Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

I Hate Ice

I love winter and I love the challenges of Great Lakes winters, but it is too warm down here too often and we get too much ice. Seven-and-a-half years in the U.P. and we really didn't need 4WD -- just good snow tires.

Tuesday we went from temps near 40°F which melted all the icicles to 29°F by the time I was coming home. Supposed to be 15°F overnight. All told today we had rain, fog, freezing rain, graupel, snow, ice and heavy winds to polish the roads.

You could really see the shine on the road from reflected headlights. 4WD and geared down to D(3) or 2 on the 4-speed automatic transmission. Most people took the freeways at 50-60 mph. Those wind gusts -- I think if I'd been in 2WD I might have lost stability.

Once off the freeway, I could slow down further, but heading towards the lake, it was definitely getting slippier. West of Allendale, M-45 traffic drops off a lot, which doesn't help keep the road clear. At 35-50mph I suddenly felt the Blazer spin to the left and slide right across the other lane and off the road.

The couple of times I've started sliding on icy roads I've usually gotten the wheel turned and straightened it out into a recovery. I managed to get the front wheels lined up the way I was sliding, but the angle was too great and I was off the road. No one around me when it happened. Where I slid off wasn't quite at the corn fields -- which is a good thing. Instead it was a long slide towards a berm, which spun me around as I came to a stop.

But... I quickly realized this wasn't so bad. I hadn't hit anything -- a quick looksee seemed to reveal no damage. So despite the soft ground and snow, I put it into low gear and eased it forward. Yay! Forward progress. Of course, I had to stop before the road and then couldn't move. Dammit. Got my shovel and cleared around the tires. No joy.

Then a pickup truck stopped with strobe light hazard flashers and a gentleman was able to use a tow strap to pull me the eight feet to the shoulder. Freedom. Kept it slow the rest of the way. You know that bit about most accidents happening within seven miles of home? Yeah. Under 3 miles.

Mrs. Dr. Phil had hauled the garbage out to the road, so I towed the recycling bin. Normally I'd back up the driveway afterwards. But I thought it would be better to cross the road and turn around. Except I hit a ridge of ice and felt the Blazer slew to the left. That noise? I was up against the fire sign. And about to fall down into the drainage ditch. Could not get any traction.

So I called home, 250 feet away. Mrs. Dr. Phil came down, but couldn't get any footing to push. So we trudged up the driveway. Best to deal with it in daylight. But a few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Brian from next door had seen the Blazer and offered to haul me out. Success!

So, I've posted the following to my classes -- NOW the weather people are warning about black ice. (grin)


Dr. Phil

Pictures Or It Didn't Happen

I wrote about the first storm of the semester (DW) -- here's some pictures I shot.

Getting Out Of The Driveway


(Click on photo for larger.)


(Click on photo for larger.)

South on M-11 Wilson Avenue


(Click on photo for larger.)


(Click on photo for larger.)


(Click on photo for larger.)

I love the cold gray blue steel colors.

Dr. Phil

Well-llll, We Knew This Wouldn't Last

Wednesday the high in Kalamazoo was around 50°F. Gas was $3.44.9/gal in the morning -- and $3.69.9 in the afternoon. What could cause a 25¢ jump in price? Um, maybe the storm coming Thursday night? (evil grin)

Still in the upper 30s, low 40s during much of Thursday. Foggy. Light rain. By the time I was starting to head out, before 5pm, it was snowing in K-zoo. But heading north it was more hazy and raining. Or at least too warm for the snow falling which immediately turned to wet. It wasn't until I'd left I-196 and was on Wilson and M-45, heading west to Allendale, that it began to snow for me.

Tonight the roads were reported to be icy and slippery -- lots of slide offs. There's a diagonal lake effect snow band predicted to run from Grand Haven/Holland down to Kalamazoo, with 6-12" of snow overnight. Now that's not much for some, or even here. But it's the first significant snow of the so-called Spring Semester and I don't think anyone is really ready for it.

Sigh. Should be "fun" driving in the morning.

