironically complaining about meteorologists getting the forecast wrong get on it internet

— S.P. Sullivan (@spsullivan) January 27, 2015

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Previous Post: « Now That Wasn’t So Hard, Was It, Wingnuts
Next Post: The King Is Dead, the Kissing-Up Goes On »

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    Arclite

    January 27, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    No snow down here in Honolulu, although it’s cloudy and cool, and my windows don’t have any glass on them (typical for the islands) so I’m wearing a sweater.

  2. 2.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 4:47 pm

    Shovel and blow the snow westward please. As far as you can.

    Those damn big gummint weatherman at the National Weather Service predicted above normal rainfall through March for California. But January will be dry as a long dead Atacama desert bone. Drought panic is returning to CA.

    Edit: but we thank the diety of our choice for December 2014. Rained nearly every day, usually hard, and that was very good. Might save our bacon this year.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    Our “30% chance of showers” has devolved into a merely cloudy day, assuring January 2015 will notch a new record in the books as the historical driest. Local rainfall total: 0.01 inch. OTOH, from my Cow Hampshire bro: “As of 9 AM, if you looked out the back of my house, you’d say, not even six inches, what’s the big deal? On the other side, a three-foot retaining wall is no longer visible. I have no idea how much has come down, all I know is it ain’t stoppin’ any time soon.”

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 4:50 pm

    @jl:
    Not to worry, we can keep exploiting the aquifers and now, evidently, look into marketing the water to Iran and North Korea.

    One in four household water wells in parts of California’s Central Valley contains potentially harmful levels of uranium, a U.S. Geological Survey study said.

    The federal study attributed the higher-than-expected uranium levels to farming in the Central Valley, which is one of the country’s leading agricultural regions. Both heavy pumping of groundwater for irrigation, and man-made efforts to refill underground water aquifers, are leeching more naturally occurring uranium into underground water reserves used for drinking water supplies, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The increased presence of uranium is mainly a problem in the east and south of the valley, where agricultural use of groundwater is drawing more uranium-bearing sediment out of granite formations, said Bryant Jurgens, a research hydrologist at the geological survey’s Sacramento office.

    “Over time, it’s going to occupy a larger and larger portion of the aquifer,” Jurgens said of uranium-bearing groundwater. “So it is a concern.”

    One in four domestic wells in the eastern Central Valley, and one in five monitoring wells in agricultural areas of the valley, showed uranium at levels that would be unacceptable for public water systems, the study found. Exposure to uranium at concentrated levels increases the risk of cancer and can damage kidneys. The study, which calls the levels of uranium found in the California farm region’s private wells surprising, is part of a report rounding up nationwide testing of 6,600 wells that draw from the country’s main water aquifers.

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/01/26/3461408_private-wells-in-california-farm.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

    Drink up.

  5. 5.

    Tree With Water

    January 27, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    When a snowstorm like this hits somewhere outside California, I sometimes chuckle remembering a story I was once told by a guy who grew up in snow country. He swore that every winter there would be reports of family members assaulting and/or killing each other, all over fights about whose turn it was to shovel the snow, or haul the coal.

  6. 6.

    Violet

    January 27, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    Absolutely gorgeous in my neck of the woods. Weekend’s supposed to be wet and cold, though. I’m enjoying this weather now.

  7. 7.

    dedc79

    January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    The DC metro area got something between a dusting and one inch of snow, so naturally most suburban school systems were closed today.

  8. 8.

    SteverinoCT

    January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    It is still frickin’ snowing here in Groton, southeastern CT. We got a good two feet, and while the wind blasting around the cars scooped out a nice clear hole for them, the lee side was still covered and we had three-foot-plus deep snow for ten feet out to the street to shovel. Screw the sidewalk; we don’t have any kids around that need it to go to school.

    Now that the wind died down the lighter-but-still-significant snow is filling in what was blown clear; but an inch or two in the AM is but a swipe, relatively speaking.

  9. 9.

    Dr. Dave

    January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    With dark encroaching, shoveling is done for now, and we just got word that schools are closed again tomorrow to give us all here in RI another day to dig out.

    Speaking of school, my school hit the social media jackpot today by announcing yesterday’s school closing with a parody video of Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen that got picked up by several national media outlets. Headmaster is lip-syncing to the choir director singing lyrics written by the public relations director. Over 300,000 views the last time I checked. (ETA: now almost 400,000) (Cynics and haters of Disney have been warned not to follow the link.)

  10. 10.

