[SML] Weather system

[Don Taco]

I'm reminded of my last trip that involved ice and snow. I had to go to Bend for a job. I live about 100 feet above sea level. Bend is at 4000 feet. The passes are near 5000. Twisty mountain roads through the volcanic Cascades. 130 miles, so about 3 hours on a good day. This wasn't. I wasn't anywhere near the peaks before I had to chain up. Slushy snow falling, and gloomy. Traffic comes to a halt. I'm the fourth vehicle in line, so I can see what's going on. A snowplow has us stopped, while he manipulates a couple of bad drivers out of the snowbank on the mountain side of the road. But he keeps stopping to talk to the drivers, and shovel snow from around their wheels, and similar tasks, and also chat with the drivers some more, and every time he gets out of the snowplow vehicle he make sure it is blocking the road so none of us can move. And when he's in the machine and jockeying it, we can't sneak by, because the first car in line is the sheriff, who just sits there. Getting the two cars loose takes over an hour, and there are miles of stopped cars behind us now. And, while I'm sitting there in line, wishing my heater worked much better than it does, my windshield wipers stop working. I have time to screw around with them, and realize something in the linkage has fallen apart, so I can get out and manually clear the window, but on their own they just sit at rest. I tell the cop about it, so that he knows I'm going to be in a pickle and probably a nuisance to the traffic behind me once we get going, and he is completely disinterested. We finally have a clear road. The cop zooms off. The next car spins her wheels and can't get going. Me and the other two nearby drivers get out and try to push her car. Soon, one of us goes to her window and repeats over and over, "Gently! Just the tiniest bit of gas. Take it easy," while she tries again and again to gun it, which only accomplishes the spinning of the wheels in place on the ice. Once she finally gets going, we all limp out of there, on the road that has been gathering snow and slush for at least an hour, and I spend three hours stopping at every opportunity to clear the windshield manually again, and force my way back into the traffic. Sometimes not even politely pulling to the side, because I simply can no longer see. Not to mention the snowpack that has built up all along the road outside of the drive lane. I finally get to town. The next day is bright and beautiful. I do the job and head home. When I hit the pass, it begins to rain. My two hour trip takes three because all I can see is the yellow line, barely. Wheeee! 



From: "William Knapp via Stagecraft" <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
To: "Stagecraft Mailing List" <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
Cc: "William Knapp" <will at parkplaceprojects.com> 
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2026 5:39:03 PM 
Subject: Re: [SML] Weather system 

I'm from Vermont. One time I was in Dallas for what amounted to heavy flurries. The traffic was slowed to an absolute crawl. I was like "These people have to reserve a lane for emergency vehicles and Yankees". 

On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 3:01 PM Jerry Durand via Stagecraft < [ mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net | stagecraft at theatrical.net ] > wrote: 



Oh, right, a saving thing here for a lot of people is a federal requirement that in winter time EVERYONE must have snow tires or for us in the southern region all season tires. So at least people aren't driving with summer tires. Our car is 4x4 which is also very handy right now. 

On 24-Jan-26 22:48, Don Taco via Stagecraft wrote: 

BQ_BEGIN


That's us here in Oregon. No practice, no skill. But plenty of attitude. 




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