it seems the east and west take turns with snowy winters. Last year we had nothing. Two years ago was decent. Hoping for a "good" (read - white) winter this year.
It's the same story here on Vancouver Island, Ian. Mt. Washington was scheduled to open this weekend. Average snowfall is 29' per year, so far they have received 3" and it all melted 2 weeks ago. Of course since I don't ski and I'm Subie-less, it could be worse.
at least we're getting some rain here in the N.W. I swear it hasn't rained in like a month. Oooops shouldn't have said that out loud. Fortunately there aren't too many people on this forum. I wouldn't want to let the cat out of the bag that it's not as wet as everyone thinks out here. ;-)
No shortage of the stuff here, unfortunately for the past week the temperature has averaged -20 some days -30 with the windchill factored in, there is no joy going out when it is that cold.
As usual the weather man got it [non-permissible content removed] about face, they were forcasting a warmer than normal winter, so far for the month of November it has been colder than normal, and December is not looking any better. Cheers Pat
Your Island neighbour owns a Subie and a ski place on snowless Mt. Washington, . It looks like summer up there "rain". My scariest car in the snow was a 67 Nova 4 dr. auto, summer tires and propelled by a 283.
I'm such a selfish critter. Now if you'd promise me a ride in your Subie the next time you are up in the Valley, I'd start doing my special snow dance. :-)
As you folk are thinking of snow, we are worrying about bushfires here in Australia. Sydney is suffering 66 separate fires which are occurring much earlier in summer than is normal. It does not bode well for the Australian fire season. One unfortunate, but very competent, fire fighting team drove into the rear of someone's house in the dense smoke, incapacitating their tanker and had to flee in the resident's cars. The news reports mention that not a word was spoken.
That special kind of quiet that only beautiful snow can evoke. All is right with the world (if only it was that easy - but I can dream)!
The holiday lights are reflecting off the wonderful white stuff and the kids are tucked in tight and smiling (I just told them - NO SCHOOL!)
Enjoy the weather (sorry Graham). I wish I could go for a drive, but my husband is out there in our trusty '90 Legacy and he reports that it's slick but he's not having problems. A few other folks he has seen are not driving with much caution, but he'll be home soon.
For the snow! Of course as luck has it, my subie has a DONUT in the rear! I drove it to the train 5 blocks anyway just cause I want to be able to drive it back in the snow later! Dad took the Troopa and my mom has the legacy!
As I'm posting, there's about a good 4" on the ground, and with predictions of 6"-10" before it's over. Sounds like perfect Subie day!
I've been in the Baltimore area since 1966, and this is the earliest in the season that I can recall getting snow in this region! In fact I don't ever remember having a "White Christmas" around here!
They're all over the place here. I just heard on a local news station (1010 wins) that the area just south of I78 in Central NJ (where I live), could get 10-12+ inches. Should make for an interesting commute home.
Hmm... awfully slow around here today. I guess most of our East Coast contingent is out playing in the snow. They were predicting freezing rain for Atlanta but the temp stayed just above freezing so all we got was lots of cold rain.
well - a usual 45 min drive took 1hr 40 min due to that white stuff. man, i wish i got to drive the '03 forester xs but that honor goes to my wife & i get stuck w/ the '95 crysler cirrus oh well - still coming down in abandon - the drive home not looking good. that's the report from morris cty, nj. drive safe all. - ken
As I mentioned, I had just put new Yokohama Avid H4s on the Forester just before our Thanksgiving trip. I knew going in that these tire would probably be better than my old Geolanders, in terms of dry and wet traction, but not as good in the snow.
That does seem to be the case. I just put about 20 mile on it playing in the countryside snow, and while I was in no danger of get stuck, they did seem to be somewhat slippery, more so than the Geolanders, as I recall. So more care was needed while driving, in terms of staying on the road. None of the roads were plowed yet. I'm guessing that there were about 6" of snow on the roads, perhaps a bit more.
I was able to climb hills with no problem. I even stopped and waited for a Corolla and Civic to try and climb some snow-covered hill. The Toyota ended up getting parked, and the Civic took about 6 or so tries before making it up the hill. The Avid-equipped Forester made it up the hill as if it were a dry road.
