Some people are better at driving, and especially driving at night, than others.  Why I like our Jazz Festival, I'll get nearly 300 possible shows (I can actually only do about 45) in 9 days 3 miles from my house.  I even walked home one night when I took the bus downtown.  I will still drive for music, but I'm walking out with a paycheck if I do.

You also don't deal with Lake effect, in a year like this with no ice it is almost an everyday occurrence here. 

I came south on RT 3 out of Port Ontario once, and it was like driving into a white wall.  Speed went to a still white knuckle 10mph for quite a while that day.  Another day on 3 at Palermo, I hit a heavy slush storm.  Speed dropped like a stone, the ~25 miles from there to Hannibal and 104 took almost 2 hours, with some hairy moments going through Fulton.  I'm getting too old for that (about 10 years ago!) 

Guys, I can't disagree about snowbelt areas and driving conditions. BTDT. Still do today if its necessary. We all got stories and if we are still telling them then it seems we kinda got it figured out.
I just make a plan and plan the best I can for anything.
Saying goes, if you fail to plan then the plan fails.
If its gonna be nasty, I try to leave early or late. If there is snow, I fill my bed of truck with weight, shovel , a bag of sand , tow rope, blankets and flashlight.
Geesh, we live in the northeast.
The things that give me the most worries are freaked out people that do 25mph in a dusting of snow with a line of traffic behind them. Nitwits with 4wd that think 55 means I can drive 55 in anything and finally truckers that blast past you with a semi in a blizzard

hot tuna
Guys, I can't disagree about snowbelt areas and driving conditions. BTDT. Still do today if its necessary. We all got stories and if we are still telling them then it seems we kinda got it figured out.
I just make a plan and plan the best I can for anything.
Saying goes, if you fail to plan then the plan fails.
If its gonna be nasty, I try to leave early or late. If there is snow, I fill my bed of truck with weight, shovel , a bag of sand , tow rope, blankets and flashlight.
Geesh, we live in the northeast.
The things that give me the most worries are freaked out people that do 25mph in a dusting of snow with a line of traffic behind them. Nitwits with 4wd that think 55 means I can drive 55 in anything and finally truckers that blast past you with a semi in a blizzard

^^^^ HT
Nailed it!
I work ambulance, we HAVE to get there, and dealing with all of the conditions in my private vehicle  to get to work, or ambulance to get to a call, is just another skill learned over the years. 
Overly paranoid or overly reckless are both hazards and are usually the problems.... 
 I have traveled many times from central Pa to New Hampshire to visit family in the winter... and if you have a vehicle prepared for the weather and good common sense the trip is possible no matter what the weather, sometimes it just takes longer.
 
Speaking of weight in trucks, years ago the guy who cleared the lot beside the ambulance station with his backhoe would fill the bed of my truck with snow when the roads were bad. I always carried a couple bags of gravel for weight (or to throw under wheels of stuck vehicles if needed) but that snow load was great for traction on poorly kept cow paths between work and home! When weather warmed up and roads improved the snow melted out until next refill. 

One last thing I will say tonight.

My coworker and friend fell through the ice yesterday solo. He didn't have any safety devices with him such as a spud bar or ice picks. He had been walking on a well traveled path of white ice with his pack basket , auger and tackle. His wooden pack basket helped in flotation and self rescue to seal crawl out of the water. He lost his gear but saved his life.
He also notified the local rescue services that he was safe but his gear was floating in a hole so they don't get a rescue call.

Now Saturday I was out on ice that was fresh and black since the refreezing over a week ago. It was my first trip there of 2020 but my 4th of the season which was super solid in December.
We walked 50 yards out on white ice of 4 " . I was anxious to get 300 yards out on that black ice where we normally fish.
Once I crossed the white ice. My spud bar went through easily on the clear black ice.
I settled in on 2 - 2.5" ice 5 feet from the 4" white ice. Once winds kicked up I was off that moving water.

Now the charts all say 2" holds holds a person, 4" holds a crowd.
Please tell me experience don't overrule all that scientific data..
Stay safe

r3 what better board to try a new computer than the "fun stuff" forum.

Congratulations, may the new computer bring you many years of agravatinnnnnn..... errr,
enjoyment of forgotten user names and passwords. Stupid computers.

HT a very interesting read indeed and I agree, bring back the simple life.

But then I got to thinking about the days of my youth and remembering my parents coping with new gadgets and such, that the kids seemed to have no problem with.

Fast forward to the beginning of the electronic age. Home computers to be precise. Those old whirring clunking stay put in one place power consuming green screened beast with that dreadful.... one eyed blinking cursor.😩

I worked for a school district in those days and my new primary job included setting up computer labs throughout the district. Keeping in mind, we had to use and convert existing offices, class rooms and libraries into multi-tasking enviroments.

