You can do the same with TalkNav and I think any other GPS system. They are called way points though and you can add other points of interest as well.
I probably would have done fine had I just plowed on through some of the drifts but some were well above my knees. Eventually something would have turned up . Well actually it did. Tonight it is out to a long term awards ceremony, cocktails and wine and cheese and not all the cheese will be on the tables. Maybe not all of the wine will be in bottles either.The joys of middle management! Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: William Stephan To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 3:00 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Snow-Dale Dale, sounds like a pretty serious misadventure. Glad it all worked out. Snow really can be disorienting, sometimes even if you're working a dog. It may be that the GPS systems based on cell phones have gotten better, but a few months ago I played with one and found it far less usable than a Trekker. The trekker has a feature where you can drop "bread crums" which I would think would be of particular value in a situation like you described. BTW, that's all I know about the feature, that it exists. Good luck. Bill Stephan Kansas City, MO (816)803-2469 William Stephan -----Original Message----- From: "Dale Leavens"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: 12/4/07 12:01:55 AM To: "[email protected]"<[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Snow-Dale There are times when I would probably like to make a pass or two with a snow blower just to open up the sidewalk but as I am the first one out in the morning and can generally stomp through the worst of it, it would just mean having to get up and going that much earlier then turning up to work smelling like a two stroke. As I am not fond of getting up early for anything and particularly to remove snow there just isn't any incentive. The neighbour I share my driveway with has a big high four wheel drive half ton, he usually just boots on out and waits for his brother to come along with his truck and plow. The darn things cost a fortune as well, I think the going rate here is 25 or 30 bucks to have a front end loader come and you can contract for a few hundred bucks a season. They come around first thing in the morning right behind the town snow plow and dig you out no gas to carry, no snow blowing back in your face, no trouble starting the damn thing and no trouble getting to work on time. for the price and inconvenience it just doesn't make sense to have one unless you like that sort of thing. I do rather enjoy the exercise of shoveling, I have a 30 inch wide steel scraper, a little heavy but it moves quite a bit of snow and a big snow scoop and a couple of smaller lighter plastic scraper/shovels mostly for Janet's use, I generally buy her a new one each winter, haven't done that yet this year. Having said that, my dislike of the things extends to my walk to work. I pass about three most mornings after a storm roaring and growling and generally over powering all of the sound environment so I can't tell where in heck I am for certain. The big diesel loaders and plows too if I encounter them pretty well dominate the soundscape. Not living in a city though there isn't much traffic although even that has some disadvantages, you can't use traffic that isn't there to help with direction. Tonight I really got turned around somehow, I sort of know how it happened but I don't know quite how I got as far disoriented as I did. It has been snowing but more significantly, it has been blowing all day. Although the snow had been pretty well cleared this morning on my way to work the loaders and blowers notwithstanding I only had a little trouble when I made the one corner because the nearest snow blower sounded from my orientation to be on my side, the left side of the street so I aimed at a point just to it's right. Because it was actually working on the other side of the street a little further down than I thought it took me on a long diagonal across the street. Because the houses along there are close together and near the road few have driveways so I can't keep left to follow the bank because the vehicles are parked there. In the summer of course there is a sidewalk beyond the cars but that is covered in winter. Anyway I soon figured it out as I approached the noisy thing partly because the roar of a second one further along the road came into hearing off to the left a little where it shouldn't hav e been. Coming home tonight though was a much bigger problem. There wasn't any noise to speak of except for the wind blowing the snow about but it had drifted badly in places. I think I heard maybe three vehicles moving in the 25 minutes I was out in it. Just beyond this no longer used school there is an open field and a small lake to the right so the snow had blown over the bank and created heavy deep drifts which also tended to drive me to the left into the road way. Had there been a little traffic I could have better defined direction but wouldn't you know it, not one vehicle passed me. I tried bearing in mind the direction of the wind but that too seemed to be shifting from due west to nearly due south, I needed west but without consistent wind direction that wasn't very useful and it even confused to