bbb Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 Yes... I was using slang... When I am outside... Slang for the structure is called a "wall"... On the prints of the place they call it an esplanade... Again... Sorry for putting in slang... Think of it like when you pass through Black Rock on the Niagara Section between Amherst Street and Austin Street... It is one giant wall/wide esplanade. Notice the "Walls" There is the "short wall" or "I-wall" (looks like an "I") and then there is the "long wall" or "river wall"... Upper "guide wall" or lower "guide wall." I use Sirius in the car and at home... Still using my old Sportster between the two docking stations. I like the music channels and then rip off of that when I want the song... There is always music playing in the house. Yet, now that I have a wireless sound card from my computer to stereo rig... I find myself listening to free stuff off the computer. Listening to the games would make me too up tight!! True about the Rick J thing... It is the one thing I miss, would also raise my level of intensity! When my son was 5, one of his quotes about Rick J was: "He gets paid to blurt out?" I probably should drop the sat radio and lose the bill... Only a small bit a month and still sorta keeps me "legal!" Cool - what do you do on that wall? (I now see why you have strong opinions and knowledge about the Great Lakes!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 (edited) Cool - what do you do on that wall? (I now see why you have strong opinions and knowledge about the Great Lakes!) I work a swing shift at the lock. Right now I am on midnights, 0000 to 0800. Just got back from locking a tow boat up with 4 barges. A bit icey today... I guess better than snow because we would be plowing all night. The river is still pretty jammed up with about 8" of ice... Channel is cut though... Barges have been keeping it open... Yesterdays warmer temps loosened things up a bit: Upper (lake) End Lower (heading towards MS and south) End Edited January 18, 2011 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 I work a swing shift at the lock. Right now I am on midnights, 0000 to 0800. Just got back from locking a tow boat up with 4 barges. A bit icey today... I guess better than snow because we would be plowing all night. The river is still pretty jammed up with about 8" of ice... Channel is cut though... Barges have been keeping it open... Yesterdays warmer temps loosened things up a bit: Upper (lake) End Lower (heading towards MS and south) End That is very cool......I love pictures of water. I love pictures of winter. Therefore, I really love pictures of water in the winter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 That is very cool......I love pictures of water. I love pictures of winter. Therefore, I really love pictures of water in the winter! I will be on days next week and with the temps falliing into the below zero range for a spell this weekend, things should "knit" up very well if there isn't continous traffic to cut the ice up. I will be sure to take pictures, especially with the barges plying through and busting it up... We have bubblers going to slow the ice from wrecking havoc opening and closing the machinery. The one problem with the warm and cold is that it busts up and then gorges up in layers when it refreezes. I just had a 3,000 HP tow boat try and push 4 barges down river... It took him over an hour to round the corner and get about 1500 feet towards the lock... They go full throttle and once the ice stops them, they have to back up and try again. If it gets real bad, they have to uncouple and "blaze trail" with just the tow (tug) boat. Winter will get so bad sometimes that the 9 foot deep channel will fill with ice chunks like a "slurppy" from top to bottom of the river. Yet... Amazingly once the warm (and rain) hits... Things melt quickly and everything flows around the bend down river... That bend acts like a giant sink drain trap when it is cold and icy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 I will be on days next week and with the temps falliing into the below zero range for a spell this weekend, things should "knit" up very well if there isn't continous traffic to cut the ice up. I will be sure to take pictures, especially with the barges plying through and busting it up... We have bubblers going to slow the ice from wrecking havoc opening and closing the machinery. The one problem with the warm and cold is that it busts up and then gorges up in layers when it refreezes. I just had a 3,000 HP tow boat try and push 4 barges down river... It took him over an hour to round the corner and get about 1500 feet towards the lock... They go full throttle and once the ice stops them, they have to back up and try again. If it gets real bad, they have to uncouple and "blaze trail" with just the tow (tug) boat. Winter will get so bad sometimes that the 9 foot deep channel will fill with ice chunks like a "slurppy" from top to bottom of the river. Yet... Amazingly once the warm (and rain) hits... Things melt quickly and everything flows around the bend down river... That bend acts like a giant sink drain trap when it is cold and icy. It's nice that they have water activity during the winter. I can't imagine that there is any kind of commerce going on in the Buffalo River, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) It's nice that they have water activity during the winter. I can't imagine that there is any kind of commerce going on in the Buffalo River, etc. Very sadly, not much. Winter time here is our VERY busy commercial season. Don't get me started bbb! I don't want the board hounds on my ass!!! Okay... You twisted my arm... Now you did it! As much as many want to laugh... Probably why invasive fish are used as a "enviro smokescreen." Gotta remember, shipping is getting more and more streamlined... Places like the Seaway (and whatever is left of BFLO's port) close to the world for six or so months... The canals do more shipping than the whole Seaway... Hence do not close because of ice. Don't even get me started on the "ice boom", recreational interests, and hydro production (especially at the Falls)! The lock I am at does more traffic than the Seaway combined... Tonnage, money, and recreational interests. Cheap transportation systems is where it is at (in my many posts, I made corollary arguments to why a location like Indiana is doing do so well)... NOW, mix in NON-union interests on the inland waterways. If you can get your product to (and through) the world cheaply... Who isn't going to want to locate there? Now mix in that thing I said about streamlining transportation systems... Intermodal containers are where it is at... Any strange conincidence that intermodal facilites are springing up all the rivers. For the first time in 20 years I am seeing containers loaded onto barges. In the past, river traffic was only used mainly for bulk commodities AND AS A ANCILLARY trans system... Now it is intergrated (or will be). Those bulk comods being grain, sand, coal, pertol/chem products, etc are now sharing space with manufactured consumer products. IMO, it is a big "game changer" when you can float 30 or so containers, straight off the ship or rail, in a single 200x35x9 (deep) barge. Now times those barges by 6,8, or 15 in a single tow with minimal help to make the system work (maybe a crew of two pilots and 4 deckhands). Do the math... WE want cheaper and more efficient ways of doing business. I posted this many time before, sorry if it is redundant On that note... The best thing in the world that could happen to a place like BFLO, not TOR or CHI, is too shut down what I am doing and what the Seaway does... Keep everything intRA-basin at the Great Lakes. Yet, that isn't how an efficient world works... Is it? Edited January 21, 2011 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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