Friday, January 10, 2014

Winter Wonderland



Where the sidewalk ends... at least the navigable portion of it. Connoisseurs of types of snow will note that this was the kind that blew against the side of the phone pole and then froze there.
After I got home yesterday, Bobbi and I walked to Twenty Tap for bowls of their yummy goulash. They had Pooka, a sour beer from Brugge Brasserie, on tap, and I enjoyed a pint. Then we crossed the street and picked up groceries at the Fresh Market.

Mediocre insulation makes for epic icicles.
The view towards the Grocery store from in front of Twenty Tap.
It was cold, but not unbearably so; probably in the high 20s? The walk isn't a long one, and is quite pleasant when no wading through snowdrifts is involved; even with the snow it was a pleasant diversion and hardly qualified as exercise, although I like to tell myself otherwise.

16 comments:

sobriant74 said...

It is amazing how 20-30 degrees suddenly feels pretty balmy.

Scott J said...

About your last picture.....I hate to admit I sometimes consider looking into what those Fiat 500s cost.

Maybe get one in pale yellow and get it a vanity plate that references Casa De La Tires.

RKN said...

What squeaky clean streets. I'm envious.

Tam said...

RKN,

The main streets are getting fairly clear now, but you should have seen them the day or two before.

The snow that fell started out wet and heavy before someone turned the thermostat down. As a consequence, the snowplows just skimmed the last couple inches of powder off the frozen base layer.

Then it was too cold for the melter
to work.

When Bobbi took the cats to the vet on Tuesday, the only places the ice on the main streets had melted was over manhole covers and sewer lines, leaving random 4" potholes in the hardpack.

By the time I was coming up Keystone (a major 5-lane north-south thoroughfare) on Thursday, the temps had been above zero for 24 hours and instead of random 4" sinkholes in the ice, there was a jackstraw pattern of 3" ice speedbumps and wheelguides. It was like one of the artificial surfaces they show in truck commercials, where the Silverado 4x4 goes jackhammering over it to show how like a rock it is. The Bimmer pure-T wouldn't have made it.

Intersections were okay, though; enough concentrated traffic combined with the melter to produce the slush you see in front of Fresh Market. Side streets are still covered in snowpack over ice, though.

The upside to being here is that this stuff will all be gone by Monday, most likely. Indianapolis winters get more snow than, say, Knoxville ones, but it never lasts long like it does in, say, Minneapolis.

Ice fishing is not a thing here, and if you drop something in the front yard in December, you don't need to wait 'til late March to find it.

Scott J said...

"drop something in the front yard in December, you don't need to wait 'til late March to find it"

Bet that's a problem for brass collection for reloaders in snow country too.

If I lived in such a place I'd have to be a full time revolver and bolt gun guy in snow season :)

Dwight Brown said...

"Connoisseurs of types of snow will note that this was the kind that blew against the side of the phone pole and then froze there."

Isn't there an Eskimo word for that?

Atom Smasher said...

Someone's gotta do it, so I will. Monday morning I woke up in Minneapolis and it was -24F actual. Something really stupid if you counted the wind. When it hit 3 yesterday we were standing around chatting about how, without the wind, it really wasn't that bad.

Now it's 20 something and I'm feeling a little warmed over.

T.Stahl said...

FIAT is selling in the US?
Or is that a re-branded Chrysler now? ;-)

T.Stahl said...

FIAT is selling in the US?
Or is that a re-branded Chrysler now?

jim in houston said...

Fix It Again, Tony. They seem to be selling fairly well in Houston... Last fall when they started showing up I was out on the porch as a HPD LOH flew over. It was at just the right angle for me to realize that if I had one of those little FIATs I would have to put free-spinning rotors on the roof and mount a foot-long tail rotor to the hatch. (I live in inner-loop Houston, where art cars were invented.)

I'd been waiting for Tam to mention Indy food, since my little sister lives about a half-hour out and I've been trying to do some long-distance guiding. What is your take on the Steer-In? I saw it on DDD and while I have doubts about Guy, it looked pretty good, especially since her boyfriend is a pretty conservative fork. Which made their recent trip to Paris on the Bayou kinda funny... I don't think he'd ever seen a pescado entiro before.

Tam said...

T.Stahl,

"FIAT is selling in the US?
Or is that a re-branded Chrysler now?
"

Yup, that's a real FIAT. They're also part owners of Chrysler these days. The current Dodge Dart is basically an Alfa Giulietta.

Tam said...

jim in houtson,

Haven't been to Steer-In.

Have 'em try Zest! on 54th.

jim in houston said...

Thanks! Also passing on your tip on McKay - she is a used-book fiend.

Tam said...

Sadly, McKay is only in Knoxville (and Nashville, Chattanooga, and Asheville, I think.)

I haven't found any used bookstore in IND that even comes close.

jim in houston said...

Oh, finfrock. I just googled "McKay Bookstore Indianapolis" and sent her the (very cool) web site that popped up without checking the locations, since any address north of Austin has been meaningless to me since the first Bush administration. Thanks for correcting my idiocy.

Les Jones said...

When Fiat was debuting their new line to the US they had a marketing blitz and hired J-Lo to star in their TV ads.

The new Fiat they were using for the shoot broke down during production. I submit that's all anyone needs to know about the new Fiats.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/jennifer-lopez-fiat-breakdown-875312

Then there was the controversy over the Bronx ads being shot with a body double while J-Lo filmed her closeups in LA:

http://www.eonline.com/news/276684/car-trouble-jennifer-lopez-fakes-fiat-commercial-with-help-from-bronx-body-double

Pressure on J-Lo to end her relationship with Fiat due to the company's ties to Iran:

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2012/01/17/jennifer-lopez-pressured-to-end-business-with-fiat-over-iranian-terrorist/

And Fiat having to pay graffiti artists after the spot aired because their copyrighted graffito was visible in the background of a scene:

http://nypost.com/2011/11/30/fiat-settles-claim-with-bronx-graffiti-artists-over-j-lo-ad/

If there was bigger cockup in history of car advertising I haven't heard of it.