Every room had to be wired for appropriate power plus communication cables between computers hard drives and equipment in other rooms in the system. No wifi or bluetooth. Ohhhhh if I had only known back then.....🤔


Anyways, once the labs were set up, then came WTH do we do with this stuff. Well, I learned in computer class that the hardest thing about operating a computer is learning were to turn it on. Say what....? 😒 But ya know, once I found the on off button and got use to the whirring, clunking and sometimes wierd smell of ozone, I was playing keyboard pong in no time. Heck, I was even getting use to the beat.... ba-doink doink... ba-doink doink.... well anyway the early pong players remember that sound I'm sure.

Well, while we oldsters were learning the various "computer languages that looked sumthing like this [if] "this" * "this" then - "ba"= do > if < /= "in" \ then + "k" = ("ba-doink").🙃

Hell... I was in my glory when I created a program that converted celcius to ferinheight. Big whoop, maybe six commands that said if this equalls that then that equals this. Input; "Input" 🤗

Meanwhile, students in the 6th grade were building games similar to pong, using figurines (not paddles) playing music that keeps score for multiple players. Dam.... ba-doink" was now, a thing of the past. 😢

Each class held compitition vying for the best game program. I mean line after line of commands.

By the end of the school year these same kids were competing with other school districts.

To us old folk, it was a constant tedious study in learning about a computer program. To the kids it was a fun learning experience in which they excelled.

Ohhhh if I only knew then........

Btdt. I couldn't picture a personal computer prior to my first around 1986 . It was dial up and with 8 gigabytes harddrive, all I wanted from it was free music shared amount taping community. I had to pay one of those geek folks $10.00 to come show me what a download ment.
My first electric device was pong, then tank and finally I spent hours doing nothing but playing Nintendo jeopardy while watching up in smoke.

Yup. Stupid computers turn people stupid but maybe it was smarter than plugging a metal board into the outlet watching plastic football players vibrate across the table

Keep in mind, the iPhone only turned 13 this January.

Been off the forum for almost a month= took a 2 week Cruise into the Carib and ended up sick as an old dog bout 3/4 the way through=bedridden for a few days -2:20 am e/r trip on the ship etc etc.
Bi and tri daily trips back to the DR office on board- some in a freakin wheel chair.
29th Cruise --never had this happen before and it wasn't pretty.
Back home for a while and right back into the DR office with somewhat of a re do. Now Wifey has IT too.
LOTS of meds all around. Heavy on steroids and antibiotics.
3 weeks or more of this an still aint right.
Over  $2,000 ship bill for the Dr and now gotta do all the insurance filings here at home for whatever is covered outa the country.
Gotta say the Ship Dr was very professional and did a great job IMHO.
Wont say what Shipping line as it aint their fault and I have travelled several over time - all have their good and fair points.
Love Cruising.
I will say that this time around there seemed to be a lot of people with serious respiratory issues.
At first thought it was just me but as time went on the Dr office filled right up every visit- every one gasping for air and coughing a lot.
Perhaps because so many of us are senior citizens prone to such issues on a long mid winter vacation.
NOT that new virus- Not pneumonia and not the flu- but felt like all  three at once imho.
In our  group of 20 at least 3 of us had it with one hospitolized upon return home.

Godspeed for you and your wife r3. 🤞🏼Fingers are crossed your insurance covers 100%.

Too many similar stories, keeps me away from taking a cruise.

Saw your above post on the scams too. SS sent me an email warning of such activity. Trouble is, I don't know if the email is from the SS Admin. No link to open so there's that, as scams want ya to "click here" to open a link.

Anyways, hope younz get well real soon.

Yep, we get em too..... I have the "ignore call" button that leaves the caller with a message of ones choice.

If the number isn't one I recognise I hit the button. Including those PITA medical insurance providers that tell me I might be sick and need to get to my doctor. Geez Louise, talk about health care cost, my provider waste a ton of money with nuisance mail and phone calls.

Its definitely different Rich- we were in two countries where the camo clad Army or Police were walking along the beach areas in in groups carrying full auto rifles.
Also in two where security people in uniforms were common place in shopping plazas carrying long guns.
Was clear to me that the protection of Tourists and normal shopping folks was important to the Govts but that 'issues' must certainly abound.
Except for that Govt trying to give protection thingie,   thought I might be in San Francisco or Chicago.

A beautiful picture of the northern lights from a recent trip to Narvik Norway (above the arctic circle).  I spent ten days seeing the sights with my daughter and on the last night finally got weather clear enough to see an incredible light show at the end of a fjord a short distance from Narvik.  The cottage in the photo is where we stayed.