Official Austin Chat Thread (Cedar Park, Anderson Mill: crimes, restaurants, shop)

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by riaelise

I’ve been here 17 years come January and sorry it’s much warmer than normal. 98 degrees is not normal. Continued 90s with humidity is far too hot for this time of year. How can you say it’s cooler when 90 is nine degrees above the average?

Average is...the average. Some days are much hotter, some days are much cooler. I have had many a Halloween with my kids when they were sweating it out in their costumes because it was in the 90s on Halloween day. October averages five days over 90. Again, another average. So yeah, this October is warmer than 'average' but not (in my estimate) out of the range of normal.

Edit:
October 2019 had 12 days over 90, with the last one being 95 on October 20th and 97 the day before that.
2018 only had 5 days at or over 90, but only hit 91 once, the rest were 90 and all Oct 14th or earlier.

[riaelise]

LOL, y'all may be right about the heat extending into October...last year was a doozy.

Fall is such a beautiful time of year here - unlike spring, it's not humid, cooler temps...it's a bit of heaven actually. Each year it seems like summer incringes into fall and gets longer each year. But my prayers have been answered - a strong front is coming in next week knocking the lows into the forties. atxcia is right, this usually happens around halloween.

N4C - congrats on the job!! thanks confirming what my husband and I suspected - that the job market is pretty dry. What sucks is that he had received an awesome job offer at an event company. He had submitted his resignation and was about to start when covid hit. And that was that. He had to withdraw since the company was hit hard and there were layoffs. Nowadays, there really isn't much out there. He had companies calling him left and right before the pandemic and now, not a bite

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by riaelise

LOL, y'all may be right about the heat extending into October...last year was a doozy.

Fall is such a beautiful time of year here - unlike spring, it's not humid, cooler temps...it's a bit of heaven actually. Each year it seems like summer incringes into fall and gets longer each year. But my prayers have been answered - a strong front is coming in next week knocking the lows into the forties. atxcia is right, this usually happens around halloween.

N4C - congrats on the job!! thanks confirming what my husband and I suspected - that the job market is pretty dry. What sucks is that he had received an awesome job offer at an event company. He had submitted his resignation and was about to start when covid hit. And that was that. He had to withdraw since the company was hit hard and there were layoffs. Nowadays, there really isn't much out there. He had companies calling him left and right before the pandemic and now, not a bite

The whole rehiring thing is a bit misleading. I am still getting calls almost daily for jobs (this actually stopped between April and July, there was a period i could go a week without a response or offer) but they are very slow in the process and are a lot more selective than they were pre-pandemic, then the jobs that do look good end up getting put off. I had like 4 attempts with Spectrum. Three of which the interviews went great, got to know the manager, they said they were very interested, got second and third interviews, one of which canceled the final interview after I joined, said they would get back to me and never did, later I found the position was changed, had to go through the whole onboarding process again and this time I get to the last interview and they ended up offshoring the position to another vendor. I had one with a credit union who scheduled an interview then the day before the interview i get a text at literally 11pm telling me they received an email it was canceled due to budgeting issues...



Admittedly I didn’t share this with anyone but I was getting kinda worried especially since I just bought a house. I’m pretty set back financially now but it could still be worse.

[Need4Camaro]

So on my way to QuickTrip I noticed a caravan of oversized loads which looked to be carrying Wind Turbine components. They were coming south on U.S. 183, however; instead of proceeding onto the toll road, at the last light they made a right to stay on 183 instead of 183a. Sure this is within their right but they had traffic backed up for a good 5 - 10 minutes while they tried to squirm that huge load through a right turn only lane followed by the immediate sharp left 183 makes to continue South... and I couldn’t help but ask myself was the potential property damage and bottle necks really worth their company saving a few bucks on tolls? I personally feel they should have used the Toll Road.

[Moonlady]

I got stuck at the intersection of 183 and 360 once while a couple of those trucks carrying the blades tried to make a left onto 183 from 360 over the bridge. It was something to watch. Does make you wonder how they decide what route to take.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by Moonlady

I got stuck at the intersection of 183 and 360 once while a couple of those trucks carrying the blades tried to make a left onto 183 from 360 over the bridge. It was something to watch. Does make you wonder how they decide what route to take.

I personally feel there needs to be ordinances about those things plowing through suburban / urban areas when they have the option to stay on the highway.

[Trainwreck20]

Actually, there are requirements for oversize loads, although I have no idea on the details. I am not sure what the tolls would be, but that probably did not figure into the route - it is likely that the toll route route either had some physical characteristic that discouraged them from going that way, or some rule/regulation.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

So on my way to QuickTrip I noticed a caravan of oversized loads which looked to be carrying Wind Turbine components. They were coming south on U.S. 183, however; instead of proceeding onto the toll road, at the last light they made a right to stay on 183 instead of 183a. Sure this is within their right but they had traffic backed up for a good 5 - 10 minutes while they tried to squirm that huge load through a right turn only lane followed by the immediate sharp left 183 makes to continue South... and I couldn’t help but ask myself was the potential property damage and bottle necks really worth their company saving a few bucks on tolls? I personally feel they should have used the Toll Road.

So you’d rather they hold up the paying drivers on the toll road? I think it’s smarter to be on the non-rolled lanes.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

So you’d rather they hold up the paying drivers on the toll road? I think it’s smarter to be on the non-rolled lanes.

I don’t know all the details and technicalities of oversized loads using toll roads but I highly doubted where they were going was anywhere near Leander or Cedar Park which are the only two north metro cities the non-freeway U.S 183 services beyond that intersection

They would have to pay just like everyone else but would not have restricted traffic on the toll road until they exited the tollroad and would have either been on a non-tolled access road or would have been further into Austin along the free sections of U.S. 183. I just don’t think it’s wise for trucks especially that size to use local suburban arteries just to evade tolls unless the destination is local to that area.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I don’t know all the details and technicalities of oversized loads using toll roads but I highly doubted where they were going was anywhere near Leander or Cedar Park which are the only two north metro cities the non-freeway U.S 183 services beyond that intersection

They would have to pay just like everyone else but would not have restricted traffic on the toll road until they exited the tollroad and would have either been on a non-tolled access road or would have been further into Austin along the free sections of U.S. 183. I just don’t think it’s wise for trucks especially that size to use local suburban arteries just to evade tolls unless the destination is local to that area.

My thought is, 183 is still a highway. People choose the non-toll lanes if they don’t care to be speedy. They can also go around the truck and get on the toll if it annoys them that much. Or, make a turn and go down “local” roads.