I really like having that windshield deicer. It really helps in terms of slowing down the ice build-up on your wipers. It doesn't eliminate it completely, but it does slow it way down. I was out in the snow for about an hour before I needed to remove any wiper ice. It was snowing pretty hard too, at least at a rate of 1/2" per hour.
Changed the oil last night (midnight). Although it was snowing this morning and the roads were a little slippery, there wasn't enough to challenge the OB. I think I will take the long, country route home today. :-)
Had a ball driving in. I waited until after rush hour and came in at around 10am. Laughed at all the FWD cars spinning their wheels on several hills on the way.
The Subie AWD just never ceases to amaze me. We had about 6" on our street, and it just plowed right over, never even beginning to slip. This with touring tires that are poor in snow.
Only about half of people made it in to work. All the Subie owners, though. :-)
go out for lunch!! That is what I plan to do. This is my first real drive in snow in a subie. My wife had it last year for the few flakes we had. That reminds me, I have 32K on her. Need to do the 30K maintenance.
Got home late last night, so didn't get done until after midnight with swapping out the tires. Dunlop Winter Sports on WRX knockoff wheels from Tire Rack. Cannot wait for the drive home!!!
You were right! I could have called you last night. I was changing my oil while you were swapping your tires. OB fest. Let us know how the tires perform - enjoy.
My drive home from work this morning was horrible (I work the night shift and had my wife's integra); this little car was all over I95. As soon as I got home, I dug out the Forester and went-a-drivin'.
You gotta love AWD. Now that I've had my snow fix, it's off to bed.
BTW, the Dunlop Sport A2s have handled the unplowed snow in my neighborhood very well.
All of the complainers on the TV with their "Woe is Me" attitudes and here - at Edmunds - with the Subaru crew - Let's Go Out and Play! Folks looking for a reason to drive!
I'm a bit full of envy though! My husband won't even let me take my walk with my dog. I had to sit in here and watch her dig her nose in the snow and toss it in the air as she danced and pranced. I'm gonna sneak out for at least one snowball though!
Have fun and I hope to see you all in the chat tonight!
I'm envious. It's dry again today here in the N.W. Not that I want snow here in town as I don't drive a Subie (yet). But some in the mountains would be great.
Patti - I know what you mean about everything seeming right in the world with a good covering of snow. It just seems so peaceful and quiet.
All this talk about snow brings back memories of growing up in Jackson WY. I recall waking up one morning and the only evidence of a car parked in our driveway was a bump approximately the size of a car roof. And for school to be cancelled it had to snow at least 2 feet in one night. Aaahhh, the fond memories of childhood.
those mornings looking out in wonder! My daughter is out sledding with friends and my son, who is all of 16, is actually reflecting on the "good old days" when he could do that. He has a job in a nursing home and he got called in early because so many folks called out with transportation problems. While I didn't laugh during his reminiscing, I did have a chuckle when he left!
Yup our dog had the same reaction. She went bananas. Then I hit a couple of accounts in the OB (GT still has S-03s on which, I suspect will suck). SO far I am the only salesperson in downtown on the road today. Got some sales though!
No EVO in the WRC next year! They are going to put the time and money into the new Colt turbo hatch as a WRC entry for 2004......guess they think the 205 and the RS have too big a size advantage.
also went nuts in the snow. She kept attacking my wife's snow boots, and wouldn't let her shovel! She also loves to have snow shoveled on her.
She also goes nuts with piles of leaves. She jumps in the middle of a pile, hides one of her doggie toys, then tries to find it, while scattering leaves all over the place. That's part of the reason it takes me so long with the leaf cleanup.
Snow here was a mere tease this AM... big wet flakes that melted soon as they hit the earth, and the rest of the day is dry & gray.
Haven't changed the tires over yet, but I got my dad's done yesterday, so all the gear is in the garage, ready to go with a simple flick of the switch on the compressor.
Go play if you can! Cheers! Paul
PS: chat without me, folks... Disney On Ice "Toy Story" tonight!
