Ironwood, My Hometown

From the Ironwood Daily Globe

200 inches of snowfall to date Published Thursday, March 23, 2006 11:29:18 AM Central Time It's a psychological barrier, but an important one. "Want to let you know we've officially reached the 'over 200' mark for snow this season," said DeeGee Pawlicki of of the Western Upper Peninsula Convention and Visitor Bureau. "We didn't make it last year." For a region that markets itself as Big Snow Country, the 200-inch figure is a point of honor. "My official connection is the wastewater treatment plant, right out my window," Pawlicki said from her office near the Gogebic County Fairgrounds. "With four inches overnight, we now stand at 202.5 for the season, or 16.87 feet." The heavy snow created hazardous driving conditions Wednesday evening. The last measurements taken by the Gogebic County Road Commission at two of the region's typical snow "hot spots" show there's some catching up to do. As of March 17, the snow gauge at Copper Peak had received 170.5 inches, while the gauge north of Wakefield had received 184.7 inches.

When Will They Learn

As I drive around I listen to the radio a lot and hear the silliest speaking errors.
One that drives me up the wall is the pronunciation of the letter "W". Its not "doub you" or "doubo you" dummies. Its "double you". It is the only letter in the alphabet that has three (3) syllables. It should be easy to spot and pronounce correctly especially if the talker works for the University of Wisconsin system and does air work on WPR. And its worse yet if he/she has been anointed to record a series of station ID's most of which use the letter "W".

So many radio talkers also have the "myself" syndrome. Somewhere they got the idea that the word is a subjective or objective pronoun. Wrong! Using it as such is a serious grammatical error. Use "myself" only for intensive or reflective purposes. It cannot stand alone!

I continue to here talkers use the word "incidence" and "incidences" when they should be using "incident" or incidents". Hey, they are two entirely different words and anyone who is allowed to talk on the radio should know the difference.

Incident refers to

1. A definite and separate occurrence; an event.
2. A usually minor event or condition that is subordinate to another.
3. Something contingent on or related to something else.
4. An occurrence or event that interrupts normal procedure or precipitates a crisis: an international incident.

Incidence refers

1. The act or an instance of happening; occurrence: did not expect criticism and was surprised by its incidence.
2. Extent or frequency of occurrence: a high incidence of malaria in the tropics.
3. Physics.
   1. The arrival of radiation or a projectile at a surface.
   2. Angle of incidence.

What is the incidence of the incident. The incident happened three times. The incidents incidence was three! Got it now?

I'm at the point where I can't stand it anymore and tune to another station when some of these talkers air their talking problems. I'm ready to go to satellite radio where perhaps the quality of the presenters is better.

The Dying Will End!

If I heard right Wisconsin has had 32 snowmobile fatalities this winter. Finally someone over there has recognized the cause and is suggesting a55 mile per hour night time speed limit for these killing machines. Wow, what insight!

I Felt Like the Big Time

Its been a number of years since the dispatch gave me a reprieve from the up and down and the back and forth. Last week was such a reprieve. I left Sunday for deliveries Monday in Wisconsin and Illinois and then made an afternoon pickup in Montgomery, Illinois. That pickup delivered in Jackson, Michigan, Tuesday morning and I was then sent north to Pinconning, Michigan, to rescue a load which had been left there a few days before when a tractor broke down. That load delivered in Willard, Ohio, Wednesday and then I was sent to Streetsboro, Ohio, even farther east, for a pickup of steel for the U.P. mines. I made it back to the company's Quinnesec Warehouse on Thursday morning after logging 1950 miles in a rather enjoyable 5 day adventure. I even had some time to get connected and played Scrabble with Northfield and Rotterdam a couple of times. As an encore I then made a quick trip to Cincinnati to complete the week. Ah, the joys of trucking but will they soon end for this driver?

It is now Saturday 3/18/2006 at 5:46:24 PM
Event: Retirement at 65
Scheduled For 5/13/2008 11:05:00 PM
2 years 1 month 26 days 5 hours 18 minutes 36 seconds or
112 weekends or
787 days or
18,893 hours (12,595 waking hours) or
1,133,598 minutes or
68,015,915 seconds