It Has Begun

Took a picture of our driveway as I came in tonight, an experiment in a three second handheld shot, then processed the hell out of it in Ulead PhotoImpact 5, an ancient program, just to see what I got. Can't really tell that the driveway just is covered and that any tracks that Mrs. Dr. Phil made within the last hour were gone. The falling snow didn't show up at all, not with that long shutter. (grin)


3 seconds, handheld, ISO 200 (Click on photo for more detail.)

I probably should've reset the ISO higher, but on a D1 that generates a lot of noise, and I could've zoomed out to 35mm, but hey, it's interesting. Surprised that sitting in a car with the engine running that it's as "good" as it is. (big grin)

Dr. Phil

Monday's Rain Was Really Rather Rude

Drove pretty much the whole length of the state on I-75. The spiffy new weather display at the new travel plaza on the Ohio Turnpike made it look like when I made the right turn and headed south that I'd be out of the rain. Uh, no.

Trying to drive south at highway speeds while rain is going sideways at 50-60 mph gusts isn't impossible. People weren't being idiots and the AWD plus the excellent Goodyear Silent Armor tires kept up tracking straight. But it was quite inhospitable of you. Especially as the storm front was on a diagonal, so I kept running through the squall line over and over and over... I'd notice the outside temperature would jump up to 70°F-74°F and I'd know I'd be going through it again.

Sometimes you just aren't sure what the best tactic is. Sure, I could've pulled over in Dayton, except there was construction, and I wasn't sure there WAS a shoulder. Also, getting off at an exit onto surface streets you don't know and can't see isn't a better option than having decent lane marker reflectors on an Interstate highway. (grin)

Fortunately I didn't have to test whether the storm drains back up on I-75 through Cincinnati and run into deep water without seeing it. But Kentucky last night was much more friendly.

Just sayin'.

Dr. Phil

Calendar Lies

The WMU calendar says that this is the start of the Summer-I Session. But on the 9th of May, it is hardly summer. The temp may get up to the 70s today. If it does, it'll only be like the fifth day in the 70s this year. Driving south to K-zoo in sunshine this morning, the trees have gone from having the "green moldy" look of the weekend to just about almost being considered to having some leaves. Definitely still spring around here. Not summer.

Gas Surges, Then Drops For Dear Ol' Mom

Gasoline peaked here in Allendale at $4.29.9/gal for regular last week, then started dropping by a few pennies. On Wednesday or Thursday evening, we paid $4.37.9/gal for midgrade -- $72.00 for nearly 16½ gallons. Good thing that we're so worried about the oil companies not making any money these days, otherwise we'd be upset about sending them so much money. But they deserve it! (evil grin)

On Saturday gas dropped to $4.05.9/gal, just in time for Mother's Day, and today it was $4.03.9 for regular and $4.14.9 for midgrade. But I had a 50¢/gal and a 10¢/gal discount coupons from the grocery store, so my effective price was $3.54.9/gal. Yay?

Still a couple weeks until Memorial Day. We'll see what excuse gets coughed up as to why we need to pay more by then.

Dr. Phil

About Last Night

Thursday I needed to pick up Mrs. Dr. Phil after work, so I drove her Bravada and dropped her off in the morning. Naturally I transferred my parking hang tag from my Blazer -- and when we got home I stuck the hang tag in my bag.

Fast forward to after my first class, when for some reason I flashed on the fact I hadn't put the hang tag back on the Blazer's rear view mirror. Damn. In other times I would've run out to the parking lot and put it back, but given my current compressed nerve slash walking issues, that wasn't going to happen. So I called the Parking Office -- once I found the number, not that either the WMU website or the GoWMU "portal" makes this easy and I ended up Googling "western michigan university parking services" -- and the parking people no longer do a call-in and get day clearance to park. But I was given a phone number to call if I got a ticket. Sigh.

And...?

When I finished up for the day and went out to Lot 61, there was in fact no parking ticket. I'd just about figured that maybe on a Friday they hadn't patrolled the lot when I realized that the car on the next aisle facing me did have a parking ticket. Either that was some clever student who was using an old ticket as camouflage or the parking person passed by the Teal Machine knowing it was one of the Regulars. The hang tag is now back in place.

