Are we living in an A&E reality show?
The b&w Philco here at the Stately Manor flickers with a cable TV series out of Canada showing tow truckers pulling big rigs out of the ditch, set to narration appropriate to D-Day. Seriously, that’s the show. Another has semi-truck drivers negotiating icy roads somewhere north of Nome. (Is Blaska the only one who belches out engine-braking noises as he slows down?)
Thought of those wintery entertainments while picking our way over Park Street here in Madison this week as if we were leaving the last base camp on Mt. Everest. Blaska drives a 2019 Ford Ranger, four-wheel drive, road clearance of 8.4 inches (2 inches more than the average Kia). We can only imagine the white knuckling required to pilot mom’s minivan.
Jack London would be proud!
So hats off to Chris Rickert at our favorite morning daily here in Madison WI. Rickert braved the streets of the the city and its ‘burbs and lived to write about it:
Driving in to Madison from Monona, it’s hard not to notice the difference: Monona Drive is largely clear of snow and ice until just north of Cottage Grove Road, where the city of Madison begins and where what becomes Atwood Avenue is covered in an inches-thick layer of glazed snow and ice.
Or take the drive north from Fitchburg to Madison on Fish Hatchery Road. Fish Hatch is largely clear, with pavement proudly showing, until you reach the intersection with Park Street in Madison, where again a thick layer of ice and snow covers the road as you take it around the Capitol via West Washington Avenue, Proudfit Street, North Shore Drive and John Nolen Drive to Williamson Street.
Icy roads contributed to 26 traffic injuries this week, according to the CT. Mayors have lost their dedicated city hall parking spots over snow removal, or lack thereof. (See Michael Bilandic, Chicago 1979.) Madison’s mayor for life, Paul Soglin, has gone viral with his take down of the latest candidate to defeat him:
Chasing unicorns & dragons
The storm of Friday 01-12-24 was more than the usual 2- or 3-inch dusting. … What was unusual was the failure to respond to it. The fault does not lie with the drivers or the maintenance crews but with the person who made a series of decisions that caused the problem, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
It is essential to plow the main routes quick enough so that traffic does not pound the snow and bind it to the streets when the temperatures drop following the storm. Normally the plows go out after the first 2 or 3 inches fall, which should have been at noon on Friday. Some of the plows were not dispatched until after 3:00 PM. That delay allowed heavy traffic, particularly buses and trucks, … to bind the snow to the streets. …
Despite Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway imposing the regressive vehicle fee and the garbage fee (recycling to some) which was specifically designed to fund maintenance of streets, there is not enough money in the streets department budget. … Satya Rhodes-Conway made a series of decisions to chase after unicorns and dragons. She deliberately left critical, essential positions vacant and did not pay for basic equipment like snowplow trucks.
— Paul Soglin
→ “I want to start by acknowledging the frustration …” — Mayor Rhodes Conway.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Still, Madison ain’t Chicago. Our Woke progressives respond to the high-minded performative gesture, not actual city services. Electric buses, food markets, Pig Cop murals. In any event, temps next week will reach the mid-30s, which may melt the ice. Snow and or rain is predicted, which may glaze us in a layer of ice. Could get better, could get worse. It’s January in Wisconsin — another way of saying “Stay tuned!”
20 responses to “Slip sliding away”
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Just wait. We have electric buses and a train coming and will have to support them. Less money for street and parks departments. I guess more taxes, oh sorry, fees on my water bill.
Great hilarity hearing Mayor Blimp (fresh in from Albuquerque) pontificating on how we just endured one of the 5 greatest snowstorms to have inflicted itself on these parts. Pop quiz: The 2020 downtown/State Street riots/trashing and the ongoing road Ice Capades here in Emerald City share what common element?
Wait until Tuesday when it rains. It is going to be a literal skating rink citywide. Tuesday might be a good day for me to call in sick. I have not called in sick for over 30 years. I cannot afford to sacrifice a vehicle over a mayors stupidity/ignorance. or is it arrogance?
