• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 19 (2024)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Maister said:
I keep wondering about these big traffic jams and crowds they're talking about. I mean my plan all along has been nothing more than to just drive to some county road and pull over to the shoulder between two farms somewhere out in BFE. Like, isn't looking across some farm field going to provide the best unobstructed view anyways? I assume everyone is headed for the most rural areas they can find, but there are literally thousands of miles of rural roads cross-crossing states like Indiana and Ohio. There's going to be a traffic jam here? Seriously?

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
All the hotels in my area are booked Thursday-Monday. And we are in a half-day's drive of three big cities. So if enough people decide to come up here and do what you describe we (a state of 600k) could get overwhelmed. Plus we have a big sloppy snowstorm coming at the end of this week and it's mud season!!
 
Faust_Motel said:
All the hotels in my area are booked Thursday-Monday. And we are in a half-day's drive of three big cities. So if enough people decide to come up here and do what you describe we (a state of 600k) could get overwhelmed. Plus we have a big sloppy snowstorm coming at the end of this week and it's mud season!!
Click to expand...
I can certainly see hotels getting booked up. Personally, I live about 2 hours drive from the path of totality, so fortunately I don't need to stay at a hotel and can just drive to some backroads country spot to see the eclipse.....provided it's not overcast. But presumably the people staying in hotels can also drive to any of the thousands of suitable backroads locations to view the eclipse as well.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Her hair better look fierce after that time commitment! Can you book yourself some pampering while you wait for her hair to be did?
Click to expand...
It is fierce! Her cousin out there is her favorite to go to. Long post warning bc I feel like writing. You wanna hear a dumb random memory? When we were nineteen I was in Provo, UT at what they call the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and she was going to community college there. We had known each other since 16 but had never really dated. The MTC is like a prison: nobody in, nobody out. But if you get to go to the mailroom, you can sometimes meet somebody in the parking lot. She came and brought me a letter there. I can still see her standing there under the parking lot light - and that hair. And it was 1990 so also the frosted lip gloss, yes. Anyway, we wrote each other letters over the two years, and when I got home, we dated for a year and got married.

She kept all her letters from me, and I kept all hers - Jane Austen-style. The letters are how I got her to fall for me. There's no "us" without those letters...and full circle there probably aren't those letters without that fierce hair in the MTC parking lot!!!

So I'll make the drive. I like her. :)
 
Maister said:
I can certainly see hotels getting booked up. Personally, I live about 2 hours drive from the path of totality, so fortunately I don't need to stay at a hotel and can just drive to some backroads country spot to see the eclipse.....provided it's not overcast. But presumably the people staying in hotels can also drive to any of the thousands of suitable backroads locations to view the eclipse as well.
Click to expand...
The kicker for us will be if they use the highway (or I guess the one other highway) to get here from Boston, NY, or MTL. We have exits that back up on a busy Tuesday afternoon around here! The state highway in front of my office backs up a half mile most weekdays at quitting time.

And, we have roads to trailheads closed down especially for the eclipse to cut down on damage to muddy trails, ski areas controlling access or going pay-per-view, city streets closed in town, "notch" roads that your GPS will tell you to use but are closed for winter still- and lots of "can't get there from here" places where one truck getting stuck trying to turn around means a 40-mile detour!

I really hope it isn't chaos, I hope it's fine, but I personally won't be anywhere in a car anytime 3 hours either side of totality if I can help it.
 
Faust_Motel said:
The kicker for us will be if they use the highway (or I guess the one other highway) to get here from Boston, NY, or MTL. We have exits that back up on a busy Tuesday afternoon around here! The state highway in front of my office backs up a half mile most weekdays at quitting time.

And, we have roads to trailheads closed down especially for the eclipse to cut down on damage to muddy trails, ski areas controlling access or going pay-per-view, city streets closed in town, "notch" roads that your GPS will tell you to use but are closed for winter still- and lots of "can't get there from here" places where one truck getting stuck trying to turn around means a 40-mile detour!

