wildone

Yeah, we call them sanders or sanding trucks. What they spread varies from area to area. In my city they use sand and salt mixture, where as in Calgary they use a rock chip and salt mixture. My trip to Calgary last week has the huge crack in the windshield to attest to the fact they use rock chips . Most of our sanders have a blade mounted under the truck, just behind the cab, and usually is sufficient to take care of normal snow fall plowing. It is in the really big dumps that they hook up the front plows to the trucks like the highways ones always use. I guess that would be a good question for your UK officials. How much is an attachment for a plow or to drop a sander/gritter into the back of a dump truck would it really cost? It is not like you are buying a specially built truck for the use of snow removal/cleaning. BTW, the graders are mainly used in construction for grading or leveling ground, but work excellent on pavement for scraping ice and snow.

I think Kit's #8 post probably holds the most weight of all of them, and us Canadians are just jealous of you that you can do that . Actually growing up in Western Canada, I too have never had a snow day either. I do know that rural schools occasionally have to close for a day due to heavy snow fall which makes the school buses and moreso the teachers unable to get to the school. This is usually only for a day as most muncipalities and cities and towns all make bus routes the highest priority for sanding, plowing and graders (by the way Kit, is gritters the name for what we call graders. Always interesting to see different terms for the same thing). To be totally honest, the Lower Mainland of British Columbia (Greater Vancouver Area) weather is much like the UK's I imagine. Every few years they get a bit of snow and the city basically shuts down. We also cannot forget when the ex mayor of Toronto declared a state of emergency due to a snow storm and called in the military and reserves to help 'save' the city . Toronto has been the butt of many Canadians' jokes since that happened. I see what Jack is saying though. Maybe in the future as train switches need changing out, why not put in better ones that can accomodate a bit of cold and snow. Even if it is only needed one day a year, than it would be most likely worth the cost. As for best memory, in my Grade 11 year we got a huge May snowstorm. It was like 3 feet overnight of heavy, heavy, heavy, wet snow. Showed up to school and probably only half of the students and teachers showed up (so I guess technically it was a snow day). The principle gave us the option of staying and studying or taking the day off (guess what we all picked ). One friend, that had a 4x4 truck and a winch on the front, and I took off and pulled people out of the snow for $10 a shot. Were we being opportunistic, hell yeah, but the towing companies were running about 8 hours behind and were charging $100 a tow. I'm pretty sure a local bar ended up with most of our proceeds that day . Steve

Great chapter, thanks CJ It is interesting how the General thought out the whole distraction exercise with Flight One. Now that we know the lemon were just a means to get the Iranians to stand down, it seems so simple. I'm wondering if you can do anything with burnt lemons? I have to admit, when the garage door openers were mentioned earlier I was always thinking of the remote control part. Does anyone else refer to the remote as the 'garage door opener? Like as in "Don't forget the garage door opener" or "Grab the garage door opener from my car". Seeing that it actually was in reference to the actual mechanical part of the garage door opener it makes more sense and explains why I was so off base in trying to tie them to radar jamming . I'm going to deviate from the norm here and ask, is Eric really interest in Jansen, or is he interested in Keith? Jansen is definitely in to Eric, that is evident. But with Eric's whisper to Jon on which one he liked, don't we have to look at Eric's actions. He always speaks really highly of Keith. I believe he refered to Jansen as being like a brother. Could it be that Jansen could be hurt here? I'm really curious now about the actual ground attack from the members of Flight Three, and what the Scar has up his sleeve?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANUNDRA Hope you have a great day

Well since CJ didn't respond to the possible use of the lemons that I suggested, we will have to wait till Tuesday to see what lateral thinking the General has up his sleeve. Only a cruel goat would let The Scar, Yuri, Felicia, and probably everyone else know what their for but not his loyal, dedicated readers . I thought I had solved the whole Garage Door openers and Laptop question on Flight One, But no such luck...I guess. My theory was full of holes. So I thought I would let you all know what that theory was and see if it helps anyone else guess what it is. My first guess that it was wrong was on how easy I found this information. If you search Garage Door Openers in Wikipedia you find out all about them and the frequencies that they operate on. At the end of one section, you then can find out about Land Mobile Radio Systems and how the two interfere with each others. Since LMRS works on the same range of frequency as Garage door openers, I figured that the laptops could be used to randomly jam not only Iranian radio system but also the US systems as well. What I didn't take into consideration was the amount of power would be required to jam the radio systems. A level that would be essentially impossible with just a laptop and a battery in a garage door opener. So with that little bit of information, can anyone come up with a feasible solution to what they are being used for? I'm really curious about their uses. Steve