    Violet

    January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    Has anyone seen efgoldman check in? He was worried about the storm last night. I hope they’re doing okay.

  11. 11.

    chopper

    January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    @trollhattan:

    We’re an amazing species, aren’t we?

  12. 12.

    Steeplejack

    January 27, 2015 at 4:54 pm

    The big blizzard turned into a big bust here in NoVA, despite the hard sell from the TV weather people. The snow came later than predicted, and there was less of it than predicted. I got 1.7" in my immediate environs. I was out and about today, and the roads were clear and the snow is already melting a bit. The snowflakes last night were small and sleety, so it didn’t make for a deep blanket.

    The forecast for the next week looks clear, although slightly colder than usual. It’s 31° now, going down to 18° tonight.

  13. 13.

    MomSense

    January 27, 2015 at 4:55 pm

    I tried shoveling but all my labored were undone by the wind in less than an hour. I’m just going to wait until it stops.

    The pup is not a fan of howling winds. Poor thing is exhausted from trying to get through the snow to pee. I just switched from tea to wine and am enjoying reading a book by the fire. So far a very civilized blizzard.

  14. 14.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 4:55 pm

    @jl: I haven’t followed closely, but isn’t the Sierra snowpack screwed up somewhat by the unusually warm weather in the Sierras? That is, we got a lot of rain but not enough of it is in frozen form?

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 4:55 pm

    Dogs, dogs, dogs. Get your fill of dog photos with this gallery. Among the best I’ve ever seen.

  16. 16.

    Tree With Water

    January 27, 2015 at 4:55 pm

    Question: “Marshawn, how does it feel to be in beast mode”?

    Answer: “I don’t feel in beast mode”.

    Unforgettable…

  17. 17.

    Pogonip

    January 27, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    @Arclite: What? It’s NOT snowing in Honolulu? That’s odd.

  18. 18.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Large agricultural wells in the Central Valley are over a thousand feet deep now. That is hard for me to comprehend. Use to be, 200 feet was a deep well. I am interested in the water recharge angle, since if trends continue (and they will, given climate change) we will have to build systems that capture rainfall more than snow and store it underground in southern San Joaquin Valley and Kern Basin. I guess those artificially recharged aquifers require pumping water down deep too, into bedrock.

    Central Valley Farmers Drill Deep To Defeat Drought
    CBS
    April 13, 2014 10:08 AM
    http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/04/13/california-farmers-drill-drought/

  19. 19.

    SenyorDave

    January 27, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    Regarding deflategate. Someone said that at the end of the day all you have is your integrity. Bellichek and Kraft don’t need to worry about that. Cheating is just that. Its not gamesmanship, its cheating. In the financial world, it would unacceptable, like insider trading or corporate espionage. And for Kraft to demand an apology, that’s just too surreal.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 4:59 pm

    @Goblue72:
    Yup. The December storms (remember those?) were warm so delivered more rain than snow–at present the Northern Sierra snowpack water content is 27% of normal and the Southern Sierra is 24%.

  21. 21.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 4:59 pm

    We got an unexpected day of rain here in OC yesterday. Was nice. Now back to 75 degrees and brilliant blue sky. Shite.

  22. 22.

    aimai

    January 27, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    I don’t know how much snow we got officially. It looked like maybe 16 inches to me when I was shoveling. My daughter and I managed to dig us out in record time but I am really tired. The worst was digging out to the street–its not a big distance since we are in an urban location but the snowplows had piled up icy snow blocks about 3.5 feet high there.

  23. 23.

    Pogonip

    January 27, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    @Violet: I went and got my purse today, my son was worrying about me being arrested and I didn’t want to ruin his whole week.

    (I’m a 55-year-old white female, I could probably disrobe in public and not be noticed, but he doesn’t get that. He’s autistic and all he knew was I was breaking the rules, driving without my license!

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 5:03 pm

    Just wondering: is there any “food” product in the history of the world more disgusting than marshmallow Fluff?

  25. 25.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    @trollhattan: We need a Keystone pipeline for water.

  26. 26.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    @Goblue72: Yes. It was better than previous years through December, since a lot of big storms and the snow was very heavy Sierra cement that will stay there until spring melt, rather than sublimating in warm spring. But the snowline is very high. As I told raven, it looks very strange: good snow down to edge of ski resorts and snow trails, and then suddenly nothing, and everything below still looks like October. Both things are due to a very warm winter.

