Newscrawl for Friday 16 Dec

[infrogmation]

Happy Birthday to mshollie, who was wondering if my lemon tree survived the storm. Yes, it did, and still has some lemons on it. I can leave them on it 'til the first freeze.

Still no sign of freezing weather here, fortunately (so many people without utilities working or major holes in their homes still). But I'm bumed out about canceling my planned trip to Austin after the weekend, as my friend there says ice storms are expected. I have stuff there I need to get; I'm having my friend FedEx the more important of it. I'd been hoping to get back to Austin before, but I was pretty much occupied the whole time trying to get roofers then finally getting my roof fixed. As I have no experience driving in ice or snow, and don't wish to have my first try at it at the end of an all day drive, I ponder with displeasure that I may not make it back 'til spring.

In the good news, WWOZ is finally back in New Orleans, in French Quarter studios in a French Market Corporation building-- I dunno how long this situation will last. I did my first shift there today, the 2nd day of broadcasting from back in town. We have 2 cd players, a cassette deck, and a microphone; about a hundred cds-- djs are encouraged to bring their own stuff. No phone in the studio yet. Hey, but I remember the early days of the station in the early '80s, and in a number of ways it's already better than what we had then. Perhaps the strangest part is no phone; no listener feedback at all. I ran into someone in the Quarter right afterwards who knew me and complimented the show.

Well, after the radio show I went over to the Jazz Park where Lars Edegran led an absolutely great band doing Christmas music in traditional New Orleans jazz style. The playing was just splendid.

Lots of places in the Quarter still aren't open, and many that are look like they're struggling. Though more folks were shopping today, as we have a 3 day "tax holiday", everything is 4% less the state sales tax through Sunday. Many people are taking advantage of it.

A heavy rain storm yesterday night wound up re-flooding a number of streets including key intersections.

New Orleans has long had a "third world" aspect (an artist friend long ago said that the city was the capital of a small Carribean nation that somehow never came into being), but moreso recently. It also now is a curious combination of a sophisticated world-class city abandoned by 2/3 of its population, a wild frontier town, and a devastated ruin. Sometimes combined. In a few places, one can see all those aspects by turning around at a single intersection.

Comments

Freeze Drived

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Driving on ice-- I'd been wondering about that anyway. I guess it's something common in the more frozen parts of the country, but it's something others of us are quite ignorant of. It's something I've heard is dangerous if you don't know how to do it. Is driving on ice something that is part of drivers education classes up North, or is it some esoteric skill only learned with coaching and hazardous practice?

Re: Freeze Drived

[iayork.livejournal.com]

Driving on ice is something you learn by trial and error, in my experience. There is a Canadian tradition of taking your car to big empty parking lots, after a snow- or icestorm, and "doing doughnuts" (spinning the car around in circles), which helps you learn about skids and steering -- but mostly it's fun to spin your car around in circles.

WWOZ supposedly has MP3 streaming going, though I'm not getting anything now (not complaining, just commenting). (Er, and a further glance at the schedule explains why nothing is coming in, on a Saturday at 8:30 AM Eastern. Duh.) When is your show? I'll try to listen in.

Re: Freeze Drived

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

'OZ should be streaming, but as things are still rather jury-rigged it may be up and down for a while.

Whatever the supposed schedual, for a bit it will be mostly fill ins of whoever is avaible, as someone doing something live on the air is the imediate goal (for a while the signal from Baton Rouge seems to have relied on a multiple cd automatic shuffle); it'll take a little bit for a regular programers schedual to shake back out again.

Re: Freeze Drived

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

My friend in Austin says while it often happens a couple times a winter there, no one knows how to drive on it so the city pretty much shuts down in ice or snow.

Re: Freeze Drived

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The right car also helps. Unfortunately there's a major tradeoff between fuel efficiency and ice/snow handling, because you want a relatively heavy car for traction; the brakes will lock up in a split second on little ones. Snow tires also help.

A lot of it is just keeping your speed way, way down (no matter how much it pisses off idiots), as much space for stopping as you can eke out, and a light foot on the brake; knowing how to recover when you start to skid; and being experienced enough not to panic.

Re: Freeze Drived

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

you want a relatively heavy car for traction

Thinking about it some more, this may not be true in general; smaller cars would presumably need less frictional force in the brakes in the first place, so if the brakes are properly designed they might not be any more prone to locking up (though this is certainly not the case for Sam's little Sentra). I get the feeling the physics is complicated.

Re: Freeze Drived

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Also, a major aid to survival is just watching the weather and having both the luxury and fortitude to say "forget it, I'm not going out there."

Re: Freeze Drived

[entheos93.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it is part of Drivers Ed in other parts of the country. I flunked the Oregon drivers test the other day (one reason being that they didn't tell me there would be a test) because I missed the questions concerning snow and ice.
The basic idea is that if you skid, you're supposed to try as hard as you can to not brake, but to steer back on track, with only light punping of the brakes. There's a bunch of other details concerning whether the car is manual or auto. You'll also need to know the local laws about snow chains, studded tires, and the weight and class of vehicles.
I would imagine that no matter what info is given in the drivers' handbook, it really is something you learn with coaching and practice.