Ramblings on Dumbass Drunk Drivers!!!

Howdy Folks,

Hope you all are doing well... I am PISSED right now at Dumb Ass Drunk Drivers... I mean who the heck is drunk on a Sunday afternoon at 5 pm??? Get in rehab you idiot!!!

Well before I get ahead of myself, maybe a little explaining is needed...

I was enjoying Sunday afternoon with my family and my wife wanted to visit her Grandpa who is in hospice. Keep him in your prayers if that is your thing, they would be appreciated. Anyway, after that we decided to get a bite to eat. We were waiting at a stoplight for the light to turn green when a white car rammed into the red car that was behind us which the red car then ran into us.

As I was getting out of the car to check on everyone the white car took off. They were gone before I could get the tag # but luckily some folks at the fast food parking lot got the # as I was talking to 911. Thanks goodness for that as we all took quite a whack and I was a little dazed! I hope the kid in the car with the drunkards is OK... poor rascal :-(

When the white car took off it almost hit another car which really pissed off the woman driver because she also took down the tag # and gave it to the city police as they pulled in behind us.

Here is the kicker, the police were already looking for this car as they were drunk when they left Applebees with a female driver, male passenger as well as an unsecured kid whom the driver of the red car said flew up in the front seat when they hit him. They were already on the look out for them and before I could give the 911 dispatcher the tag number they asked me if it was XXX-XXXX to which I said, "Yes!"

So in a matter of 5 minutes after the wreck happened the police were on the scene and within 10 minutes they had the hit & run drunk driver in custody! Hurray for the CITY I was in police department. The officer that responded to the call was very professional and I was very impressed with him. I will be writing a letter to the police department commending him for his professionalism, promptness and concern for all those involved!

The family is OK just a little shook up and our car had surprising little damage but I will get it checked out once we get the lowdown from the insurance company. The red car and its driver suffered the brunt of the impact and he seemed OK but as we wrapped up he was getting checked out in an ambulance.

The way the officer was talking was that they were gonna charge the woman driver with DUI, felony hit & run, leaving the scene of an accident, child endangerment, and speeding to elude arrest! They will be having a worse day when all is said and done than we had, but after all they deserve it don't they???

Sometimes when TSHTF you are the fan and the drunk driver is the shit!

Take care, and if you see someone that is drinking and driving report them, maybe next time they can get the assholes off of the road before they do ANY harm!

Don't worry folks, I will be going back to G-rated posts in the future, so I apologize for the language this time.

Take it easy and 73!

Later,

ZA

Ramblings on Storm Recovery Duty...

After a week off during Christmas I returned to work last Monday. We had a pretty hard rain on Christmas Day, but up in the mountains in about a 20 mile diameter area all that rain was an inch of ice. So I found out I was assigned to storm recovery duty in one of the hardest hit areas.

As I headed up the long and winding road up to the mountains I was sure I could find some lessons about how folks were making do, how people reacted and how bad things could really get. I wanted to bring along my Digital SLR but since my iPhone is almost always with me, I decided to use it for convenience. My el cheapo Sony Point and Shoot was with me, but other than megapixals (Sony is 7.1 and the iPhone is 3.something) the iPhone takes better pictures. This is not a slam against Sony's, it is just my $100 version does not take as good as a picture as my wife's $300 Sony.

As we got up to where the ice had hit, I noticed there was a bunch of tree tops missing, power/phone/CATV lines down EVERYWHERE. Since up in the mountains utilities cannot simply follow the road as it would cost too much money for all the curves, most utilities go in a straight line and are MOSTLY aerial.

So basically ANYWHERE there was enough ice to cause a tree to fall it landed on a utility line, it went out!

Most people were very thankful to the utility workers that were out and about, but there were a few instances of confrontations. As much as I like warm meals, I usually avoid eating in public on storm recovery duty as the sheeple do not understand that you have been working out in the cold for the past 12 hours and just want a bite to eat so they can continue on fixing what is broke!

I had an incident where I was working on a gas stations phone line for their debit/credit card machine. When a large tree fell on the power it sent a surge and fried the modem in the device. As this person came in and was informed that it was "CASH ONLY" because the phone lines were down (NO, WRONG the line was working it was their equipment that was not working) he said, "WTF are you doing standing there MFer, you need to fix it now so I can get some gas!" Which I replied, " the phone is working, it is the gas stations equipment that is deffective, but you could have saved yourself a bunch of trouble had you simply taken the time to get a little cash BEFORE the storm so you would not be in this situation!" He mumbled something as he left but had a look of disbelief and shock as he walked back to his car. SCARED SHEEPLE can be DANGEROUS, so watch your back... I did!