Occasionally one gets cut a break. (grin)

Dr. Phil

That Smell? It's Finals Fear

It's Finals Week here at Western Michigan University. Finals are two hours long and close packed together with a whole fifteen minutes between sessions. The very first time slot was Monday 8-10am. And guess what? That was the scheduled time for my PHYS-2050 MTWRF 9am class.

Now this is good news, because statistically students do better when the Final falls in their normal class time, which this does. Bad news, because who the hell wants to have a Final at 8am in the bloody morning? For me, I had decided long ago that it would be easier if I would just drive down to K-zoo on Sunday afternoon and stay overnight in a motel, rather than trying to get up at 4am and then driving down in the dark. This plan looked to be real genius as the big Midwest winter storm rolled through.

Not The Walloping That Minneapolis or Syracuse Got

But during the weekend it rained. Sunday morning the roads were wet and the temp still just above freezing. By 2pm, the temps were 25°F and dropping, and it was starting to snow lightly -- and the winds were picking up. Overnight a couple of inches was forecast, along with gusting over 40mph and zero-ish wind chills. Temps were going to be in the teens, below the effective temperature for the road salt chemicals. Peachy. When I left, the roads were already shiny -- you could get up to speed, but stopping was clearly an adventure, as were poorly advised high speed turns onto the highway from the side streets that I kept seeing. The anti-lock brakes chattered every time I had to slow for a stop light. Gear it down, 4WD, no driving like an idiot -- and it worked pretty well.

The communities right along the lakeshore have been repeatedly clobbered by lake effect snows. But some ten miles inland in Allendale, mostly all we've gotten is to see this wall of snow clouds off to the west.

Made It, Now What?

Eventually made it to Kalamazoo, mostly 10-15 mph below the posted speed limits -- only saw one accident on the side of the road. Before I'd left home I'd printed out the Kalamazoo 10 movie schedule, as that multiplex is just across the road from the Super 8 I was going to stay at. I'd hoped that maybe RED was still playing, as Mrs. Dr. Phil had seen it with her mom a while ago and I hadn't. But no. However, I checked into my room at 4:15pm and had plenty of time to make a 4:45pm showing of Tangled, the new Disney Rapunzel movie -- very cute. Came out of the theatre and had to brush off about two inches of very, very fine diamond dust snow off one side of the vehicle.

I'd gone ahead and made a reservation -- it was $49.44 at the Super 8 Motel site with AAA... and $50 at Motels.com -- but there may have been only one other guest staying there, based on the cars parked. (grin) Super 8 isn't a posh chain, but it's adequate. The Panasonic TV had a Zenith remote, probably with the wrong code number, as the volume controls worked but not the change channel. The room had one of those window A.C. units with a space heater in it -- the TV needed the volume up to 13 when the fan was on, 4-6 when it was off. Luckily, I did have the remote volume control. (double-jeopardy-grin) Watched some football, saw the finale of The Amazing Race and a new Series III Inspector Lewis on PBS.

There were a couple of tables and chairs in the lobby for the advertised continental breakfast. If you liked dehydrated blueberries, you had your choice of blueberry bagels or blueberry muffins. They had one of those close-and-flip circular waffle makers, but no batter and no one around. The cereal choices looked to be no-name Fruity-Ohs and nondescript corn flakages. I had a bagel with Philadelphia cream cheese. The guy in the white pickup I thought was the other guest pulled up to the door, came in and piled four muffins in a foam cereal bowl, and left. It was something. If I was desperate for a "real" breakfast, I could've driven five buildings down to the 24-hour Steak-n-Shake, which would've done fine real pancakes, but I passed. Besides, I bring cookies to my exams -- and name brand cookies for Finals.