It annoys me when a company isn't forthright with their key employees. I know that a company is usually reluctant to tell key people of a possible sale when some or all of the jobs might be lost due to the sale. I personally know that some offer an incentive to people to stay until the sale by offering some cash. At least you would know when you'll be going. As far as the bolt goes, I remember reading on a web page of things you could do to freak out people, and dropping a bolt that you bring with you on a rollarcoaster was one of those. Let's hope that's what it was

According to CJ's article, all they have to do is glide outside of the ash cloud and then restart their engines. No problem if there is no ash cloud on the east side of the island

Sorry, I can't resist: That's exotic dancers

Great chapter, thanks CJ . I wonder if Eric would indeed do anything with a guy if he was sober. We look back at Cody and Brandon, both were when he was tequila'd up. I liked Keith's statement about a six pack . How can anybody really be worried about Cumbre Vieja exploding when they really should be worried about a boiling Mount Saint Helen (Loved that one) that could erupt at any minute. I have a feeling that things are only going to get worse between Helen and Jane before they get better. Actually I get that feeling that all of their situations on the island is going to worsen. Then there is the whole Jon and Eric thing. Is Jon turning into his own explosive volcano ready to erupt. So far CJ has given us 3 different Volcano's ready to erupt on the same island at the same time . So Felicia sees the Scar for what he is really worth with his little cut in on the runway in Somalia. I think that bodes well for General Bradson. Thanks again, Steve

Well since CJ is being unusually shy tonight , I might as well get the discussion forum started. Oh, you can read Confrontations here.

where do you come up with this stuff??? Oh wait, ask your sister that question

Not 100% sure but I believe a faggot or fagot is a bundle of sticks. I don't believe one stick makes a fag, it is just a stick.

I'm kind of glad that you included the link. I was however surprised that you on purpose left off the last sentance from the article: I guess what you were trying to hide was the fact that goats are the results of black magic being used on criminals . Care to tell us about your younger years CJ?

Is it just me but do you get a feeling the Steve (#1) is going to get a lot of undue attention in chapter 25?

Well since were a couple of days out, I might as well wager my guess, or the part that I figured out so far. Flight one which contains the Lemons, the laptops, the garage door openers, the corpses, seven pallets and one pilot that will not land, unless he is trying to mimic the Miracle on the Hudson flight . I believe this flight is a total diversion for the other two planes. It's goal is to fly low ahead of the other two flights and by using the laptops and garage door openers will jam the Iranian radar. This will enable the other two flights to sneak into Iran undetected. I also believe that the chemical jars are on this flight. Once the flight jams the radar and the two flights are on the ground (I believe that Flight Two will have the full fuel bladders and will refill Flight Three while the operation is ongoing on the ground. CJ made no indication that the Herc's had capability or Flight Two have a refueling rod installed, so I doubt their will be a mid air refueling. This would mean that Flight Two will stay in Iran after transferring the fuel to Flight Three when they land. Now back to Flight One, after it has successfully jammed the Iranian radar, at the last minute, the jamming will stop. This will probably alert the Iranians, and the US in the Persian Gulf. The inexperienced pilots job is to crash the plane into the Persian Gulf, where the boat of fishermen that The Scar hired will pick him up. The crash will cause the mayonnaise jars to break, combining the chemicals with the salt water, creating a toxic cloud, but not one that will harm anyone. Second, the lemons will scatter in the water and float. This will make anyone who sees the plane wreck from the water or the air, combined with the chemicals, that some kind of major chemical spill has occurred. I believe the lemons were chosen due to the fact that they will float, and their bright yellow colour which could be mistaken for sulfur or maybe another chemical. Finally when anyone does approach the plane, they will find 3 bodies that everyone will assume were the pilot and crew of the flight. Remember the real pilot has already escaped on the fishing boat. Flight three, before landing will open the cargo hold and begin dropping the grenades in mayonnaise jars. They do not need to worry about the timing of the grenades as they won't be live until the jar hits the ground and breaks, thus starting the fuse. By doing a sweep of the area, being a chemical storage site, the Iranians will panic with all the grenades going off and abandon the area leaving the attack force to go in. Also the attack force will have the additional grenades on their bodies for use as needed. There is still a couple of things that I don't have a clue about. What is the mystery seventh pallet on Flight One? Obviously something that The Scar has put on the flight, but what it contains and how it helps his objectives (which we still don't know) is the mystery. I believe Felicia will actually help the General rescue his son, but will also be aware of the cooks and Wilhelms deceit, and will take care of that before they hit the ground and have a chance to use the satellite phones. Anyone else wanna guess ?