    If things do not change, it will be as bad as last year. Check out the handy dandy regional daily snow conditions graphs, if you dare.

    http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snowsurvey_sno/PLOT_SWC

  27. 27.

    raven

    January 27, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    @jl: Ugh.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    @jl:
    The organized effort I know of is the Kern Water Bank, which uses injection wells and recharge basins. They’re a little….controversial though.

    Will venture to guess that depletion of really deep aquifers is going to be a one-time deal, as it would be expensive (energy costs) to reinject water to a thousand feet. There’s the question of whether substrate compaction would even allow it, but that’s something for the hydrogeos to ponder (one of which I are not).

  29. 29.

    Belafon

    January 27, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Drink up.

    Humans aren’t going to mutate themselves.

  30. 30.

    raven

    January 27, 2015 at 5:08 pm

    @trollhattan: Oh, I’ll never swim Kern River again

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 5:08 pm

    As I suspected, the job I interviewed for has been filled and I was not called back for a second interview even though the manager who interviewed me talked about it. So that sucks, and now I think she’s kind of an asshole for talking about the second interview when she knew she wasn’t going to call me for one. So the job search is back to square one.

    ETA: And, as I was posting that, the internal recruiter called me back about a resume I sent in for another position. Getting back on the horse.

  32. 32.

    SWMBO

    January 27, 2015 at 5:09 pm

    @Pogonip: My son was diagnosed with autism when he was 4. When he got older, they changed it to Atypical Psychosis NOS. He freaks out over stuff like that too. Your son probably freaked out over going to get it without your license too. I’m a 58 year old white female and let me tell you, you can’t disrobe in public. They will arrest you for being a public nuisance. Or littering. Or something. Just for Gawd’s sake, put your clothes back on!

  33. 33.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    @Goblue72:
    We should get on that, and from the same country that so badly wants to build that puke funnel.

    Hellllooooo, British Columbia! Admit it, you always wanted to be the fifty-first state anyway, right?

  34. 34.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    @raven:

    ” Ugh.”

    Truer words never spoken.

    Trollhatten: what else will work? Not enough good places for more reservoir storage, even if we wanted to go that route.

  35. 35.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    January 27, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    @burnspbesq: No. You’re welcome.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 27, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    I would watch a supercut of political pundits unironically complaining about meteorologists getting the forecast wrong get on it interne

    kind of relevant… Last night Letterman had Nicole Wallace on his show (for the less obsessive: second tier Bush-McCain operative who turned on Princess Dumbass for that book and then the HBO movie). She’s still a true believer in Bush, who tried his best (she said that at least twice) and Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney knew what they were getting in to in Iraq, they all knew the region and they knew it would be difficult (weeks, maybe months, not years… greeted as liberators… MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!). At one point she said we had to remember Bush governed at a difficult time. Letterman grabbed his desk, kind of sank forward slowly… I’m tempted to think he was thinking the exact same thing I was “HE MADE THE TIMES DIFFICULT YOU FUCKING MORON!”. He took a deep breath and retreated to a joke, but he gave her more pushback than any of her ilk would get on a Sunday morning.

    Larry Willmore’s show was pretty depressing, too.

  37. 37.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:14 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Letterman did not say “Well… isn’t Cheney kind of a thug… really?”

    I heard him say that a couple of times back in the Bush days. Maybe Letterman has mellowed, or is just too tired of the BS to react right before he retires.

  38. 38.

    raven

    January 27, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: She’s a regular on Mornin Joe and a true shit-eatin-dog-fucker.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 27, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    @jl: and her defense was, he’s very soft-spoken, I’ve never heard him raise his voice to anyone. So never mind your waterboarding and such.

    Reminds me of the wing nuts who would defend the Turd Blossom by pointing out earnestly, often indignantly, that Karl Rove is a Tea Totaller!

    ETA @ raven- I don’t watch that show, too early, but it’s just galling that a cranky old comedian/talk show host has a better grasp on the issues and history than the Grand Poobahs who gather to do the Dance of Self-Satisfaction with the Squint.

  40. 40.

    Violet

    January 27, 2015 at 5:18 pm

    @efgoldman: Glad you are doing okay.

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    January 27, 2015 at 5:19 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    That sucks. My brother’s husband, who recently got a business degree after going back to college, applied for some position at the Newseum downtown, had an interview and got a decision (negative, unfortunately) in pretty good time—only a few days after the date they told him they would contact him by.