A Clear Windy Dawn

I was prepared to dig the Blazer out in the morning, but not a lot of snow actually fell overnight. And the winds pretty much kept the windows clear. I thought the window washer jets were frozen, but later found that I was just out of blue fluid. Overhead was sparkling clear. Despite the bitter cold, the actual main streets were clear and wet. Side streets were slippery. I'd worried about what time they'd open the buildings up. But I got in around 7:20am and found both the classroom and the offices buildings unlocked, so didn't have to play ID card roulette and find out if my ID card was or was not currently programmed to open the doors after hours. (As a part-timer, they are always deleting us after one semester, but sometimes after they've added us for the new semester.)

And my finals were copied and left in the lock-up as expected. And amazingly, 52 students were there at 8am, out of 56 who'd taken Exam 3. 1 showed up at 8:10, and I knew 1 student was stuck in the U.P. with a breakdown and no mechanics open on the weekend. Of course I told everyone the storm was coming and that they shouldn't go out of town for the weekend, but they never listen to Dr. Phil. That errant student is taking his final as I type -- he's got about 17 minutes to go.

By the time I was heading back to Allendale at 2:30pm, it was blue skies, bright sunshine and dry main roads. Still a ground hugging vision of snow clouds off at the Lake Michigan shore, but we weren't getting the snow on Monday.

Now it's all over except for the grading. (triple-word-score-grin)

Dr. Phil

And Red Means...

On Thursday's drive, I believe it was, I'd only gotten as far as Grand Valley State University on M-45 Lake Michigan Drive, when I saw flashing red and blue lights make the turnaround and cross to the other side of the boulevard ahead of me and come to a stop. At the traffic light, stopped in the left hand lane, was a #50 Campus Connector bus -- a GR Rapid city bus line between the downtown G.R. and Allendale campuses. But it was only after I went through the intersection, could I see the pretty new and shiny looking white full-sized extended cab pickup truck, possibly a Dodge, with its nose all smashed in, bumper mightily screwed up and leaking multiple colored fluids onto the pavement.

Clearly in the battle between pickup and city bus, the bus won hands down. I didn't see, in a quick glance, any significant damage to the bus. Pretty sure the pickup was traveling at speed and attempting to go through the intersection in the left-hand lane. Not sure if they were aware that the light was red or that a city bus was in front of them. Mrs. Dr. Phil wondered if they busy texting, now a crime in Michigan. (smirk)

And How Does This Happen?

Friday morning, at the first light on M-43 after getting off of US-131, there was a brown minivan which had almost made a left turn. But the minivan was sitting there and several people were standing around looking. I didn't see any body damage, however the left front hub and brake disk were not only lying on the pavement, there was a nice gouge in the asphalt starting about halfway through the left turn. After passing them, I saw the wheel and tire on the grass next to a lamp post.

Hmm... missing all the wheel nuts or all the bolt stems sheared off? Don't know. I know that once when heading to Chicago, I saw a wheel come flying off a car on the Dan Ryan expressway and they managed to unsteadily swerve over to the shoulder without hitting anything, while the wheel rolled on across all the lanes and ran into the concrete median barrier. Friday evening I saw a minivan with a nearly flat right rear tire in the grocery store parking lot.

Folks, please do a simple walk around your vehicle from time to time and do a quick inspection. You never know when tires go flat or nuts go missing, whether from improper mounting, defective parts or malicious behavior. Thank you.

Finally...

The other week I mentioned the two new roundabouts / traffic circles near the WMU campus. So far, after the first week, most people seem well behaved when dealing with these. Early on there was the genius who, upon entering the first roundabout eastbound, took the right turn lane clearly marked as a right turn lane in sign and pavement, and proceeded to turn left into the traffic circle. However I anticipated this behavior and avoided any trouble.

Friday I had a yahoo coming down the Arboretum Drive into the first traffic circle, and despite the yield sign in their lane and the word YIELD on the pavement, I was just sure they weren't going to stop as I entered the circle. I was right, stepping on the brakes and laying on the horn. And then I moved forward again. And so did this yutz, who was driving on the median. And since I now needed to exit the traffic circle, I lay on the horn again to warn them -- and they proceeded to floor it and go on. Unbelievable. Though in the yutz's defense, I will point out that while the second traffic circle clearly has two lanes, the first has only one. I can see where someone hard of thinking or distracted or sure they get to own the road would confuse themselves.