“(is it)a mayors stupidity/ignorance. or is it arrogance?”
Yes!
The Gotch
Arrogance; like the puckers? Are you still in your bed in the fetal position? Wiping away the tears? Looking at the tapes so you can blame the refs? I’m sure there is some MAGAgnat thinking you can come up with to justify the total collapse of the puckheads. Don’t worry about the streets; you’re not going anywhere this year or next.
Tears? Please. It’s great to be fans of this youngest-in-the-NFL Packers team being that they:
– Advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year after everyone wrote them off mid-season
– Ripped the guts out of the defending Superbowl champs
– Marched onto the Cowboys’ home field in the playoffs, dropped trou, and sh@t on the Dallas star
– Have won the NFC North 12 times since its inception, more than doubling those of the next best team (which isn’t the Bears)
– Stomped the Bears twice this season
– Have most of their studs coming back next year
– Have a quarterback that is looking more like their last two consecutive Hall of Famers all the time
It must be really sad to be a fan of a team that:
– Has a less than 25% victory rate over their biggest rivals since the beginning of the Favre era
– Sucks so hard that they beg for other teams to beat said rivals for them
– Puts their distant has-been players in local advertising because they have no current standouts
– Got smoked on their own field by their biggest rivals last time a Superbowl berth was on the line
– Hasn’t won a Superbowl since Reagan was President
Hope therapy pillows and Malört get cheaper—you’re going to need a lot of both as Love & Co. own you for the foreseeable future.
Tour d Force, MTR, the only thing more pitiably pathetic than the comically inept Bi-Polar bares is their laughably imbecilic fans.
Give a listen to one of ’em, after the second most recent dismantling administered by 13 Time World Champion Green Bay Packers…at Soldier field, no less:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-VrmbmRS80
The Gotch
Oh yeah, and this Packers team also gave the best team in the NFC all they could handle on their home turf in the Divisional round of the playoffs. Bears have been in the toilet bowl for most of the last three decades and the Packers have been the guy entering the stall after a night of cheap beer and tacos.
Gotch, ever listened to Chicago sports radio the day after another Bears beating by the Packers? I will freely admit that it’s a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine.
Single Parent Households Are One Of The GREATEST INDICATORS Of An IDIOT’S Future Poverty And Substandard Education.
Bi-Polar bares: THE_WORST_FRANCHISE_IN_THE_NFL
The Gotch
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4267b24e8d9141bbca5dd9ecb1941d09f63b5cf37759f26e7c992cd97b6c3e2e.jpg
Jordan Love ALREADY BETTER THAN ANY QB In Bi-Polar bares History!
QUESTION: How Many Bi-Polar bares’QBs Have Thrown 30 TDs?
ANSWER:
NONE!REASON: After Further Review, The bares STILL SUCK!
The Gotch
Just trying to get your mind off that crushing defeat. Perk up crotch. Come to the Dells; our streets are nearly perfect.
” “I want to start by acknowledging the frustration …”
Positively breathtaking cluelessness!
With towering Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, and 160 + year old Oaks blocking the sun on the on its south side, our street looks like that most of the winter.
Blaska, if you ever miss shoveling sidewalk, you’re welcome to stop by…
The Gotch
Not to worry. The City is out this weekend salting, scraping and filling your driveway and sidewalk.
Oh boy now I gots me an ear worm.
I dare ya to do a week of Paul Simon song titles.
The Boxer’s 50 Ways To Leave Mrs. Robinson’s Bridge Over Troubled Scarborough Fair….
The Gotch
I’m sure the socialist cow in the mayor’s office is counting every salt pellet NOT used to make thoroughfares safer and congratulating herself on how much cleaner the lakes will be this spring. Think of that the next time you nearly skid off an ice-covered street in Madison.
I was just thinking about that yesterday Gary as I was driving through Madison. They didn’t use any salt early the first time but now they have to double down on the salt because of the ice pack on the roads. Another law of “unintended consequences” when you go down the progressive mind virus way of thinking!