    In this day of instant e-mail and automated everything, I really don’t understand the epidemic of companies just completely ignoring people who have applied for jobs and gone at least part way through the interviewing/hiring process. The last time I was responsible for any substantial hiring was in the early ’90s, and even then it was trivially easy to set up a mail-merge list of people and run it through a personalized form letter with a word processor. Hell, we even had to pay for paper and postage. Now you don’t even have to do that.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    January 27, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    @Pogonip: Good for you. Better safe than sorry.

  43. 43.

    FlyingToaster

    January 27, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    @burnspbesq: Invented in Somerville!

    Oh, I can think of 15 or 16 more disgusting things I’ve eaten. Most of them at church pot lucks or at my Brownie leader’s house (she was a Mormon).

    Gefilte fish from a jar, too.

  44. 44.

    Iowa Old Lady

    January 27, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    @burnspbesq: “Cheese” in a spray can?

  45. 45.

    FlyingToaster

    January 27, 2015 at 5:23 pm

    @efgoldman: According to UHub, the Dunks in DTX was open. But none in Watertown — I guess that requires a Tsarnaev.

  46. 46.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    @trollhattan: When I lived in Seattle, everyone joked that California better not try to invade for our water.

    My response was Cali didn’t need to invade, they’d just secretly colonize offering farm to table restaurants, boutique clothing shops and fancy cocktails – just like they already secured a colony in Oregon called Portland.

  47. 47.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    @trollhattan: Actually, one thing that would help would be for California cities, particularly Northern Californian cities, to recycle more water. They flush a huge amount of water run into the ocean, both rain runoff and what they get from water projects.

    San Diego is far ahead in conserving the water it uses, and LA catching up.

    That is not nearly enough to save California agriculture, but would make a big difference to city and suburban people during droughts.
    By now, it should be clear that there is no excuse that waste. But, hey, that’s economics, it is Northern California’s water, they get it dirt cheap, and they waste it more than in other parts of the state.

    Edit: saw a report about this on the TV, so don’t have a link.

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    @jl:
    Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know. We’re only just now (since 2014) going to begin monitoring all our groundwater basins so after a century of exploiting them we have to find out what’s what. It’s been an expensive free ride in the meantime. The farmers can calculate well yields and the energy costs to lift water a thousand feet, but they’re not so good at determining at what point the water is so contaminated it’s useless for irrigation or consumption. Has already happened many places.

    To your point, there’s limited unexploited surface capacity for capturing runoff in wet years, but we have to develop some anyway. Sites Reservoir will probably be built and something south of the Delta as well (Temperance Flat?) Even a couple million acre-feet more does nothing to offset smaller and smaller snowpacks, which is the biggest looming direct consequence of climate change. Ironically, the odds of monster storms and historic floods is the other side of the climate coin. And here I am, living at sixteen feet a mile from a river.

  49. 49.

    WereBear

    January 27, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: You can’t get sense into a head that ejects it.

    Wingnut mind: Poor W! He had a terrorist attack (that he was warned about and ignored) and that expensive war (which he lied us into) and deficit worries (he had a freakin- SURPLUS!)

    BTW, that’s a pretty good Wingnut Derailer… Democrats created a budget surplus. What happened to it?

    We got a few inches of snow, no big deal. I’m probably going to be on another round of antibiotics because I still feel like freeze-dried crap.

  50. 50.

    Pogonip

    January 27, 2015 at 5:27 pm

    @SWMBO: @SWMBO: They were always on. It’s January!

  51. 51.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 5:27 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: Vegemite.

  52. 52.

    Davis X. Machina

    January 27, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    20″ of light and fluffy. Blowing all over the place. 3″ inches in some places — from Friday — the only ground cover, other places, up over the mailboxes.

    Wicked wind, though, you can hear the trees working. Sounds like a fat giant shifting in a rattan chair.

  53. 53.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    @trollhattan: Eleven trillion gallons down and going ever deeper in debt!

    Edit: unless the predictions of heavier than usual rain come true in Feb and March, state will build temporary dams in delta to try to stop salt water intrusion from SF Bay. Heard that on the news this morning.

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    @jl:
    Other than select coastal enclaves I’m not concerned cities aren’t going to get water and you’re exactly right, the use per resident can drop a lot further. You can charge two grand per acre-foot in the city but you won’t be raising alfalfa with it.

    I’m ripping out our lawn once I have the money for the landscaping.

  55. 55.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 5:30 pm

    @burnspbesq: Same here in Blue Jay, although we did see the snowplows go past around 3pm yesterday, probably on their way to Big Bear.

  56. 56.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 5:30 pm

    @jl: I’m not sure how much more conserving can be squeezed out of SF and Oakland. SF uses less water per capita than any other major city in the state.