Why depend on signs, lines and warnings painted on the road?

I have a long commute every day. I really would rather make it back and forth without incident every day, but I need the cooperation of everyone else out there. (sigh) Also, you can rarely go wrong giving a person the right of way, even if they don't have it, on the assumption that they may be an idiot. This has been a public service safety message from one of the public, who wishes everyone to have a nice day.

Dr. Phil

Before You Can Even Start To Get Any Work Done

With only 41 students left in my summer session course, it looked pretty much like I might be able to finish up Grade-a-thon early on Monday, instead of the last minute before noon on Tuesday. I might've just had the grader send me the final exam and last two quiz grades, but I did have a student making up the Final at noon, and besides, it is so much easier to be able to look over the graded Finals and make sure everything's all right.

As a part-timer, I don't get a yearlong parking hang tag. Instead, every semester I have to go into the Parking Office and get a new sticker or card or tag -- they keep changing the procedures -- and register two of my three vehicles. I'm not sure I remember checking the summer tag, but typically the tags run out on the last day of finals/classes, which for Summer -II was Friday 20 August 2010. Okay, but as an instructor who has grades to do, why wouldn't this go until the Tuesday the grades are due? (grin) Now I wasn't actually expecting that they'd bother ticketing anyone during Break Week, but the real advantage to hitting the Parking Office on Monday was that there was no line. (happy grin)

Upon Arriving

Grader had put Q18/19 and the Final Exams in my mailbox at the office, so I now had that. Yay! Two more things to tick off the checklist. Quizzes -- done! Science Literacy Book Reports -- done! All exams -- done! (Save for the make-up Final) All exam and quizzes corrections -- done! Curve for the Final -- done! Time to implement the Bad Test Day Rule, the unwritten rule which adds points to the lowest of Exams 1-3 up to the average of the other two exams plus the final -- done!

All I Wanted Was Some Water

A pinched nerve or something has bugged me for a couple of days. I didn't fill a bottle of water or buy one on the way in, because I knew I had half a bottle of water left in the office. Don't you just hate it when you're sure you know something, only to find out it ain't necessarily so? (evil grin) Well, that bottle only had a swallow in it. But I didn't want to leave my office before my appointment person came, nor did I want to limp around unnecessarily if I had to. So I did something I thought was clever. When my make-up final person showed up, I gave them $1.25 and asked if they would be so kind as to go down to the Rood Hall lobby next door and get me a water. No problem. Except...

Student returns and says the vending machines now say water is $1.50 -- and they have no money. Well of course. They want to gouge the students more, so raise the rates as soon as break happens. Give student another quarter.

Student returns. The quarter slot is jammed full of quarters, which he found out by putting a quarter and having it get stuck and not dropping, nor will it give money back. But there is another vending machine in the lobby on the other side So I gave the student two dollar bills, hoping they'll scan as well as bypass the change slot.

Long delay. Student returns with bottle of water and a bunch of quarters. Seems the Coke guy was restocking the first machine and cleared the jam and gave him the right change and the bottle of water.

Interestingly, I was expecting the Coke machine to dispense Dasani, but instead I got a bottle of Smart Water. Actually GLACÉAU smart water, if you read the label. When I got home with the rest of the water, Mrs. Dr. Phil wanted to know why I bought "smart water", a marketing scam we both hate, and I said, truthfully, it was what the vending machine had.

Still, I would've been pretty mad to have not taken down enough money to hit more than one machine. Guess I was happy to have a younger man do the running on this one. But $1.50? (rolls eyes)

All Over Except For The Screaming

Student took Final Exam, I graded it, then cleaned up the last of the grading, adjusting a course curve so we get sufficient A's. Finally I could call up and log into GoWMU's faculty page and enter the grades. Yay! Grades done!

Of course there's done and there's done. When I got home, I took the grading spreadsheet, sorted the entries by the student's Personal ID number they assigned themselves, then converted a table to HTML pre-formatted text. Once I posted the grades online, I waited for the inevitable emails.

