If you’ve ever seen Crocodile Dundee remember the line, “That’s not a knife, this is a knife!” The clip will refresh your memory.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01NHcTM5IA4]

I laughed when I read about the Russian diplomats poking Americans for shutting down the entire federal government in Washington, DC because of snow. They commented that it wasn’t a hurricane or a tornado, just snow. How could we be so flummoxed by a bit a snow?

The following photos show some serious snows that the rest of the world endures. The Swiss folks in this house can honestly say they are snowed in…

Unlike this dog, who is definitely snowed out.

I’m working on some solar power projects right now, but I don’t think we are considering the contingency below.

The following photos from Norilsk, Russia show why it’s considered the World Capital of Snow.

Thanks to Lex Pelger for passing along this Dark Roasted Blend site of great snow photos.

And finally, we have a public works idea for lowering the unemployment rate.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

I believe in trying to keep my body reasonably fit and strong as I age. To that end, I ride bike with some buddies early Sunday mornings. Yesterday was cold (10 degrees F at Curt’s house) but we don’t let that stop us. After being out about an hour, I got a flat tire. As I began to replace the tube, I looked at Curt and saw this 1 1/4″ mucus-icle hanging from his nose. He had no idea it was there. So of course I needed to capture this disgusting Snot Stalactite on my phone camera and share it with you.

With a friend like me, Curt has no need to worry about his enemies. For those of you interested in justice, though, you’ll be pleased to know that he did thoroughly kick my butt on the ride.

Most Sunday mornings a couple of buddies and I ride bike. We hammer each other for bragging rights about who zipped up the hill or won the final sprint. You know, typical stupid guy stuff.

We ride all the way through the winter (our coldest ride was 8 degrees F) and met yesterday hoping the misty rain wouldn’t actually be rain. We reasoned that since it showed 32 degrees F on our thermometers at home, it would just get warmer so we shouldn’t hit ice. In retrospect, these were dubious conclusions.

It was only Cromer and I, so we rode and chatted and had a good old time. It started raining hard when we were about 10 miles away, so we decided to meander our way back. As I rode, I felt my front tire slip to the side, which scared me though I was able to stay upright. As we rode up a long hill, I kept feeling my rear wheel skip when I put power to the pedal, but just thought I needed to be in a higher gear.

After riding some more and feeling my front wheel slip a few more times, I unclipped my foot and touched the road. It was solid ice. I got off my bike and could barely stand, as my bike slipped one way and I slipped another. I finally got to the edge of the road and could stand in the grass. We had been riding about 1 mile on a sheet of ice. I can’t imagine how we didn’t fall down.

We were about 3 miles from home and Cromer wanted to call his wife to pick us up. I knew she’d be asleep and am not a fan of getting rescued from situations I’ve behaved myself into. So we decided to walk our bikes (slide them really) and hope for a pick-up truck. We walked about 1.5 miles with no pick-up trucks passing, but I was able to raise a very sore blister on my heel (note to other idiots: bike shoes don’t make good walking shoes).

Finally I saw a little pick-up and waved him down. When he stopped, it was my old buddy and fellow engineer Art Thomspon. We worked together at Huth Engineers and now he’s at Woodland Concrete.

Engineers: they are there when you need them.

I was talking with my friend Randy Meyerhoffer last night, he’s a Construction Supervisor and amazing Craftsman. We got to telling stories.

He was working with a crew forming sidewalks at Yoder’s Restaurant in New Holland, PA. A car, obviously tourists, pulled up and the woman rolled down her window and asked, “Do you know where we could see some Amish?” Asking this question in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch County seems reasonable enough.

Randy, however, being anything but reasonable, replied with a completely straight face, “Maam, this is the Amish Breeding Season. They like to all have their kids at the same time in summer, so they hole up this time of year. You probably won’t see any around at this time of year.”

The woman replied, “I never knew that.” While the rest of the crew managed to keep serious faces and nodding heads until after the tourists drove away. Then, of course, Randy and the crew laughed like crazy. Randy says this little jewel just popped into his head as the woman asked the question.

If you have a favorite construction story, please share it here or on the Forum at ConstructionKnowledge.net.

I’ve been working on a few large renovation projects recently and been getting hammered on change orders. When I saw the photo below that Jim Stewart posted on the Forum,  I laughed out loud.

Hope it amuses you as well.

I’m not a big fan of excuses. Have you ever sat in a meeting waiting for one person to arrive? Then he comes rushing in the door, talking about the traffic or some other thing outside of his control. I much prefer, “I’m sorry I’m late, I should have left earlier.” As the old saying sort of goes, “Excuses are like anuses, everybody’s got one.”

Nevertheless, I’m about to start pitching a couple of excuses for my lack of posts. First, we had the wedding of our daughter Anna last weekend at our house. People started parking in our yard just as the clouds dropped rain like it was coming out a faucet. I knew that a party for 150 was a bit of a logistics stretch for us. I learned that a wedding involves way more everything than a party. So it goes.

I couldn’t understand why I felt so bad right after the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and we love our new son and grandson. I thought the stress must have gotten me, but I generally handle stress well. Turns out some little virus (or as my scientist son calls viruses, “Pure malevolence with a hard shell”) started to play with my systems. Eight days later I’m coming out the other end. I don’t know if it was swine flu, but I haven’t been that sick in nearly 20 years.

As for the Oui Vey, I re-read one of my favorite books as I was starting to feel better. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began just amazes me with its depth and accessibility. It’s a graphic novel (a comic book) about a Holocaust survivor and his story. If you’re going to read one book this year, make it a Pulitzer Prize winning comic book. Among other things, it’s a testimony to the value of competence.

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