10001110100110101
Four to go! I've got to put together a January schedule early next week. Argh!
Anyway, I guess I should be happy for FlyingS, but I'm not quite sure what I'm happy for. (I guess there are other people I should be happy for too.)
I'll be happy if I survive until April. Oh yeah, I should be going on a trip then..
[0 Comments]
I went to my second patrol shift of the year this afternoon. It's a longer shift than a weeknight shift, so I was expecting a lot of time on the hill, but with the weather being so cold (starting at -17 Celsius and dropping - not including windchill) it was way too hard to stay out for more than two runs.
This also meant that there weren't all that many people on the hill, which was good as we didn't have any accidents. Bad in the sense that there was nothing for us to do.
Sucky.
Oh well, I did get some things done, like the Christmas cards. I've gotten some other stuff out of the way too, so I can relax a bit. But not for long. I've got many other things lined up that I need to deal with..
[0 Comments]
On the way from the hill, I was driving home at a good clip, when I noticed a number of street signs that seemed suspended in the air. It looked awfully strange, and it took a while before it clicked: It was an intersection.
The traffic and street lights that normally resided there were unpowered, and thus made the intersection a very dark spot in the middle of the countryside. Noticiable only by the street signs that were illuminated by my headlights.
Had another car been coming along the other street at that time I would not have noticed it until the last minute. This was a very dangerous place. I made not of it as I continued driving.
There weren't many places out there to check to see if the entire grid was down or not, but I kept an eye out at the next intersection to see if those traffic lights were out as well, but it seemed as if things were normal there. I figured that it was probably a local problem, and filed the incident away.
Once I changed streets and started driving west, I came across a strange sight. In the oncoming traffic lane, there was a car that had stopped, and was high beaming occasionaly. The intersecting street had a car stopped, and I guess that he wanted to turn. The driver on my street was trying to let him through despite the traffic piling up behind him.
I realized that the main reason why the car didn't turn was because of my approach, so I slowed down and let him turn into my lane. That was a mistake. This guy drove SLOW.
Anyway, I realized at that point that the power outtage was not a local phenomenon. The entire block was without power. So I continued driving much more cautiously.
Fortunately, I remembered where all the traffic lights were (all eight of them) so I was able to slow down and make sure that everything was clear before progressing. By this time, there were police cruisers positioned at some of the more busy intersections. I came across one with a cop, but didn't realize that the policeman was actually in the intersection until I was basically on top of him! (I ended up stopping, making the guy behind me lose some rubber.)
The cop was completely in black, with only a flashlight directing traffic. At that time, the flashlight was pointed at the cars in the other direction, so I didn't see him until it was too late. Fortunately, he was letting me through.
At the next intersection, I saw a number of cop cars drive through with their warning lights on. I slowed down in the intersection and didn't notice any oncoming traffic (apart from the cars that had stopped). Nor did I see anyone directing traffic, so I drove on through.
That was about it. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
[0 Comments]
