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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
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On Christmas Eve 1980 (?) in Chicago we had unprecedented cold. I think it was called the Polar Express. -80 wind chill, actual temp about -28.
I was working at a restaurant that night. The funny part was I thought that unbolting my battery and keeping it inside the restaurant would make a difference. The battery would have more cranking power. Nope. When I got off my shift, I discovered that the battery couldn't overcome the viscous nature of the motor oil at that temperature. And I was parked opposite several other vehicles which required me to push my vehicle out of it's spot to attempt a "jump start".
No way. The grease in the bearings was so thick, the car wouldn't budge. Too funny.
I thought of a neat story. In undergrad I took a tropical marine biology class. It was 2 weeks in the Bahamas, like Gilligan's island Bahamas. Middle of nowhere. Had to fly into an airport in George Town, take a 30min cab ride, then a 30min boat ride, to a small island with a research center. So the last night there we all go down to our boat dock to have some drinks and chill out because believe it or not we worked our tails off for 2 weeks.
So it's a beautiful night. The ocean is calm, looks like glass, zero wind, etc. However, in the horizon as far as we can see it looks like a press conference or photo shoot is going on with flash after flash after flash. It was an ocean storm as far as we can see. So from about 8pm to 11pm we hang out on the dock. The entire time this storm creeps closer and closer and closer. The dock was probably about 6-8 feet off the water below. Eventually the wind starts picking up, like way up. You see waves start to develop, then they start white-capping. We are loving it, from the safety of our dock. But then we notice our little boats tied to the dock are starting to really move. Then we start noticing that the waves are beginning to splash up through the boards of the dock from underneath. At some point logic superseded our inebriation and we decided it might not be so safe on the dock any longer. So we stumbled off back to solid land and continued to watch this wicked storm. Funny thing is, it actually never rained. Not even a drop. Just tons of wind and lightning. And has long as it took to get to us, it was over in a flash and everything went calm again. It was truly a great way to end an awesome 2 weeks in the islands.
Didn't feel dangerous or anything like that, but I remember riding in the truck with my dad when I was younger and seeing "falling stars ". Looks like rain or sleet that is burning (lit up). Coolest thing I've ever seen!
@RxDawg yeah, having lived in the SE for so many years, I've noticed how often huge clusters of thunderstorms form over the Gulf of Mexico and often don't come ashore or have much less impact when they do. Same for parts of the Southern Atlantic.
Other times, when the storms do reach land, I'm sure my neighbors from central and South Florida can describe storms that produced epoch amounts of rain.
San Diego wildfires in 2007. Absolutely the scariest thing I have ever witnessed. We lived in Escondido. Had just moved there from Athens, GA about 2 months earlier. The Santa Anna winds kicked up and a fire started somewhere and started to spread. Within about 6 hours we got the call to evacuate. We packed up what we could and got a hotel room at Camp Pendleton. I realized I forgot some valuables at the house and tried to go back. Got to the big hill right before our neighborhood and the police were turning people away. It was about 9pm and all I could see over the hill was an orange glow. I thought we just lost our house.
Got back to Camp Pendleton and in the morning we heard helicopters flying all over the place. Went outside and saw a bunch of big trees on fire about 100 yards away. I mean totally engulfed in flames. The fire was spreading tree to tree. It was crazy. Suddenly a couple of helicopters flew over with water buckets and nailed the trees and put the fire out.
Long story short, we were able to go back home a couple days later, not even sure if the house survived. Luckily it did, but everything around the neighborhood was scorched and the fences on the houses on the perimeter of the nieighborhood were all melted.
Wildfires are absolutely terrifying.
As an avid bay fisherman, fishing the Laguna Madre 3-4 times a year, I understand the dangers and have been caught off guard at least twice.
I had a job opportunity out there once. Wildfires are one of the biggest reasons I didn't take it.
My best friend lived about 5 miles from me in Ranch Bernardo. He woke up in the middle of the night and everything around him was on fire. He missed the evacuation call. He got in his car and said trees and houses on both sides of the road were engulfed in flames. His was the only house on his cul-de-sac that survived. Every other house literally burned to the ground. His neighbor was a former Redskins player with Super Bowl rings and everything. His house is gone.
Every year there are wildfires. Crazy.
Was driving my semi thru Nebraska 5-6 yrs ago and got caught in 100 mph winds, below 0 temps, and heavy snow. Ended up in the emergency lane a few times due to the wind blowing me into the lane. Also ripped off the side ferrings covering the fuel tanks on both sides so I had to rig them up in the cold to keep them from flying off.
The other bad one was a year later. Started out in Minneapolis at 42 degrees and in about 200 miles was in a whiteout with extremely high winds at -15. Ended up stopping in Fargo due to the roads being closed for 16 hrs. Ended up driving over nothing but ice all the way to Regina SK(515 miles) when they opened the roads. Should have been about 9 hrs driving but took 16. Thank god for paper logs back then.
it is during those times you ask yourself, “What was I thinking when I bought this flats boat?” When the waves come over the bow and submerge my ankles I always think, “if my wife were here she wouldn’t ask why I need $200 fishing reels.”
I had a similar experience out of Tybee Island one time, but at least we were in a 22ft bay boat. The hum of the rails from the electrical charge is hair raising, to say the least. You just can’t help but think, “Death in 3, 2, 1...” Anytime I’ve told the story to someone I always wonder if they think I’m exaggerating. It makes me nervous just remembering it.