My favorite line in the chapter! Definitely my favourite line too . Too bad that Helen didn't have this rule back in San Fransisco when Cody tequilad the Eric

This forum intrested me when it was posted. Unfortunately I couldn't see far enough ahead to see if I would be able to watch it. Just checked Saturday's listings, and guess what , not being shown up here in Canada. If anyone does hear if it is being redistributed anywhere else, or be available anywhere else, could you please let me know. Thanks, Steve

21 days to break or make a new habit, or so they say. Hang in there Steve, I'm sure you're over the worst part already.

Happy Birthday Gabriel Here's hoping you have a great day and a great year ahead of you. Enjoy!!

Since we have some time for some more speculation, I was wondering, does the loading of Flight One and Two have any indication of what happens? Also a bit of confusion in what is where? From the text, Flight One has twenty nine crates of lemons in the forward part of the cargo hold, behind it and to the rear is six pallets. There really is not indication on what these six pallets contain. One would make the assumption that it is the two pallets of grenades in mayonnaise jars, but what is in the other four? Oh, almost forgot the cadavers. Flight Two contains the 300 chemical mayonnaise jars, or does it? It is mentioned that they are loaded onto Flight Two, but then later it says the only cargo on Flight Two is the fuel bladders. Now Flight Three is another big question. It contains another 10 pallets of 500 mayonnaise jars each. That is 5000 mayonnaise jars that we have no idea what they contain. Then their is the appearance of the JETO packs, but CJ mentions they appear as they are them. Could these actually be used for launching weapons, such as mayonnaise jars? Finally we know that Smith is piloting Flight One, but it will take off, but will not land. What is the correlation of the loading of the three flights? What is up with all the extra mayonnaise jars? Why is flight one doomed, and is Smith doomed as well? Then we have the whole question if the Scar has alerted the Iranians and what is his actual objective with the operation? What was picked up for The Scar in the Sudan? What plane is that stuff on and is the General even aware of the items on one of the planes? So many questions popped up out of this chapter, let's hope we see the answers in Chapter 23.

Even CJ would be nuts to try this. I couldn't think of a better place to post it though .

Just also realized that your Avatar is a smiley with a halo, any coincidence that CJ uses a smiley with a halo in his posts when he may not be telling the whole truth

Hmmmm So CJ writes about the resort like he maybe has been there. Then he posts the KMZ file of the beach and lets us know where the resort is supposedly (uses some legalise to scare us from thinking he has actually been there). So I go on Google earth and guess who has posted multiple pictures of said resort....GASP.....Benji. Don't believe me? Click on the link and see the pictures of the resort and who the photographer was . CBOATS, you have just been totally exposed !!!!

Hey CJ, thanks for the chapter filled with multiple cliffhangers :wacko: . A couple of questions and comments: What was the package that The Scar had picked up by one of the Hercs in Malta??? Horst mentions that Felicia only states the glaring obvious when extremely stressed. This was just a landing on a remote strip in the desert, and she is that stressed. I'm beginning to wonder if Felicia is going to be the weak link in the operation. Flight One is obviously only going to be piloted by one guy, not a trained pilot, and he is going to be carrying grenade laden mayonnaise jars and lemons, garage door openers and laptops with GPS programs, and three dead bodies. Also the General makes note that the plane will not have to worry about landing (does this mean crashing?) to Bill. I don't really see how Bill would be able to fly the plane, operate the garage door openers to deflect radar, drop jars of grenades and lemons, and then crash the plane for the Iranians to find 3 dead bodies on it, oh and for Bill to escape. What exactly are fuel bladders that are on Flight Two? Okay, enough about the bad guys story. With the boys current predicament, I would say that CJ has set up for a perfect disaster. I would guess an earthquake has happened off shore from La Palma, thus forcing the magma up and out of the top of the volcano, and the offshore epicenter will result in a Tsunami hitting the shore that everyone is gathered on for the wedding. If CJ wants to be really mean, he'll have the side of the island collapse and resulting in another tsunami racing towards the Eastern seaboard of the US. The only hope I think everyone has is if Jane musters one of her cold stares that she uses on her husband to cool everything down on the island . With the chapter title name, I'm wondering if CJ is going to eliminate everyone. But on the other hand, I'll be pessimistic and say that the legend of only two surviving amidst the total elimination and destruction is probably General Bradson and his son when the are the only ones to escape from the mission and The Scars' plan falls completely apart. Thanks again CJ, Steve

Happy Birthday Robbie I hope your having a blast in the Poconos All the best in the next year