We have had record low temps these past week and a lot of snow. I though I’d warm things up with a few car show photo I’ve been saving for such an occasion.
Click on any photo to enter the gallery.
2014-01-26 11.58.24
That’s right!!! 2clicksaway is 1 year old today! And to celebrate, here is a photo of your squinty eyed, snowbound author with some of his favorite snow removal equipment. For those uninitiated in the art of snow removal, let me explain what we need here in Webster (Where Life is Worth Living – except in winter) to clear snow from driveways and walkways. The big gas powered orange thing is a “snowblower” though it really doesn’t blow any snow but actually throws the snow, up to 20 feet. I only use it when there is too much snow to shovel, which is most days that it snows. The big blue shove is use to just push the snow around and the black scoop is used to remove the snow the blue shovel pushed around. The small gray shovel is used in tight spaces such as walkways and around the mailbox.
You need some warm, heavy duty cloths to operate this equipment, especially when the temperatures have been in the single digits every day as they have been. You need to wear snow pants, which fit over your regular pants, a face mask, scarf, two pairs of gloves, down jacket, hat and waterproof, heavy duty boots with good tread. It takes me almost as much time to get dressed as it does to clear the driveway, which can fit 6 Ford Focuses like mine or two normal sized cars.
Because there are only very limited number of places to put the snow you are removing, technique is very important once you are ready to start. After several years of experience, I have developed a technique that is easy, time efficient and effective. It involves all pieces of equipment and a lot of brute force. I start out by revving the snow blower engine as loud as it can in an effort to scare the snow away. This is fun but it seldom works. That’s where the brute force comes in. Once you start there are no breaks because it takes too long to take the outerwear off and put it back on again. When you’re finished you get a feeling of satisfaction for doing a good job. And then you get to do it all over again the next day because it’s been snowing every day.
cl!ck on any photo to enter the gallery.
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Before the ice age hit Webster. Well, to be honest, this beacon is in Irondequoit, a neighboring town next to Webster (Where Life is Worth Living). But I shot it in Webster.
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The Sea Breeze FD had an exercise on the ice at Irondequoit Bay yesterday as I happened by. They have a hovercraft they were trying out on the ice and water. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of this size and it seemed to maneuver very well on both ice and water. And pretty fast, too, though the gulls were faster.
You can see more fun on the ice here.
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procrastinate
The company that I once worked for was big on motivational posters. They were in every hallway, cafeteria and conference room. I’m not really sure how effective they were in keeping the workforce motivated but I enjoyed them for the stunning photography that was on some of the posters. A few years ago, Emo came out with a few “Motivational Posters for Underachievers” that sold very well to the crowd of people that buy motivational posters. They’re no longer available but he did accomplished his goal of selling enough posters to buy a lifetime supply of toys and Gerber Turkey Baby Food.
ouch
You can see another poster here and hear some great music here.
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This looked like an iceberg on the Lake. I took this just before the sun went down and I had to walk across the ice to get it. I’m guessing the ice is probably 2 feet thick at this point. I wasn’t worried about it breaking but it gets dark very fast this time of day and the temp dropped to 19° (F) just as fast. I took a few other shots but I didn’t wait around to see the sun go down.
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It’s 5° F as I write this (up from -4° from this morning and still better than Thule, Greenland’s -19°) so I thought I’d post something from last summer when you could walk on the beach in shorts and tee shirt. Instead of multiple layers of polar fleece and muklucks. It’s warmer in here already.
Some alert readers may have noticed something new about this blog today. It’s the addition of a new page and you can access it at the top of the page by hitting the “page 2” button. That’s right, I spent a lot of time looking for an appropriate name for the added page and “page 2” seemed, well, appropriate. The new page is a collection of photos posted here and at the old ONEOWNER blog in gallery format. Click on any image to enter the gallery. I’ll let readers know when I add more photos to the gallery. If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this, please let me know. I appreciate any feedback.
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I’m hoping to make some changes to the blog this year and I think they will take the form of added pages. One page will probably be a collection of photos that have been posted previously on this blog with no text. It’s in keeping with my thought that people should look at this blog for the photos primarily and read the post if they have the time to waste, similar to lighTscaTTer. I don’t plan on making any attempt to lure more readers here so my use of Categories and Tags will still be pathetic (even though the post with the most visits last year had Tags such as: iPad, iPhone, Justine Bieber, Kate Upton, Ford F150 and naked alpine skiers). I’ll still use numbers for each photo instead of names and I encourage all readers to assign any name they see fit if the numbering system is not sufficient. I will, however, put more effort into the post titles, as you can see with this post. Last year I was just stuck for the name for a post I just looked at the clock and used the time for the post title. I did convert it to 24 hour time as they do in the military, hoping folks would not catch on. I say all this to my shame but I promise thing will improve over the course of the year.
And now, on with the post:
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No, that’s not Santa Claus, but Webster (Where Life is Worth Living) sure feels like the North Pole. He is a member of an ice fishing party whose other members have the sense to stay in the “ice houses” when it’s 5° (F) and the wind is 30 mph. This was shot near the shore of Irondequoit Bay, which is frozen over enough to drive a Ford F150 over (thought I’d sneak that in there). A power auger is used to drill a hole in the ice and these stouthearted individuals will put their lines in the water in the hope of catching fish. It seems like torture to me but these folks actually have fun.
2clicksaway 