I was wondering why I was sweating so much.
I guess its time for a new thermometer.
Stay cool…thanks for reading.
Sweat Much? (Post #359) 6/22/2013
Newcastle Police Dash Cam Tornado Footage (Post #348) 6/8/2013
This is dashcam footage of the May 20th, 2013 tornado. This tornado went on into Moore Oklahoma and wreaked the havoc and destruction that has been reported on so much lately.
We helped clean up around the Country Club Estates where this tornado set down. It’s rapid growth is something you seldom get to see. This tornado packed 295 mph winds and was categorized as an EF-5 the highest rating on the scale.
Be safe and be thankful tornado “season” is nearly over.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
A Great Email from the Land of the Kiwi’s (Post #345) 5/29/2013
I love getting a great email like this one.
Henry’s Classic, I love that color. Dear Eric,
I’ve wandered around on your web pages in the past and have read a few of your tech tips and marveled at the bravery a non-mechanic can show when needs must! I’m a 40 year Railway man two trade certificates and I won’t work on my own Range Rover. Too complex or I’m too chicken, luckily for me I have a RR mechanic friend who is mostly happy to do my work on the BGP (big green pig) for me. Just now he’s trying to make the heater fan work on all speeds, nothing or hurricane, was the choice before. I’ve visited your site and got the details to order from Atlantic British a new resistor unit. They’re a bit hard to get down here on the bottom of the world.
As an occasional visitor to your Okie World I’m also happy that you and yours are safe after the tornadoes. We know a little of wind here in Wellington, the place is possibly the windiest city in the world but we don’t get anything close to your tornadoes!
The “It’s a Rover Thing” really does say it well, they really are a “madness” and once you’re infected you never really get over them. I’ve had a few series 2 and 3 and an old two door RR and thought I was over the rover phase but after getting my Nissan ute stuck on the rifle range a couple of times I found the excuse I needed for another “Pommie farm truck” we never learn do we?
Regards Henry
Thanks for the kind words Henry. I’m glad to help any time I can.
Speaking of wind…
Chicago, Illinois is called “The Windy City” their average wind speed is 10.3 mph.
Oklahoma City is windy with an average of 12.2. Boston is still windier (12.3).
Wellington is indeed very windy with an average of 18 mph.
It’s hard to miss the wind in Oklahoma. Beaver (out in the panhandle) had gusts to 64 mph yesterday. Norman had 37 mph in the past 24 hours.
But Mount Washington, New Hampshire has us all smoked with 35.1 mph for an average.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
Traffic Post Tornado (Post #344) 5/27/2013
Traffic. I drive through Moore and South Oklahoma City on my way to my job at the capitol every day. My hours allow me to miss most of the traditional 0800 and 1700 traffic pile ups. When bad weather hits, all bets are off.
The recent tornado in Moore has cut the city virtually in half. The flash flooding the day the tornado hit was amazing. This picture is me fording Sunnylane at I-40. I had a bow-wake up to the license plate on the Honda Civic. It made me really wish I was in my Range Rover.
The major North-South corridors were all littered with debris and destruction and as you can imagine gawkers. The looky-lookers cause traffic to crawl through the affected areas. The day the tornado hit both southbound highways were closed. The major feeder streets from the airport on the west side of OKC to Sooner road were also closed.
The day of the tornado I drove out of the city and down a road in far east Norman. Anderson road was not affected by the recent tornadoes. I sailed down it.
I tried to use Sooner Road the day after the tornado. It moved well both in the morning and evening. So Wednesday I attempted to use it again to get home. Bad idea.
This is a shot of the traffic. South bound was backed from SE 134th street up past SE 74th street. 5 miles of the traffic you see above. The geniuses cleaning up the debris decided it was a good idea to park their dump trucks ON SOONER ROAD. This caused everyone to merge to one lane right where the tornado went across Sooner Road. Ridiculous.
I still don’t understand why the traffic was backed up on the northbound lanes. My normally 30 minute 20.9 mile commute was a 1.5 hour ordeal. The traffic was like that again on Thursday. I thankfully took the Anderson Road alternative.