  57. 57.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 5:32 pm

    @aimai: Yeah, they do that at our cabin. It’s bad enough that they bury the cars, but after one particularly bad storm that dumped 5 feet of snow the plows buried our little garage that sits almost at the street. The driver wouldn’t make eye contact with us.

  58. 58.

    Nicole

    January 27, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Question for BJ’ers who may have gone through this- my aunt died last year, and as one of her two closest living relatives, I’m in charge of getting her final taxes done. I’m trying to total her health care expenditures, but we can’t find some credit card statements, and things like that. Does anyone know if insurance companies will send complete statements of copays for a year, or something like that?

  59. 59.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:34 pm

    @Goblue72: SF residents have been good citizens in reducing individual use. But I am talking about waste water and rain runoff that is not captured. I don’t think that is counted in conservation efforts of individuals and industry.

    Each sector uses about 10% of controlled water, so every little bit will help them a lot, but won’t do much of anything to help ag.

  60. 60.

    FlyingToaster

    January 27, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    @efgoldman: Safer to make my own, grate my own horseradish. You’re right about the cocktail sauce; HerrDoktor and his sister both make a good one, but the jarred one is fine.

    I lived in Somerville for 15 years; they have a Fluff festival. Fluffernutter is the official sandwich (which you can’t take to school, alas).

  61. 61.

    FlyingToaster

    January 27, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Well, we seem to have had 20″ thus far, and Watertown has kept the thru-streets plowed (where our driveway is behind a 3′ x 3′ x 18′ berm now), but the side streets (where our front door and mailbox are), well, not so much.

    People are out starting to punch through the plow walls, but I refuse to until the accumulation stops (slated for after 9pm, right now; snow stopping altogether by 2am).

    No school tomorrow, but about half of the businesses are opening by noon.

    Our Republican Governor may be an awkward tool (see clothing choices at press conferences, natch), but he did the right thing by closing the roads for the day. By Thursday, everyone but Nantucket will be open and back to normal.

  62. 62.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    @Goblue72: That’s kind of what they did, too.

    So many people I meet are from SoCal. My cell phone has a 714 prefix and it’s surprising how many people look at that and ask if I live in Orange County, and then tell me that they used to live there or somewhere nearby.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:42 pm

    @Goblue72: @jl:
    Dual-plumbing is pretty cheap to add to new construction (and should be code IMHO) but difficult and expensive to retrofit. With it, one can irrigate the yard with recycled water and/or separate their grey and blackwater drains, recycling the greywater for irrigation. If a city develops and delivers recycled water to the street, it’s not that hard to plumb it into the existing irrigation, although you’re supposed to use purple piping.

    Capturing runoff is good for two reasons–gaining a water source and reducing non-point source pollution. Hopefully we’ll see more of that in the future.

    But without reducing/eliminating ag water subsidies we will never truly “fix” things.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 5:43 pm

    @FlyingToaster:

    By Thursday, everyone but Nantucket will be open and back to normal.

    Writing limericks?

  65. 65.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 5:46 pm

    @jl: That was the way it was when we lived in the SF area, in the east bay, but they all groused about SoCal wasting water. I learned to just say Hetch-Hetchy to them. It shut up most of them.

    The state has had a longterm feud with farmers over water usage and rates; the farmers got a sweetheart deal for generations, the water was so cheap it was nearly free, and they wasted it by flooding their fields and other watering methods. I remember flying from Oakland to Ontario and seeing what looked like a mirror below me; it took me a minute to realize it was water in orchards, and the mirror spread for miles.

  66. 66.

    Shana

    January 27, 2015 at 5:46 pm

    @Nicole: Not sure, but I went through finishing up stuff for my dad last year and I found people were very accommodating when I asked about stuff. You may need to send a copy of the death certificate as proof, but they should be able to help you out. Probably also a copy of relevant pages from the will showing that you’re executor of the estate.

  67. 67.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    @trollhattan:

    ” But without reducing/eliminating ag water subsidies we will never truly “fix” things. ”

    When travelling back to my ancestral stomping grounds, I still see waste. Like the most wasteful forms of flood irrigation for, say… an almond orchard. And I think “Well, that guy got his allocation, what does he care?”.

  68. 68.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 5:50 pm

    @opiejeanne: Won’t see those mirrors much anymore where people have to pay because they are not getting their allocation, or have to think about things because they are not getting their full allocation. They will put out for drip system, or time and monitor the flooding very closely. But where people can get all the cheap water they want like they used to, you will still see that.