I mentioned YakTraks as a great way to walk around on the ice and they do work... however wearing them for a week and walking up and down hills they kept breaking. I fixed them by using zip ties, but I am sure that that will eventually fail as well! Great for city slickers, not so good for storm recovery duty in hilly terrain. BTW I just want to say to Ajax on another forum, you were right dude!

I was VERY surprised at how many folks that were out of power DID NOT have a generator. I mean where I live at in the Piedmont area of NC, everybody has a generator. When the power goes out you can hear them running from miles away. You would think that folks who live in such an environment they would spend just maybe a little less on the mountaintop Chateau and budget in a generator or other alt power source. This to me, was something I expected to people to have!

It was also surprising to me how many folks reported phone problems when their power was out, but their phone service was actually working, it was just the only phones they had were of the cordless variety and required AC power. Get a cheap and basic plug in the wall phone for when the power goes out. Will not always work as sometimes Remote Terminals require generator power to keep them running, but straight out from the Central Office these lines always have power as long as the copper lines are not damaged!

A week before the ice storm, this area experienced 12-18 inches of snow and it hardly melted. When the ice storm came, it coated the snow with a crust of ice. It was very hard to walk on as it would not break easily in places, but at the wrong time it would break and throw you off balance. The best thing was to STOMP to break the ice to get down to the packable snow layer underneath. The one thing that I found out was that this can wreck havoc on leather climbing boots. My boots at the heels, toes and side were very abraded by the sharp edges of the ice. This is something one may need to consider for extended operations in this type of environment. I am required to wear a certain type of boot so it is hard for me to get by wearing pac boots.

Again as the weather stayed at freezing with one day it got up to 45F, the snow/ice did not go anywhere. When it did melt it was actually worse as the water froze into glass like sheets that made getting traction up steep inclines impossible. Also when it was melting some of those same hills became muddy quagmires and were also very difficult to drive on as the ground was SUPER SATURATED! Be aware that driving conditions can change with the temps. That muddy driveway may turn to a slick sheet of ice that will give you a very scary ride. The major roads were clear and heavily salted. Most of the ones I am talking about were private or secondary roads.

A bunch of the lines feeding the few cellular phone sites were out and thus your cell phone would not work. If you know where your free wifi hotspots are, you can use Skype to make a call if those places were not damaged by the storm. The places in town had both power as well as internet. Know how to communicate by alternate methods when your primary form becomes non functional. Think of Voip (Skype), Ham radio, Calling cards to use in an area that is not affected, etc.

Zippo handwarmers are the best! They run from 12-24 hours on a few ounces of lighter fluid. In the long run, they are cheaper than those disposable types. If you work outdoors in cold weather you should get one or two to keep your pinkies warm!

After working up there a week I am sure enjoying my time inside this weekend. Looks like I will be heading back up there tomorrow and probably for awhile to come.

Be prepared because you never know when TS is gonna HTF in your neighborhood!!!

Thanks for reading!

Later,

ZA

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish each and everyone of you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! God Bless you and yours, stay safe and all the best!

Sincerely,
Zombie Axe

Rambling on a Winter PhotoWalk...

Howdy Folks,

Since I am off this week, I am seriously playing with my Canon DSLR big time and taking photowalks daily. Photowalks are simply where photographers take a walk and just shoot pics of anything that looks interesting through a lens. It is great practice and you never know what you will capture with the right point of view. I usually take them in the evening...

So I took a walk around the tree farm today . I love how things look with the snow highlights! Hope you enjoy!

Finally here is a Cherry Tree (my favorite pic of the day), this is one of several I took of the same tree. Maybe after a little photoshop work I will enter it into a contest or something... who knows. I just thought the way it looked with the snow surrounding it and the sunset, it was saying, "Old man winter, I am just waiting for you to get done with all this cold weather so I can produce green leave, pretty flowers and juicy cherries!" Hoping for spring!!!

Thanks for looking!

Later,

ZA

Ramblings on Murphy and the Snow Storm...

Howdy Folks,

Thanks for all you new followers as well as you 'old timers', I really do appreciate it!

Back on Friday (12-18-09) we had a pretty major winter storm come through our area. The area I work in (foothills of NC) received around 10-12 inches of frozen stuff (mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain) and back home we had 6 inches of the same.

The DOT had pre-salted the roads on Thursday, but the first wave of snow came and melted washing the salt away. The roads were wet and slushy but nothing major. After lunch the ice began again with a vengeance and by 4 pm the roads were completely covered. The bosses told us we could head to the house as soon after 3 pm as we could get back to the office. As I drove the work truck back to the office there is a pretty steep hill that is over 1000' long and traffic had stopped. Many folks started up the hill, started spinning, freaked out, and SLOWLY backed down the hill. After 30 minutes of waiting I gave up and headed up the back way, which I had decided to avoid because I figured it would more difficult to go up. 10 minutes later I got to my parking place.

