I started to ask MKW what was going on in his life, but I felt that was too personal of a question.
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Tag Archives: The Wire
SNOmar Jacked the Stashhouse Last Night
About 0800 yesterday, I was convinced that the snow was upon us. Experience borne from my time growing up in Ohio as well as my time in the South for the last 20 years has told me to be quite skeptical about snowfall predictions, but anyone could see this one coming. We had perfect conditions for it:
- Cold, dry air that had been in place for 36 hours, ensuring that the ground was cold enough for the snow to stick. We also had easterly winds that continued to bring in cold air all day long and into the late evening hours, further fueling the onslaught of snow.
- A huge amount of moisture coming up from the Gulf of Mexico with a strong low pressure system.
- A public works system completely incapable of handling this much snow, precisely because preparing for it to happen at any time would be a monumental waste of taxpayer funds.
If you’ve followed me on Twitter for any length of time, you know that I love The Wire, David Simon’s epic TV series about the failure of American urban society. Like many viewers of the show, I can’t help but love Omar Little, the street ripper who robs from drug dealers. Unlike most characters in the show, Omar lives by his ethos: “A man got to have a code.”
Clearly, this is a man who commands respect. Similarly, this storm commanded respect. So at 0808 yesterday …
[whistles "The Farmer in the Dell"] "SNOMAR! SNOMAR comin', y'all!" http://yfrog.com/h553zp #yeahIwentthere #thewire #omarlittle4life
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Did I stop there? Would Omar stop there? No.
"If you come at the king, you best not miss." http://yfrog.com/h8de1bp #SNOmar
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Who could resist one of Omar’s classic lines? This was designed both to respect the storm and pique interest.1
"Y'all don't have the Honey Nut?" #SNOmar http://yfrog.com/h0etvej http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/01/huntsville_residents_load_up_o.html
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Who could resist making fun of the panicked shoppers? I’m not any better than them, as I woke up before 0500 on Sunday to gas up my car and buy perishables at the grocery store. I really did need to go to Kroger. 2
http://yfrog.com/h4nwep "This range, with this caliber? Even if I miss, I don't miss." #SNOmar
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
At 1615, the snow felt imminent. What you were seeing on NOAA weather radar, which is the source for these screenshots3, is the moisture coming through the atmosphere and priming the pump for the snowfall. You can see this happening in the below image:
The black line at the bottom is the dewpoint. You can see it rocket up from <10F at 1800 to close to air temperature by 2100. The snow started at my house around 2030, and I live a couple of miles from the airport.
"If it's what I think it is, our little clutch of chickens might be putting all their eggs up in one basket." http://bit.ly/evA2O4 #SNOmar
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
The link is to a local media outlet’s school/business closings page. Virtually everyone was doing the right thing and canceling Monday activities in advance of the first fallen flake. Normally, this can be mocked, but it was the right call. 4
I started getting grief from folks about the late arrival of the snow, including my friend Eric. I had to adapt an Omar quote for this one.
"I could find your peoples a hell of a lot better than they can find me." http://on.fb.me/gdg1bB #SNOmar [I love Satterfield for this.]
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
I had planned to save this one for the snowfall, but then the infamous Dan Satterfield posted this image macro of himself on his Facebook page:
http://yfrog.com/h5hhnpzj "Oh, that's how you carryin' it, shorty?" #SNOmar That's WAFF's Jamie Laneé, who's from FL & so not used to this.
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
I was planning on using this quote for kids playing in the snow today, but when I saw Ms. Laneé covered in huge snowflakes and clearly colder than she’d ever like to be, I couldn’t resist. You have my respect, Jamie.
"I'm a-work 'em. Sweet Jesus, I'm a-work 'em!" #SNOmar http://yfrog.com/h5ckvj There was 6.5-7cm on the ground when I was out at 2228.
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
It was hard for me to see that snow was falling outside my window at first, given where the streetlights are in my neighborhood. I went out just before 2200 and was stunned. There was maybe .5cm on the ground at 2030, and after that point the serious snowfall began.
"You tell that boy Marlo he ain't man enough to come to the street with #SNOmar." | Snow Gage, 0008 http://flic.kr/p/992684
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
I rigged up a lame snow gage around 2300 using easily-recognizable household items: 12oz soda can, 20oz soda bottle, and 2L soda bottle. All were filled with water for stability, then placed on the roof of my truck. Of course, there was already a good amount of snowfall at that point, which is obvious from the fact that the can was barely visible in that first shot. An hour later and it was nowhere to be seen. Just before 0600 today you could barely see the small bottle, and the big one was overwhelmed as well. 5
"Can you fix this Joe?" "What seems to be the problem?" "Ran out of time." #SNOmar http://yfrog.com/gzc6afp
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Around 0530, the moisture was largely gone from the Tennessee Valley. Friends reported that there was another burst of snow around 0900 today, but by that point I was back asleep. My grocery excursion Sunday morning and my photographic excursions this morning meant that I only “slept” about three hours each night. I took naps each morning, but they’re not helping much now. Tonight I will be taking that Lunesta.
"The Cheese stands alone!" #SNOmar http://flic.kr/p/994ZNn Compare this to http://flic.kr/p/991ia8 taken ~7 hours earlier.
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
I had to show off my gage, and I had to rep Cheese Wagstaff.
"Worrying about you is like worrying whether the sun's coming up." #SNOmar http://flic.kr/p/995GSc
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
I was really hopeful that sunrise today would get me some great colors, but the cloud cover was very thick this morning, and we went from a dull-gray night to a light-gray morning. I had saved this quote for that time. You can see in the linked shot where I had tread a path out and back to my driveway all night long.
"I need you to resist your natural inclination to do anything twisted up in this here play. You feel me?" #SNOmar http://bit.ly/hznM7w
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Alabama drivers are inexperienced snow drivers. If I had to get out in this, I still can’t decide whether I’d take a) my Subaru, which has AWD and is built for this or b) my Nissan pickup, which has an ad valorem taxation of $70. I’m not worried about causing a wreck. I’m worried about someone else wrecking me.
"I don't see no sweat on your brow neither, bro." #SNOmar http://yfrog.com/h71cbp [Not sure when this will melt.]
@gfmorris
Geof F. Morris
Because it’s going to be cold here through mid-week, it’s not obvious to me when roads will be fully passable. Some of my friends have told me that they’ve been out driving in it, and that it’s not that bad, but again: I’m not worried about me, but I am worried about other idiots. Even worse, the compacting of snow on the roads, followed by re-freezing as temperatures lower tonight, could make the roads tomorrow just as hazardous as they were today.
#SNOmar don’t scare.
- Sadly, I couldn’t really get anyone to play along with #SNOmar. I was hoping for a trending topic. Instead, I probably annoyed all of my friends. [↩]
- Did I buy the honey nut? Yes I did. [↩]
- Taken from Gaucho Software’s Seasonality. [↩]
- I don’t do the mocking. I understand the decision trees they’re traversing. [↩]
- I chose these items because they’re what I had available, but also because you can easily compare them to your own items regardless of the lens I used, angle taken, etc. I switched from an 85mm lens with the first shots I took to a 28mm for later shots. [↩]