some extent the direction of drifts. Often I can hear the railroad which skirts more or less the south edge of town which can also help me figure out direction but it was either lost in the wind or they just didn't have an engine grinding back and forth as they often do. Eventually I did hear a couple of cars and waved one down thinking to just establish my location. IT turned out to be a fellow I had never met before but his wife I have known on and off for about 35 years, she was a teenager who occasionally baby-sat for us when we first moved to town our first cycle through and she works at one of the local banks. He gave me a ride! For sure the plows will be out again in the morning, the wind though should be down and although they are calling for still more snow it should taper off and if not blowing about will be better. This is about the second time in the past 18 years I have got so lost, as it turned out I probably would have figured it out soon but I was a long way from where I thought I was, so not sure I would have believed myself even if I did locate something familiar. Think I'm going to buy me that TalkNav GPS to go with my cell phone. I would have called someone but couldn't have told them where I was and as it turned out, I was no where near where I thought I was or should have been. They list stupid operating temperatures though for those GPS receivers, minus 10C or something like that. Fortunately it wasn't all that cold out but it was about minus 15. Wonder if they work through a winter parka. Not sure I will be able to hear my phone talking through my mitt either, one thing for sure, you don't fiddle with those little buttons out in the cold with bare fingers for very long. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: William Stephan To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 8:36 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Snow-Dale I used to have one Dale, and this is the same reason I got rid of the thing. Besides, it only started reliably when there was no snow cover. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Snow-Dale No, I don't have a snow blower, I am a little concerned with all the noise I might just run a neighbours dog through it. There are a few little kids now living in the neighbourhood as well, I really wouldn't want to shred one of those. They never come around but that doesn't mean one wouldn't. I have used them in the past and for the patio I probably could with the fence closed off but the exercise is good for me too. When I dug out my driveway and had it back filled with sand my neighbour had his done at the same time so we have a drive about thirty feet wide between us. His brother generally pushes it clear with a bucket mounted on a pick-up truck. that just leaves us with 90 or a hundred feet of sidewalk up the side of the driveway to the back yard, another maybe 30 feet across the front of the house which I have formed into long 3 foot steps to the front door and a little bit off to the shed. Then there is the patio at the back, most people wouldn't bother keeping the back open but I like it and particularly in the spring I have most of the patio cleared, all I need do is pull the bank away from the house, first at the French doors behind the dining room so we can open those. Last winter when I broke my leg I was glad to be able to use the patio when the sun got a little warm in April. A friend came over and opened up the bit at the doors and cleared away some at the bench which gave me a convenient place to do a little out door walking with my crutches. I was sure glad I had kept the patio clear. some years I get as much as five foot banks along the far edge of the patio as well as four feet up against the back of the house. This year will be one of those if this much is any indication. I keep threatening to build Janet an igloo back there, maybe I will this year. We used to when I was a kid, I don't think she has any real idea how warm they can be inside. I have never spent a night in one, I would like to, I doubt though that Janet would, she rather enjoys the convenience of her ensuite bathroom. We generally sleep with a window open though, probably colder in our bedroom than it would be out there in a quinsy. It hit minus 29C which is about 20 below F last night. it is only minus 12 so far tonight which is about 10 degrees where you live, darn near tropical by comparison. It will make a much more pleasant walk to work tomorrow. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:DLeavens%40puc.net> net Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee A. Stone To: Blind Handyman Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 12:05 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Snow-Dale I thought you had a snow blower Dale. I remember you telling us a couple of years back about blowing the snow up against the house. we have done that in the past. using the snow as insulation. Tonight all we have had so far is about 3 to 4 hours of sleet and freezing rain making one big ice mess. I also heard out Roberts way lots of power outages due tto this same ice storm. Time to get out the emergency lights and hurricane lamps for the sighted folks .Lee -- Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if you don't, why you should. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