Here I am in a St. Paul, MN northern suburb and no big snowfalls so far. This morning it was about 4 degrees again. Yesterday morning we got about 1/2" of snow on the bare ground. At this rate my Blizzaks will be worn out too soon. At least it has been cold enough for the ski areas to make snow. But it's no fun being on a downhill strip of white with brown borders.
Steve in Minnesota '98 OBW Limited 5 speed with Blizzaks WS-50s & ski box
...but not utterly confidence inspiring. The OB has SP5000s and was a far more sure-footed drive today. Still though, the GT got where it needed to go and back, so... *shrug*
Its been a weird week in the frozen north, all week it would have frozen the you know whats off of a brass monkey, now today while it was not balmy and still cold I was able to get out and give the Titan the old two bucket fandango and wash one panel at a time.
While it is not the ideal way to wash at least he is clean for a little while.
Loosh - it's like Forest Gump with the shrimp, if you're the only one out there, you'll get all the wines sales! Genius!
Get a Forester, and you could call your business Forester Gump. )
Mitsu out? Bizarre. The Lancer EVO comes and they bail from the series? Makes no sense.
Paul: my condolences. ;-)
Chat was great. We were going along at a good clip, and then Brenda showed up and turned on the afterburners. Then we must have hit Mach 3, and I couldn't keep up! We must have hit on every subject under the sun, but once again food dominated.
Missed the chat. Was out shoveling the last inch for the morning commute and didn't realize the time.
Had fun in my first storm driving the OB. Took the hilliest, twistiest roads I could find home. No one else around. The OB performed beautifully. Never, ever felt I might get stuck. I could get the car to skid braking while turning. Give it a little gas and the AWD shifted and would pull (and push) me straight again. Would love to see what it can do with real snow tires.
staying out late in the garage last night switching tires, but it was sooooo worth it. What is better than an AWD wagon? An AWD wagon with winter tires!!! I even drove into deep snow and stopped to see if I could get stuck. Nary any wheel spin and out the other side of the drift.
I did get slightly over-confident coming off an entry ramp to the Taconic Parkway. One of the hairpin turn type entries that the old pkwys are famous for. The tail end walked out (way out), but it was remarkably recoverable. A reminder that you can overdrive any situation.
On the positive side, a new Maxima lost it on a hill climb on one of the hilly back road sections. I carefully negotiated my way around him as he spun and headed for the weeds. What remarkable control!
Hit K-mart on the way home. When I got home I realized...OK my wife reminded me, that I forgot the wine! No problem. Back in the Subaru and backed out of my long, pitched driveway before any clearing was done. The car didn't even slip once. I Could never do that with my FWD cars - even going forward. Anyway, at the wine store the owner mentioned he drives a Jeep. When I pointed to the OB outside he went on and on about how great Subarus are (his father has one). Yeah, I know.
You missed a good chat tonight. Now get some "real" tires for that car!!!!
Did you also do some doughnuts in the parking lot? Are you still over in the West Complex ??? BTW, you owe me one for being one of those naysayers about this storm.
I can easily put the car in a sideways slide or skid with the Dunlops. If I add some power the car pulls right out of it. So the weak point was the tires. I might spring for the snow tires next year. I keep remembering the chat at 10PM. I think I am still on French time. Anyway, bouncing back and forth between buildings. We should do lunch again.
I wanted to go out with Da Troopa to earn some ca$h by towing out stranded motorists but then I just figured I'd watch some Speedvision and chat with you folks!
I finally finished up with work today and had a chance to swing by the Subaru Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
They had a silver Impreza 15i-S and a yellow Legacy GT E-Tune wagon on the showroom floor.
The new Impreza looks very nice in person. The new headlights seem larger than in the photos and have a siginicant presence on the front of the vehicle. The one foglight in the rear does take some getting used to. I can't wait to see the US version.
The Legacy GT E-Tune had me drooling! It was equipped with 17" BBS rims, and had the sport shift with shift buttons on the steering wheel and the JDM headlight cluster. I wanted to drive it back home!
