Why you should be a survivalist.

I actually missed out on most of the ice and bad weather, but it got really cold and some ice formed on vehicles Sunday night.

I got up Monday morning and the roads were clear with patchy black ice but nothing serious. I went to get in my car and the locks were frozen. The car had a thin sheet of ice on it but it might as well have been a foot thick cause I wasn't getting in the darn thing. I worked for 30 darn minutes before I finally got the passenger side door open. It honestly crossed my mind that I would have to break out a window to get in the car.

I have a neighbor who is Russian who walked by and I think he asked if the lock was frozen, I said yes, it's frozen. In really bad english he told me I had to pee on the lock and it would unfreeze. I just shook my head no and motioned that no, i'm not peeing on my car. He smiled and walked towards his. I DID NOT LOOK IN HIS DIRECTION WHILE HE GOT HIS CAR OPENED!

We have a snow storm moving in for this coming weekend....

God I miss summer...

Mr Wupy: ROFLMAO! Being female, it never occured to me to try peeing on the door locks to get them unfrozen but I bet people would pay good money to see any female try. The convulsive fits of laughter that would follow would certainly make you forget the winter blues. Seriously though, ammonia does freeze slower than water so it might actually work, still you were wise to "look away". Man! and i thought I had strange neighbors. Glad you're "surviving".

We are in the single digits now. The unseasonable weather has passed, and the artic like chill has come. My damn pilot light keeps blowing out and it seems that I am forever hitting the basement to relight. Also the fan to my heater has sporatically stopped working, so my truck is almost always cold now. I hate winter more than taxes.

Originally posted by shadow watcher
I hate winter more than taxes.

Dear God, the cold has made you dillusional.

The bad part is were only a third of the way into winter. We have two more months to go thru.

I so look forward to the first buds of spring...

Originally posted by mrwupy
I actually missed out on most of the ice and bad weather, but it got really cold and some ice formed on vehicles Sunday night.

I have a neighbor who is Russian who walked by and I think he asked if the lock was frozen, I said yes, it's frozen. In really bad english he told me I had to pee on the lock and it would unfreeze. I just shook my head no and motioned that no, i'm not peeing on my car. He smiled and walked towards his. I DID NOT LOOK IN HIS DIRECTION WHILE HE GOT HIS CAR OPENED!

We have a snow storm moving in for this coming weekend....

God I miss summer...

Wupy you made me spew coffee out my nose, not nice! Anyway, having spent much time in the north, I have found that spraying WD40 in the locks can help prevent them from icing. Peeing on the lock may unfreeze it for the moment, but if the temps are low, chances are you now have frozen pee in your lock.

LOL LOL LOL..you have me chuckling to myself here in Virginia.

Now we have not gotten any snow or ice this year and no where near the conditions I am seeing on the news and weather reports but as of yesterday it started getting cold here. I am surmising that the cold front you folks are experiencing is finally arrived here on the East Coast.

Rode my moped tonight and it is in the high twentys. I have insulated coveralls and layered jackets. Snowmobile gloves too. It saves me gasoline and wear and tear on my vehicles. I save my gasoline mostly for the weekends and errands. I am on my 6th moped over the years and I run them into the ground before I purchase another. Taught myself how to keep them running over the years too. My mopeds are not stock like out of the box. Olde timers taught me how to modify certain models. THey will do about 45 MPH if I want to push them. Most of the time I dont.
Gotta keep up on the weather however..especially in the winter. Looks like rain tomorrow and it will probably freeze later in the night. I will probably take the Honda or my truck tomorrow. Fortunately for me it is about 8 miles to work unlike the further distances of most peoples.
I can suffer a little discomforture now for a benifit down the road. No problem.

Agree about the fortitude situation you are describing.

Thanks,
Orangetom

There is a special lubricant that is sold in some auto stores. It usually consists of a mix of fine graphite (pencil lead) mixed in a oil or alcohol base. You squeeze it into the locks and it lubricates them. If alcohol is used as the medium to distribute this stuff it quickly evaporates off and leaves the graphite to lubricate.