I really hope it isn't chaos, I hope it's fine, but I personally won't be anywhere in a car anytime 3 hours either side of totality if I can help it.
Click to expand...
It sounds like there may be differences in transportation networks where you are vs where I'm around. The Midwest is largely flat, open, and laid out in one mile sections. It looks like a big checkerboard if you're looking down from an airplane. Often the roads run right along the survey section lines. That means there's basically a road every mile and it's easy to bypass if there's a rural road closed for some reason. This pattern is extremely common:

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Maister said:
It sounds like there may be differences in transportation networks where you are vs where I'm around. The Midwest is largely flat, open, and laid out in one mile sections. It looks like a big checkerboard if you're looking down from an airplane. Often the roads run right along the survey section lines. That means there's basically a road every mile and it's easy to bypass if there's a rural road closed for some reason. This pattern is extremely common:

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
Yup! Ours looks more like random cow paths laid over some pretty wild topography. Thomas Jefferson had nothing to do with where our roads are!
 
I think there should be music playing in all bathrooms. I don't care what size, or if they are single stalls. I want something to jam to while using the facilities.
 
Maister said:
I can certainly see hotels getting booked up. Personally, I live about 2 hours drive from the path of totality, so fortunately I don't need to stay at a hotel and can just drive to some backroads country spot to see the eclipse.....provided it's not overcast. But presumably the people staying in hotels can also drive to any of the thousands of suitable backroads locations to view the eclipse as well.
Click to expand...
They're saying overcast here in north Texas, and I wouldn't be surprised, but weather prediction this far out is not very reliable and they seem to overpredict weather extremes.
 
Mission Blues Brother GIF

Girl From Ipanema playing in the background
 
You know this Bob Crewe I never heard and other such coupled with the Herb Alpert the other day and all the rest that's been put up: the music of Cyburbia is slapping hard these days. On point. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
TOFB said:
Snow in April
Some water in the basement
Moderate mice infestation
Ducks in the pool
View attachment 62142
Click to expand...
At first I thought you were aiming at genuinely good haiku and were maybe just off a bit on syllables. Then you went and added a fourth line. But yeah, 'snow in April' is the best haiku title ever

My expectations
Were sadly disappointed
Lesson has been learned
 
Maister said:
At first I thought you were aiming at genuinely good haiku and were maybe just off a bit on syllables. Then you went and added a fourth line. But yeah, 'snow in April' is the best haiku title ever

My expectations
Were sadly disappointed
Lesson has been learned
Click to expand...

Why do I despair
of Spring ever arriving
Color my sky gray
 
Maister said:
At first I thought you were aiming at genuinely good haiku and were maybe just off a bit on syllables. Then you went and added a fourth line. But yeah, 'snow in April' is the best haiku title ever

My expectations
Were sadly disappointed
Lesson has been learned
Click to expand...
Never thought about it to be honest
 
Snowstorm today. Wet 'n heavy, office is open, kid's school is closed. Gonna snow through 6AM tomorrow.
 
Hink said:
Till I retire and spend my time saving the world. Unless OPERS decides to change their minds again and make me work longer.
Click to expand...
I hope they don’t change much either for me as I’m counting on my pension from them in 19 years too. It’ll be kind of small but it’ll be something at least….in addition to my IMRF pension.
 
Hink said:
You are just bitter that you aren't in the path of totality. I get a day off work. It isn't that bad
:cool:
Click to expand...
Nah, it's cool and all. I experienced 80% in 2017 and it was interesting but the money people are spending to travel and stay just seems a bit much. Like I said, I know it's an unpopular opinion but for my hard earned dollars there's better things to spend it on.
 
ursus said:
OK, the pictures of the house in Tasmania are awesome! I am also RJing today and not working tomorrow. I need the break, and I'm going to interview for a job.
Click to expand...
Good luck at the interview. Tell them your planning crush is Gaddafi and your vision is a city/county of public oilfields sponsoring high-tech education to attract a high tech/heavy industrial tax base. If they like that, then pitch the local currency.
 
MD Planner said:
Nah, it's cool and all. I experienced 80% in 2017 and it was interesting but the money people are spending to travel and stay just seems a bit much. Like I said, I know it's an unpopular opinion but for my hard earned dollars there's better things to spend it on.
Click to expand...
My friend's brother lives in Erie. It beats what my friends are paying for a low level chain motel.
 
Fing Clerk's office. If it goes through the council, even if they're acting as a separate board, it's your job to route signatures. You were named the clerk of the board, not me. I so need a job where I can just say it's not my job.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top