Anyway, I got a whole stack of brand new brochures with some sweet, sweet photos of the JDM models. I also snagged two videos they had there on the new Impreza and Subaru's AWD system. I'll share once I'm back.
I'm jealous! I need a trip to the Japan! Fill us in on the details from the brochures. I'm curious, are the brochures in Japanese, English, or Japlish?
Ken, I grabbed the video tapes also, but have yet to get a chance to look at them. Good to hear that you were able to break away. Where are you staying?
Bob, I still have a few of them here in my office to look at. Most of the stuff I took was 99% in Japanese with a few English words or phrases sprinkled in for impact. For example:
"Spirit of Adventure" "Boxer Engine + Symmetry 4wd" "Almighty Performance"
When I was there I asked one of my 'kids' why they do that. You see alot of ads in the subways structured much the same way. She answered that English is considered 'chic'. You throw it in as an attention grabber, but you do not want to overwhelm with too much.
Comments
Greg
-juice
Greg
-Ian
Snowless in Seattle
Greg
Ross
-Ian
As usual the weather man got it [non-permissible content removed] about face, they were forcasting a warmer than normal winter, so far for the month of November it has been colder than normal, and December is not looking any better.
Cheers Pat
Tom
:-)
Ross
Jim
As you folk are thinking of snow, we are worrying about bushfires here in Australia. Sydney is suffering 66 separate fires which are occurring much earlier in summer than is normal. It does not bode well for the Australian fire season. One unfortunate, but very competent, fire fighting team drove into the rear of someone's house in the dense smoke, incapacitating their tanker and had to flee in the resident's cars. The news reports mention that not a word was spoken.
Enjoy your snow
Cheers
Graham
The holiday lights are reflecting off the wonderful white stuff and the kids are tucked in tight and smiling (I just told them - NO SCHOOL!)
Enjoy the weather (sorry Graham). I wish I could go for a drive, but my husband is out there in our trusty '90 Legacy and he reports that it's slick but he's not having problems. A few other folks he has seen are not driving with much caution, but he'll be home soon.
Have fun if you are in this storm, but be safe!
Patti
-mike
I've been in the Baltimore area since 1966, and this is the earliest in the season that I can recall getting snow in this region! In fact I don't ever remember having a "White Christmas" around here!
Bob
-Dennis
-Frank P.
That does seem to be the case. I just put about 20 mile on it playing in the countryside snow, and while I was in no danger of get stuck, they did seem to be somewhat slippery, more so than the Geolanders, as I recall. So more care was needed while driving, in terms of staying on the road. None of the roads were plowed yet. I'm guessing that there were about 6" of snow on the roads, perhaps a bit more.
I was able to climb hills with no problem. I even stopped and waited for a Corolla and Civic to try and climb some snow-covered hill. The Toyota ended up getting parked, and the Civic took about 6 or so tries before making it up the hill. The Avid-equipped Forester made it up the hill as if it were a dry road.
I really like having that windshield deicer. It really helps in terms of slowing down the ice build-up on your wipers. It doesn't eliminate it completely, but it does slow it way down. I was out in the snow for about an hour before I needed to remove any wiper ice. It was snowing pretty hard too, at least at a rate of 1/2" per hour.
Bob
Greg
The Subie AWD just never ceases to amaze me. We had about 6" on our street, and it just plowed right over, never even beginning to slip. This with touring tires that are poor in snow.
Only about half of people made it in to work. All the Subie owners, though. :-)
-juice
Bob
We had liberal leave today. That means you have to try to get in, and can be late, but I always make it. Bummer!
-juice
Greg
See Greg, we are getting a real snow storm!!!!
Steve
Greg
-juice
You gotta love AWD. Now that I've had my snow fix, it's off to bed.
BTW, the Dunlop Sport A2s have handled the unplowed snow in my neighborhood very well.
Be safe.
Michael
I'm a bit full of envy though! My husband won't even let me take my walk with my dog. I had to sit in here and watch her dig her nose in the snow and toss it in the air as she danced and pranced. I'm gonna sneak out for at least one snowball though!
