It was almost 40°F when I arrived at work. On the bright side, we're reporting nearly four feet of new snow for the storm total! I had been looking forward to a shift on the Ol' Hero Snow, but even the prodigious amount of snow from the third and final system of the train, couldn't absorb Friday's drenching by 11+ hours of rain. The piste was a cranky combination of good news and lumpy mashed potatoes...without the gravy to sweeten the pot.
The bounty of snow did wonderful things for us, another peak opened, and all those ponds, puddles and sinks are now buried bad memories. We ran three winchcat shifts, triple the pre-storm level. We would have done more winching save for some electrical gremlins that shut down the graveyard winch pilot after one new trail was opened.
My favorite old BR350 spilled it's guts three hours in, too...a blown tiller motor seal consumed most of my hydrostatic fluid, which I noticed as I made a three-point turn preparing to open another new trail...good thing too. I caught it just in the nick of time to successfully limp her back to the shop without running the pumps and motors dry.
My back-up cat had stereo issues...my final six hours were a tuneless, podcast-less drone, playing catch-up. The cavalry came at dawn and we knocked out the work orders by two minutes past opening time...acceptable given that it was mid-week...
The piste will dry while we wait for our old nemesis, the Blocking High to move away again...
I sought solace in some of my other passions...curiously bicycle racing isn't flicking my switch just yet...and I'm still numb from the 49ers' brutal loss in the NFC Championship Game.
However, baseball is on the near horizon! The San Francisco Giants came to terms with their ace, Tim Lincecum Tuesday. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in three weeks.
Motorsports kicks off it's 2012 Season this weekend in Daytona! The 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona Sports Car Endurance Race should be great.
The guy I'm trusting this season with his forecasts says Winter will come back about Daytona 500 time...Mid-February
First estimates say the Modern Warm Period is about to end. Our Sun is still loafing.
Formula One is just 51 days from it's first race of the season in Australia...the wait will be interesting...
Lottsa info in that post!
ReplyDeleteA. Let Timmy smoke, or anyone else for that matter.
B. The "Modern Warm Period" is an interesting description. Just 'how long" has this MWP been going on? 10,000 years? 10 years? With noticeable pronouncement since the Industrial Age?Ahh, that tricky Sun.
C. Making my plans to be "there" for the America's Cup Regatta. Probably stay ove in Marin. May actually apply for a job or a volunteer position.
When's the Lincoln Highway icon party? I'm in!
The MWP began when the Little Ice Age (1550's-1850's) ended, circa 1850's ~150 years
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