There are some variations on this stuff but most auto parts stores carry some type of a lubricant used to keep locks from freezing.

Recommend using some thing like a hair dryer ...carefully ..very carefully so as not to burn your paint...then injecting some of this lubricant once he lock opens. However..if it is very windy this could be a problem without some kind of wind break.

Thanks,
Orangetom

also recommend keeping your can of de-icer (or equivalent) IN THE HOUSE. really sucks to have what you need to open your car door frozen shut IN the car. (yes, you are listening to the voice of experience. *sigh*)

Well were two days into our first major blizzard in four years. Not a ice storm not a freezing rain storm this is a good old fashion blizzard. Winds gusting to 60 MPH Sustained winds at 30. Complete white out conditions most of the time. Lines are starting to go down in certain areas. Did I mention that the temp is 6. With the windchill factor it is reading about -6 brrr. 50 car pile up on us 131 closing the highway. Police are erging motorist not to go out in this storm. if they do and go in the ditch they are on there own Wrecker service is backed up for about 8 hours. Ambulance cant get anyware and even the police are getting stuck. Man ya gotta love Michigan and its lake effect snow

I hope your stocked up and ready for it AA. We just got past our first real snow of the winter, But this is Arkansas so it snowed for a day and a half and is already melting away.

Ime as ready as ever but not looking forward to it. Were suppose to get two more days of this before it even thinks of letting up. Power has flikerd a couple of times here it seems to happen every time we get a big wind. Ive got the heaters going already to give the gas bill a break. Man I hate winter.

Think warm thoughts, AA. Ya know, they tell ya not to go out in that kind of weather but they don't tell ya how you're supposed to pay your bills if you don't show up for work. If they'd just give me that information, I'd never show up for work again, no matter what the weather. lol. Be careful out there.

this is exactly what survival-ism is about, not combat or world domination but surviving what happens to you when and where you are. yes you can be required by circumstance to fight but more likely you will be required to last out an environmental situation like this ice storm, so what you need to survive must be thought out in reference to historic problems in your area. if the nwo comes calling shoe leather will be more useful than ammo like i always say "i not afraid i have a black belt in cross country running. "

Originally posted by angryamerican
Ime sorry about your inpending bad luck. Here in Michigan we get several ice storms a year, usually. this year however has been the warmest winter I can remember. Infact as I type this it is raining and there is no snow on the ground. The temp hovered most of the day in the mid to upper 40's. So I do feel bad for you having gone thru it a number of times but ime very happy for me.

Stay well mrwupy

I miss those high 40's now, as It's been in the single digits for a few weeks

yeah..its begining to really pull down in the temperature scale out here on the Chesapeake Bay.

AT work many of the return sewage lines are begining to freeze up as they dont bury them as deep here as they are wont to do up north. Causes some chaos at times.

It is good that it has not snowed here as many folks here close to Norfolk cannot drive in the rain..in snow and ice they tend to really get lost. It can be reall panic...verses up north where people are more experience in this type of weather. I often think they get some good laughs watching us down here. Some people here for some reason cannot seem to get or understand the idea of slowing down when it snows...they think conditions are just as they are on dry days.

A few days of being snowed in here would be chaos to many.

But so far so good. I have ridden my moped to work a few days..with my insulated covreralls. Not to bad. Just glad I never got snowed in while at work this year. It has happened and it takes me five times as long to get home with my legs out as a type of outrigger on a canoe...very slow but that is the way to go in any vehicle when the weather closes in...two wheeled or four wheeled.

Hang in there folks...winter is still in full force...but I'd rather this than hurricane season.

Thanks,
Orangetom

If you own your own home, it would be wise to set up well insulated room with a woodstove in it. Sort of a shelter within your house. A small woodstove can heat a small well insulated space very economicallly. 50 degrees F in room is infinitely better then 40F or much lower in the rest of the house. My brother did this when he was unemployed and he had himself a comfortable place to sleep and eat. He used a the heat of a very small wood stove to heat a 10x12 room very comfortably all winter with only a couple of cords of wood.