Have fun and I hope to see you all in the chat tonight!
Patti
Patti - I know what you mean about everything seeming right in the world with a good covering of snow. It just seems so peaceful and quiet.
All this talk about snow brings back memories of growing up in Jackson WY. I recall waking up one morning and the only evidence of a car parked in our driveway was a bump approximately the size of a car roof. And for school to be cancelled it had to snow at least 2 feet in one night. Aaahhh, the fond memories of childhood.
-Ian
Patti
http://www.wrc.com/en_GB/News/2002/014/Mitsubishi+in+shock+WRC+pull-out.htm
She also goes nuts with piles of leaves. She jumps in the middle of a pile, hides one of her doggie toys, then tries to find it, while scattering leaves all over the place. That's part of the reason it takes me so long with the leaf cleanup.
Weird dog, for sure...
Bob
Haven't changed the tires over yet, but I got my dad's done yesterday, so all the gear is in the garage, ready to go with a simple flick of the switch on the compressor.
Go play if you can!
Cheers!
Paul
PS: chat without me, folks... Disney On Ice "Toy Story" tonight!
Steve in Minnesota
'98 OBW Limited 5 speed with Blizzaks WS-50s & ski box
While it is not the ideal way to wash at least he is clean for a little while.
Cheers Pat.
Get a Forester, and you could call your business Forester Gump.
Mitsu out? Bizarre. The Lancer EVO comes and they bail from the series? Makes no sense.
Paul: my condolences. ;-)
Chat was great. We were going along at a good clip, and then Brenda showed up and turned on the afterburners. Then we must have hit Mach 3, and I couldn't keep up! We must have hit on every subject under the sun, but once again food dominated.
-juice
Had fun in my first storm driving the OB. Took the hilliest, twistiest roads I could find home. No one else around. The OB performed beautifully. Never, ever felt I might get stuck. I could get the car to skid braking while turning. Give it a little gas and the AWD shifted and would pull (and push) me straight again. Would love to see what it can do with real snow tires.
Greg
I did get slightly over-confident coming off an entry ramp to the Taconic Parkway. One of the hairpin turn type entries that the old pkwys are famous for. The tail end walked out (way out), but it was remarkably recoverable. A reminder that you can overdrive any situation.
On the positive side, a new Maxima lost it on a hill climb on one of the hilly back road sections. I carefully negotiated my way around him as he spun and headed for the weeds. What remarkable control!
Steve
Greg
Did you also do some doughnuts in the parking lot? Are you still over in the West Complex ??? BTW, you owe me one for being one of those naysayers about this storm.
Steve
Greg
juice - if you tell 'em we ONLY talk about food they might not show up .. (and as I recall we talked about a LOT of stuff ... )
-mike
They had a silver Impreza 15i-S and a yellow Legacy GT E-Tune wagon on the showroom floor.
The new Impreza looks very nice in person. The new headlights seem larger than in the photos and have a siginicant presence on the front of the vehicle. The one foglight in the rear does take some getting used to. I can't wait to see the US version.
The Legacy GT E-Tune had me drooling! It was equipped with 17" BBS rims, and had the sport shift with shift buttons on the steering wheel and the JDM headlight cluster. I wanted to drive it back home!
Anyway, I got a whole stack of brand new brochures with some sweet, sweet photos of the JDM models. I also snagged two videos they had there on the new Impreza and Subaru's AWD system. I'll share once I'm back.
Ken
Bob
Bob, I still have a few of them here in my office to look at. Most of the stuff I took was 99% in Japanese with a few English words or phrases sprinkled in for impact. For example:
"Spirit of Adventure"
"Boxer Engine + Symmetry 4wd"
"Almighty Performance"
When I was there I asked one of my 'kids' why they do that. You see alot of ads in the subways structured much the same way. She answered that English is considered 'chic'. You throw it in as an attention grabber, but you do not want to overwhelm with too much.
Steve
In engineering circles we talk of Jenglish - corrupted English written by native Japanese. For example:
"When not in use this amplifier, batteries removed otherwise they are exhausted"
Steve