In a week or so the traffic will move through these areas like it should. I remember it was like this back in 1999 when the May 3rd tornado tore through this same area. I remember sitting on I-35 while people gawked at the destruction. I looked out the side window and laying on the side of the road was the right half of a deer. Yeah.
Next week I am staying in Norman and attending the Six Sigma Training Institute at the University of Oklahoma. This means I won’t have to commute to OKC. Hopefully traffic will be back to normal the week after.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
May 20th Tornado (Post #341) 5/21/2013
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| Red path was the F4 May 20th tornado. Green was the F5 from May 3rd, 1999. |
Several of you have emailed to check on us. That really means a lot to us. Thank you.
Me and all mine are safe.
My oldest daughter (#1) went over to a friend of our’s home. They have a safe room under ground. They watched the storm form and touch down. They scurried for safety and said for quite some time they could hear the roar as it passed by.
RovErica (#2) was traipsing between her new job in Norman and her apartment. She was at her apartment when it hit. Mrs. OkieRover was at the Norman Regional Hospital Heathplex waiting for the wounded. They sent most of them to the trauma center at OU in OKC. NRH’s Moore hospital was destroyed. They moved those patients to the Porter Avenue campus in Norman.
My son was in north Norman and I was at my office near the capitol in OKC when it hit. I had to drive east of Lake Stanley Draper to get around the mess and home.
Thanks for checking on us and say a prayer for the victims and the first responders who are dealing with the aftermath.
Thanks for checking on us and Happy Rovering.
Christmas Snow, No Pudding For You (Post #309) 12/27/2012
Merry Christmas everyone.
I had thoughts of posting another series of posts on the 12 days of OkieRover Christmas and the Festivus holiday tradition of the Airing of Grievances but was just not motivated to do so this year. School was hard on me this semester and my writing energy was hammered by the class.
Also, one of our four-legged children has been down all week and her injuries have me mostly depressed. We are treating her with drugs and hope she can heal. I hate it when we have an injured pet.
After a lovely Christmas dinner at the children’s aunt and uncles house. We took my Father-in-law home (that’s him in the A-Driver position). The roads were no where near as bad as previous years. The most trouble we had was getting the doors on the Range Rover to open with the handles. UGGGH! That is not going to be a fun job to fix. I also heard some suspension noise from the left front. I’m guessing springs will be coming sooner rather than later. And that shock mount I found that was busted will need some welding.
My wife’s sister Aunt SuSu (Susan) and brother-in-law John cook a mean turkey and SuSu’s dressing rivals only that of my wife. SuSu’s banana pudding was pretty good too. My oldest daughter Fireball still has the market cornered on banana pudding. But with the weather such as it was and her with a bun in the oven with only 5 minutes left on the timer, J-man with a wonky back and single digit wind chills they wisely stayed home with my favorite holiday banana pudding. Insert unhappy face here.
The Ford Exploder they drive is 4×4 but has the wrong tires on it for any prayer of staying un-stuck. If you remember the infamous Snowpocalypse of 2009 I had to extracted them from a snow drift in our neighborhood with the then front-wheel drive Range Rover. If you recall, I had a then unknown broken rear axle shaft. The Best 4x4xfar even when limping on a single axle.
It has been a long time since the four of us were in the Range Rover together. I asked RovErica to take some action pictures. The three of them then began mocking me with every turn, exaggerating the effect of the minimal G-forces being exerted on us at 15-20 mph. Good times, good times.
RovErica then got everyone in the back to ham it up for some snaps. It seems like we see the kids only when they need something these days. I guess I was the same way when I was their age. Now I understand the looks on my father’s face and the tone of his voice when I called home “just to say hi” and to let them know “I was still alive”. His tone to me when I hadn’t called home in three weeks pushed all the Catholic guilt buttons on the console. I’d be a basket case if we didn’t have cell phones.
Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, and Happy Rovering to you all.