    Edit: if you want to make a profit by selling cheap water in fruit form (rather than actual fruit that tastes like something), flooding the hell out of thirsty trees shortly before harvest is a good approach. That business model will disappear eventually.

  69. 69.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 27, 2015 at 5:52 pm

    Less than a foot of snow here in western Mass but the wind is still howling and it is very cold.
    BTW why not even a single thread about the President’s India trip? Surely it was more important than the Steve King horror show in Iowa?

  70. 70.

    Mary G

    January 27, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    @Nicole: Many insurance companies offer that online now. You will probably have to contact them to get access, but it shouldn’t be too hard.

  71. 71.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 27, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    @efgoldman: Fine out here, thanks. Kind of hard to measure accurately, but 18-20″ is what it seems like. Light and fluffy, though, so no big deal shoveling, although it was several hours, and the big mound at the end of the driveway took a while.

    Electricity has stayed on, so it was a peaceful day. According to the news, the driving ban is lifted at 8:00 pm today, but we don’t have any place to go. Have plenty of everything.

  72. 72.

    Mike in NC

    January 27, 2015 at 5:56 pm

    I was working my first job after college in Cambridge, MA when the Great Blizzard of ’78 struck. Had I stayed another 10 minutes, I’d have never made it home that night. Don’t miss that stuff at all.

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 5:57 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I think they’re all afraid of being sued, which is particularly silly in this case since it’s an internal process. I already work for them!

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 27, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    @burnspbesq: Ever had a Taiwanese preserved plum?

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    @Nicole:

    I don’t have any direct experience, but I would definitely recommend filing for an extension. April seems like it’s forever away right now, but it can take a surprisingly long time to get all of the pieces pulled together. You will definitely need a copy of the death certificate and possibly something showing that you’re one of the executors.

  76. 76.

    delk

    January 27, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    Whenever it is 50 degrees below zero and snowy in Chicago and somebody from California makes some crack about wearing shorts on their balcony, I take a nice two hour shower.

  77. 77.

    gogol's wife

    January 27, 2015 at 6:02 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Lucky you. The man we pay to plow our driveway did come in the middle of the night, but he needs to come again and hasn’t. I’m not sure we’ll be able to get out tomorrow morning for work.

  78. 78.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 27, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    @gogol’s wife: How much snow did you get?

  79. 79.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    “Cheese” in a spray can?

    That’s a weapon (or a sex toy), not food.

  80. 80.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    @jl: tell ya what, I will trade NorCal recycling more water for SoCal just using a lot less of it.

  81. 81.

    gogol's wife

    January 27, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It looks like 2 feet to me. I can’t stand to watch weather on TV so I’m not sure.

  82. 82.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    @jl: like San Diego, which uses 10 times as much water per capita as SF – http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1105-california-water-20141106-story.html

    Glass houses and stones and all that. Gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    January 27, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    @efgoldman: Great to see you here, electrified and all. Best to you and Mrs. ef.

    The Marine def deserves some cookies. Semper fi!

  84. 84.

    gogol's wife

    January 27, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    Oh goody, he’s here.

  85. 85.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 27, 2015 at 6:10 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Do you have a yard stick? You can measure it yourself.

  86. 86.

    Tree With Water

    January 27, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    “Weather extremist. RT @davidsirota: Waiting for God to be put on US govt’s terrorists watch list for daring to attack America with snow”.

    It’ll never happen, if only because snow is white.

    An angry Lenny Bruce (according to Lenny Bruce) shouting at his leaking toilet: “It’s a good thing you’re white!”

  87. 87.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 6:13 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    If you have a 714 cell number, that marks you as a OC OG. I don’t think it’s been possible to get a 714 cell number since the 657 overlay went into effect.

    People are funny about their cell numbers. I know a lot of people who have held onto their original cell number after cross-country moves because it’s a reminder of “home.” A former boss of mine who has lived in the NY area since 2006 still has a 415 cell number, and a guy I work with who lives in San Diego still has his 516. If I’d gotten my first cell phone when I still lived in the 201, I might still have that number, cuz I’m 201 fa life.

  88. 88.

    Anne Laurie

    January 27, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Because it’s so light & fluffly, a lot of our snow is going sideways right now… I was shovelling our steps & it seemed like half of every shovelful blew right back at me. Boston Globe says it’s officially #7 on the list of worst storms since 1935, but it’s still coming down & may rise another notch or so.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 27, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    @burnspbesq: gimme a good old fashioned Murray Hill-7 exchange

  90. 90.

