Well, another month come and gone...

Looks like just a few degrees separates us in central AR from rain and 10" of snow... and tornadoes to the south, only in Arkansas..

 

Yep, weather in AR, if ya don't like it just wait a little while, it'll change. Forecast is for a 30* drop before dark.....BRRRRRRR!!!!!!

 

It was cold out there today. The wind was ripping down the lake while snow was falling. What was I doing on the lake you might ask? Opening flood gates at the dam so the lake level wouldn't rise too much from this mornings rain.

 

When I left Carthage at 1830 last night it was 5F with 21" of snow on the ground. The drifts were deeper...my thigh deep misadventure into one going to a locomotive yesterday morning agrees. Thank goodness I'm back in FSM where it was 16F this morning. The forecast low for Carthage this morning was supposed to be -10F with the wind chill pushing if further down. BRRR!Sure hope you didn't have to open them manually

 

No we have electric winches that hoist the gates up. This dam has two winch trolleys that you have to position over the gate and then hook the chains to the winch on each end of the trolley. You are still completely exposed to the elements though.

 

I don't mind being out in the cold if I'm gonna be out in the cold. I put my Carharts and long johns on and I'm good to go.
What sucks is working in a 70 degree shop and somebody opens a 12'x14' roll up door. You can't dress for that.

 

I was being a little sarcastic on that comment. We just got back from dinner...walking out to the truck it felt like it was well below zero; but the truck claims it's only 27F out there.

 

Boy have I been there done that, now sort of glad I work outdoors most of the time. Been sort of rough the last few days though, had a water pump on a tree cutter at 6:30 yesterday morn, now that was cold work at 16* Brrrr.....

 

It is snowing...again. It was fun last month; it was ok at first on Monday...and neat to see just how much snow you can pile up on top of a F250. But the fun is gone, I'm tired of it. I'm moving to Hawaii...right after I get that aux fuel tank installed in the bed. That way I can make it all the way across the bridge between SF & the big island without stopping.

 

I hear ya, but I'm heading for the Baja coast of Mexico. Sun, sand and warm water sounds wonderful right now

 

The funny thing is that considering the age of the dam it wouldn't be surprising to have manually opening gates!

 

I haven't see an official NWS/NOAA measurement...but using my trusty Craftsman 30' tape measure; 2.5" inches of the white crap here in Western Arkansas at 1100 The commute back home with the wife will be a joy here in a couple of hours.I take it the concrete wasn't poured in the '60s like most of the dams in Northern Arkansas (Beaver, Greer's Ferry& Bull Shoal's) were built/poured? I remember my (late) grandmother talking about in the '60s that part of Sunday drive was swinging by the Heber Springs park to see how much the lake had risen over the last week.You know, I forgot that the Baja is closer. And I do speak a little bit of Spanish...taco, enchilada, fajita...

 

And who says there aren't some interesting threads in the 6.0L thread....

I wanted to write you and tell you about the fantastic religious experience I had the other day.

As I was browsing through a local Christian bookstore, I spotted a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day since I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I purchased the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, am I glad I did! What an uplifting experience followed!

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is ... and I failed to notice that the light had changed. It's a good thing that someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I never would have noticed. I found that there are a LOT of people who love Jesus.

While I was sitting there, the guy behind me started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! Jesus Christ, GO!"

What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Suddenly, everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I could hear him yelling something about a "sunny beach" ... I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant and he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My grandson burst out laughing. He was really enjoying this religious experience, too.

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking toward me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my brothers and sisters grinning, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.

Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Hope to hear from you soon.

Your friend,

 

One of the dams was built in the 1920's and the other in the 1930's.

 

More snow this coming week in the forecast for NWA/SWMO...oh joySound like WPA projects. I've said it before...the generation that was the backbone of the WPA and fought WW2 were REAL MEN (and Women). The rest of us are just a bunch of wimps. I think it was Brokaw that coined the term "The most incredible generation"...and I agree.

Changing gears.... I'm looking at going to a Wireless ISP in Carthage. I've been using the WiFi at McD while waiting for the phone to ring; but there's only so long you can deal with Ronald before you want to rid the world of clowns. I'm familaur WiFi, DSL, Cable modeums work...and dial-up (still remember how "fast" 2400 baud was!). But a wireless ISP is something a little different to me. They're claiming 3Mbps for speed; my current cable ISP plan is 15Mbps...so I realize it will be slower. Does anyone know anything I need to be aware about them? From what I've been able to gather about this ISP in Carthage...I'm going to be about a mile away from the transmitter. But there are several trees in between (not right at the building). Is it going to be like a satellite...when the leaves grow back in the summer I'm going to have a terrible signal? I was going to get a cable modem for the apartment...but $60 a month any only getting 20 channels with the ISP is a little steep. DSL isn't an option where the apartment is. But for "only" $60 a month (plus a $100 air-card) I can get another number on my cell plan. With four numbers already on my plan (2 are iPhones) I don't want to add any more to that bill; the monthly bill is higher than my first car payment!