The hardest and worst part of my job is explaining to students, in detail, while their final course grade isn't as good as their last predicted grades. While many people did better on the Final Exam, some did worse. And I fear that some people give up towards the end and not turning in the last quizzes and tanking the Final Exam, somehow thinking that they've got their passing grade in the bag. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

No, I don't do extra credit -- it's in the syllabus. Yes, I did apply the Bad Test Day rule, adding in the extra points to the total, not changing the exam scores. Several hopeful people thought they still had a chance, when in fact, they didn't. I hate it when people fail (most students have to get a C or better in their major, so DC, D and E don't work for them), especially when we've talked in my office about what they needed to do to get a C or a CB or whatever, and then they don't do it. Check the math if you like, but the spreadsheet doesn't lie -- it can add up rows quite well.

I tell people the first day I'd be happy to give everyone A's, if they deserved it. They get the points and even when the dean comes down hard on me and says What Gives, I'd be able to say "Look at these scores, look at these hard Dr. Phil problems -- and still they got all A's." Yeah, I'd love to be able to defend that to my bosses.

Alas, such is not to be.

Tuesday

I was driving around doing errands, and bypassed the intersection of Wilson & M-45 and took the back way, which eventually turns into Linden. At one point as the road finally straightens out, there is a very large tree which overhangs the road. Approaching it at 55 mph, I realized there was a very large bird sitting on the topmost branch, with a very distinctive white head. Yup - bald eagle looking around for its next meal. With traffic, it wasn't easy to pull of the road, turn around twice and hope to get a picture before the eagle flapped off, so I didn't.

Yes, there are bald eagles in Michigan, and not just the U.P. In fact:

Bald eagles can be found in every state except Hawaii. They are more prevalent in Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, and Michigan; the largest concentration is in Alaska.

So we're in the Top 7 states for bald eagle sightings. (grin) Who knew? And what fun!

Dr. Phil

Paperless Newspaper

This week I started getting a Daily Update email from the Grand Rapids Press. I guess somewhere along the way I'd sent email to one of the editorial people, so my address was on their list. My first reaction was -- I already get the newspaper, what do I need this for? On the other hand, this email comes mid-morning and I won't see the paper until tonight or tomorrow morning, so I figured maybe I'd give it a shot.

Raising Speed Limits

So even though I haven't gone that way this week, I found out from my daily briefing on Thursday that MDOT crews were busy raising speed limit signs on US-131. From Ann Street on the north side to 28th Street on the south, the speed has dropped from 70 mph to 55 mph, except for the S-curve in downtown Grand Rapids. Now it's 70 mph all the way, except still 50 mph in the S-curve.

Not sure what that's going to do. According to the traffic engineers, not much, since the drivers have never slowed down much in the 55 mph zone. This created a mix of 55 and 70 mph traffic in the three lanes.

Isn't it nice that the criminals -- those breaking the law and speeding -- now get to set the standard for everyone?

A similar speed up is planned for I-196 through downtown, raising the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph, once The Fix On 196 construction project finishes up this fall.

A Little Bit Of News Is A Good Thing

Of course on the drive home I can pick up traffic & weather from WLAV-FM. And on Thursday I heard that there was a car burning at US-131 and 100th Street south of Grand Rapids. The fire was on the southbound side, but I was prepared for a gapers' block northbound.

Even before I got to the southern border of Kent County, I could see the ugly column of black smoke. Since, northbound traffic was still moving, in part due to the fact there just wasn't a lot of vehicles going north. So I was able to get into the left hand lane and snap two one-handed somewhat unsteady shots -- though not a nice full frame full burning short at right angles:


Still, the fire department was on the scene spraying it down, orange flames shooting out and a great series of patches of scorched black grass on the hill grade to the entrance from 100th Street to US-131 southbound. The traffic southbound was backing up a couple of miles. And I had known that northbound was still open and able to breeze on by.

It's nice to have information.

Dr. Phil