    Goblue72

    January 27, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    @trollhattan: The Bay Area IS pursuing purple pipe – http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Recycled-water-systems-ripple-out-in-Bay-Area-3185208.php

    And recycling water – http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26160300/california-drought-san-joses-new-high-tech-water

    Sacramento is whole other story though.

  91. 91.

    JPL

    January 27, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    @burnspbesq: I’m not a fluff fan but this dip for fruit is really good..

    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fruit-dip-ii/

    I had a little bit of nutmeg and cinnamon though.

  92. 92.

    Jebediah, RBG

    January 27, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    @trollhattan:
    wow – what a great bunch of pictures!

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @Goblue72:

    That article says that it’s not the location, it’s the affluence. Compton residents use 49 gallons per day; Beverly Hills residents use over 250 gallons per day.

    If not for the rich fuckers using more than their share to keep their lawns green, we’d be doing fine in So Cal:

    Tuesday’s data showed that, on average, Southern California residents used 119 gallons per person a day — the fourth-lowest average among 10 regions the water board tracked.

  94. 94.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The exchanges in the town in NJ where I grew up were all 44x or 652. Nobody I know was ever able to find out who GIlbert or OLiver were.

  95. 95.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 27, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Seems like you got really pelted. Wouldn’t it be better to shovel until after it stops snowing?

  96. 96.

    gogol's wife

    January 27, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I’m trying to pretend it’s not there. What’s on top of the table on the deck looks very much like two feet.

  97. 97.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 27, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    That’s a weapon (or a sex toy)

    Kinky, Burnsy.

  98. 98.

    jl

    January 27, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    @Goblue72:

    Those are individual water districts, which can be quite small and serve both residential and agricultural communities. I looked up two. Santa Fe is a small one that serves a very wealthy unincorporated suburban area.. Rainbow is just south of Camp Pendleton. If you look up per capita consumption for urban areas, not individual districts, I think you will find much smaller differentials.

    Thanks for info you posted on recycling and consevation projects in SF Bay Area. I will read them.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    January 27, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @trollhattan:
    If you’re just using the aquifer for storage, you don’t necessarily need to fill it all the way up. You just recharge it when you have water and deplete it when you need water and let the details of where all the water goes take care of themselves. You just have to be careful that you aren’t trying to take out more than you put in.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    I still have a 310 cell number, which they will pry out of my cold, dead hands.

  101. 101.

    trollhattan

    January 27, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    In light of yesterday’s vaccination/Waldorf discussion, new stats unveiled this afternoon for the forthcoming fall 2015 kindergarten class re. number of kids taking the California “personal belief exemption”:

    My kid’s former k-6 school–2 of 92 enrolees
    The local private Waldorf k-8 school–9 out of 29
    The city district “Waldorf-inspired” k-8 school–20 out of 62
    The Very Expensive private school–3 of 23
    The fundy “Capital Christian” school–5 out of 48
    Across the river at trendy Davis Waldorf–17 of 37. Nearly half–a mindboggling figure. No excuse for that in a university town.

    For the first time I’m relieved to have a middle-schooler, insta-opinions and all.

  102. 102.

    burnspbesq

    January 27, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    On the other hand, I seem to recall folks from Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank stampeding the cell phone stores after the 818/626 split, so that they could prove that they weren’t from the Valley.

  103. 103.

    gogol's wife

    January 27, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Wow, there are a few in there for Betty.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 27, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    It was partly that, but there were also a lot of folks in San Gabriel who were unhappy because 8 is a much luckier number than 6.

    (Pasadena is 626 — Burbank/Glendale stayed 818.)

  105. 105.

    Bjacques

    January 27, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    MUgwump-4

  106. 106.

    Roger Moore

    January 27, 2015 at 6:40 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I’m ripping out our lawn once I have the money for the landscaping.

    Check to see if your local water district has rebates. I think you can get about $3/sqft around here for replacing your lawn with drought tolerant plants.

  107. 107.

    Roger Moore

    January 27, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Just wondering: is there any “food” product in the history of the world more disgusting than marshmallow Fluff?

    Dancing shrimp. Three squeaks.

  108. 108.

    JustRuss

    January 27, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    No snow here in the Willamette Valley, but plenty of fog. Was riding my bike home about 9:00 last night, and the streets were almost empty of cars, just a foggy darkness with isolated street lights. Quite creepy.