This picture was taken as a screen shot from a video on the iPhone as I didn't have any pics of wreck but lots of videos. iPhone rocks!!!

After seeing much mayhem, stupid drivers, and dicey roads, I was happy to head home. I jumped in ole Blue (my 4x4 truck) and pointed it toward home.

As I headed out of town I snapped this picture of this gas station chain which has huge American flags flying. The wind was blowing around 10-15 mph at the time of this pic.

After I got out of town I pretty much had the roads to myself. The roads were pure ice but I was able to keep it going and going straight.

About 4 miles away from home Mr. Murphy reared his ugly head. My battery had died a few weeks back and I recharged it. The battery held the charge well and I figured it was good to go. WRONG! After running the lights, heater blower, and ham radio I figure it was just too much for the old battery and it just quit on me.

Crap, now I was stuck on a hill with a dead battery!!! NOT GOOD!!! AAA would be swamped. No way the wife was going to come out into this mess. No one was in a helping mood until about 45 minutes after my little ordeal began. As I waited, several folks with front wheel drive cars got stuck down at the bottom of the hill (more on that later). I offered to help them as soon as I could get a jump. With the hood up and holding jumper cables no one offered to help... Karma is a bitch so I hear...

Since my battery was dead, my four way flashers would not work. Luckily being a prepper, I had multiple sets of road flares on hand. I decided to use them one at a time as I didn't know how long I was gonna be on iceberg hill. Luckily before the first one burned down, I was getting my truck jump started :) Luckily it held up. I turned off all non-essential drain on the battery and let it idle.

The battery on my iPhone was OK, but I always carry my little battery pack that I keep charged so in case I needed 2.5 full charges I had that capability independent of my truck's (failed) electrical system.

So now Russell (aka Mr. Good Samaritan) has given me a jump and I am good to go. So off we go to help the stuck motorists. This is another one of those long hills and with the snow/ice sleet still pouring down it was going from bad to worse. Both drivers had front wheel drive cars and they could easily go up the hill, if they would simply learn how to accelerate WITHOUT spinning. One lady had major problems until I told her to put her manual transmission in 2nd gear and start up the hill. With front wheel drives and winter weather driving don't stop or spin on a hill and you are good to go! If that wouldn't have worked we would have lowered the air in the tires, but they went good as is.

Russell and I originally planned to tow the stranded motorists up the hill, but these little cars with all their plastic parts and NO WHERE to attach a tow strap or chain is almost impossible to do! So that is when we decided to drive them up the hill. The only tow points were too small for my clevis hooks to attach to. Works on big vehicles, little ones... not so much!

So by now we got the whole hill cleared and no one is left stranded. Luckily I made it the remaining 4 miles home without any more failures of my Battery. On Sunday the roads were cleared up enough to allow me to get a replacement battery.

So when things are at their worst you can expect Mr. Murphy to come calling.

Things that worked:

Gore-Tex: As I was working outside in the weather all day, I already had my gear on. Usually I take it off for the drive home, but not this time. After laying on the ground looking for a place to attach a chain I was glad I was dry and warm!

Reflective Vest: I was wearing my reflective vest from work and had forgotten to take it off. Glad I had it on!

Flashlights: LED and Surefires worked really well. I was the only one who actually had a flashlight(s)! WTF is up with that??? Light good, dark bad!

Road Flares: Work Great! Lets others know that there is a problem ahead, and also keeps people away from where you do not want them to drive as no one wants to drive over a incendiary device! LOL

Truck (other than the battery): Never had a problem driving on the snow or going up or down hills. Old Blue got-r-done... AutoCraft battery??? epic fail!!!

Things I had that could have helped:

The SAW: No, not the Squad Automatic Weapon, but rather the Husqvarna chainsaw I carry with fuel and oil. With the way the wind was blowing, 20 mph when I got home, I was SHOCKED my power didn't go off or the road was blocked by a tree. This is the first time I have driven home in a winter storm that there was not ANY trees in the road! After the wind picked up there may have been some, but I didn't care.

Things I should have had:

I wished I had a jump starter pack for 2 reasons. One is I could have used it to power the electronics to allow me to roll start my truck and maybe got it going... Also I could have jumped off my truck!!!

My 1100W 12/24V DC Generator: I used to carry this in my truck during bad winter weather but have not needed it, so it sat in the garage. Too bad, this puppy will give you 90 amps of CONTINUOUS 12V DC cranking power. Next winter storm this will be riding along as well!!!

Things I let others borrow: A buddy at work had a failure of his windshield wiper blades, so I let him have my USED spare pair. When I change out my old ones I keep them as spares so I have SOMETHING in case my new ones fail.

We got a total of 6 inches here and lucky for me, I am off for awhile, so I don't hafta go any where if I don't wanna.

Thanks for reading and 73!

Later,

ZA