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    January 27, 2015 at 7:02 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    On the other hand, I seem to recall folks from Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank stampeding the cell phone stores after the 818/626 split, so that they could prove that they weren’t from the Valley.

    I have trouble believing that, especially because there weren’t enough cell phone users back then to cause much of a stampede. I do remember a lot of dismayed Chinese people who preferred the numerology of 818 to 626 and wanted the split to go the other way. I wonder if some of them sneak over to The Valley to get lucky phone numbers, or if they want the regional identity of 626.

  110. 110.

    shelley

    January 27, 2015 at 7:09 pm

    @efgoldman: Aaah. That was never the Postal Service’s official motto. It was a poem that was chiseled into the front of Manhattan’s main post office.

  111. 111.

    shelley

    January 27, 2015 at 7:11 pm

    Here in Northern NJ and NYC, we were spared the worst of SNOWPACOLYPSE! Should have guessed. The Weather Channel was all over Boston yesterday; barely a mention of the rest of the NE

  112. 112.

    Roger Moore

    January 27, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    @shelley:

    It was a poem that was chiseled into the front of Manhattan’s main post office.

    It may have been chiseled into the front of Manhattan’s main post office, but it’s actually a famous quote from Herodotus describing the Persian royal messenger system.

  113. 113.

    Nicole

    January 27, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Thanks, guys; that’s helpful advice.

    Oh, and being in Manhattan, we got our six inches and that was it. Kid had a good day off school, though. :)

  114. 114.

    Citizen Scientist

    January 27, 2015 at 7:39 pm

    We ended up with about 5-inches total over two days in SEPA. Just a fair amount of wind now, but the sun came out today and promises to be out most of tomorrow. I’m definitely getting in a run before work, though i’ll break my pledge to not run when the temps are below 30F.

  115. 115.

    Tenar Darell

    January 27, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    I figure the snow is somewhere between 31-28 inches deep in my south shore MA area. I cleared the porch and a path to the cars as well as digging out the drift that ate half my car so that the exhaust was clear. It was at least 4 feet high. But my plow guy blew his transmission, so the 4 or 5 foot snow bank between the end of the driveway and the street is still there. I’ll probably be able to flag someone down pretty easily tomorrow, but it’s a pain when this happens. No teenagers roaming around with shovels or their Dads’ snow owners here either.

  116. 116.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    @burnspbesq: That’s right, it’s OC (What’s OG?)
    it’s a cell # from when we moved back to SoCal. We were renting a place in Buena Park while we hunted for a house and then waited for escrow to close. The last place we lived was in Anaheim, 4 years ago. No idea what the area code is now, but it was a 714 number too, from 2003.

  117. 117.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We had an Edgewood-3 number when I was a kid. When they added area codes (I’m really old) we had 213 for years.

  118. 118.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    @burnspbesq: My grandmother had an exchange that was Capitol-2, and told the story about a man asking her how to make a capital 2.

  119. 119.

    FlyingToaster

    January 27, 2015 at 8:41 pm

    @trollhattan:

    By Thursday, everyone but Nantucket will be open and back to normal.

    Writing limericks?

    Not all of us are Irish. Nor poets.

    “Ah, Boston, the land of the salt and the cod. Where Cabots speak only to Lowells, and Lowells speak only to God.”

    I learned that in Sydney.

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    January 27, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    @burnspbesq: I worked as a seasonal clerk at very nice store in the South Coast Plaza, and I remember one of the women at the training session referring to people with non-714 area codes as if they were human scum, you know, people from Riverside and Chino and Pomona. I looked her in the eye and said that area was ALL 714 long before Orange County (especially South County) got it. Pissed me right off.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 27, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    @FlyingToaster: I challenge anyone to write a non-obscene limerick using the word “Nantucket.”

  122. 122.

    JPL

    January 27, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Well they are using buckets.
    (maybe that will help someone get their mind out of the gutter)

  123. 123.

    Bob In Portland

    January 27, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    Ukraine is coming apart. The world is due for a big false flag.

  124. 124.

    SteverinoCT

    January 27, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I had long heard the Nantucket limerick as the series of three in the History section of this entry:
    There once was a man from Nantucket

  125. 125.

    Central Planning

    January 27, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    That’s right, it’s OC (What’s OG?)

    Original Gangsta, yo!

    ETA: that’s probably the only gangsta thing I know.

  126. 126.

    hgag1314

    January 28, 2015 at 1:23 am

    I had long heard the Nantucket limerick as the series of three in the History section of this entry.
    http://www.fairbuying.com/

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