Maintainers Weekly Chat January 6 - January 12
 

Be warm people wherever you are. The predictions of super cold are worrisome. (It's currently raining in the Boston area - not sure why we've been exempted from the uber cold, or if it's just temporary.)

Thinking of Dagmar out with her dogs. May you keep moving fast enough to stand down the arctic blast.

I'm in the middle of a stretch of days without external food being offered. It feels like a reprieve, LOL.

Speaking of warmth, questions for Dagmar: Do you wear snowboarders mittens or gloves? Are they fluffy thick down? Do you wear liners? I'm thinking that it's time for me to buy serious hand warmth.

Bill Wintry blast is right - it's going to be minus 41 windchill tomorrow. The temps are dropping today and the wind is going to pick up. I hope my client gets back from NYC tonight OK - I'd really like to be home when all of the serious chill hits. An outside pipe burst here yesterday and I dealt with it but there are more pipes inside that apparently freeze up. No emergency contact info or names of tradesmen have been left, nor any emergency equipment if the power goes out.

I wear snowboarders gloves - they are insulated but with synthetic, rather than down. A much older version of these I think. They are an all-in-one glove, rather than liner and shell.
http://marmot.com/products/details/w...andonnee-glove

On incredibly cold days I wear great big fleece lined leather mittens from Mark's Work Wearhouse with thin cross country glove liners underneath. They don't carry these anymore so can't show you a link.

For driving the car I wear fleece running gloves with leather palms for anti-slip.

Now you see why I need a coat with lots of outside pockets. :lol:

Dagmar :brr: :yikes: :brr:

Morning all,

The artic blast has moved to Florida as well. It's certainly not as cold as where a lot of you are and I'm not complaining, but every time it does freeze here I have to wonder at the logic that goes into building many FL homes: "It only freezes once in a while, so we shouldn't bother insulating any water pipes." We will have to drip all our taps tonight, and BF will be making the rounds to three friends' houses that are part timers tonight as well. I tried to get some chores done outside yesterday so I wouldn't have to do them today, but will need to move some plants inside tonight. Yesterday I made a big batch of (lean) ground beef and black bean chili for us to eat for dinner for the next few nights. BF has gone back to his winter job today, so his little vacation is done too. He's glad to be back at work.

I hope all my northern friends stay safe and warm, with power and without home problems, and get to work from home/keep the kids home today too.

My deck and backyard. Phew! The wind is beginning to pick up and it's currently 8F. :p. I have no idea why the picture attached upside down...

It's hard for me to contemplate the cold you all are experiencing what with our daytime temperatures in the low 70's. Stay warm!

Dagmar~allowing your tap to drip is usually enough to keep your pipes from freezing. Wrapping them with layers of newspaper will help too, but only if they are exposed.

I am dripping all of my client's downstairs and basement taps already. My pipes in the basement of my house are insulated with foam. I live with someone who works for a contractor so he's pretty up on all the things we need to do.

The former homeowner at our house apparently did things on the cheap or with substandard contractors. There is a leak - small - in the basement. I wondered why waterproofing the east side of the house was done several years ago. Now I know. And not a good job either. SURPRISE! Arrgghh!!!

So many lies/ommisions told when selling houses. I am not entirely not guilty in that either :o

Dagmar :brr: :yikes: :brr:

Brrrrr.... everyone stay warm. I heard it is illegal to drive in Indiana unless it is an emergency! Jessica-- is that where you are? I forget where everyone lives!

Back to work for me today and some normalcy hopefully. Dh is back to China, older dd is back to Texas, and I have younger dd here until Sunday. Unfortunately she doesn't like "healthy" food so it is a power struggle when we have meals together. I cooked last night though and she LOVED it!!! I bought two Trader Joes cookbooks (light versions) and made a Basil Chicken with mushrooms, broccoli and whole wheat pasta. We have enough for another meal though I'm not sure I can push leftovers on her.

She made cookies last night and I told myself I didn't want any since I don't like peanut butter-- they smelled so good though-- with chocolate-- the whole house smelled. Luckily they were somewhat overdone so I will tell myself they are no good.

Just battling to get under 130 at this point. I was battling to get under 125 but that seems a distant memory now. Trying some new lunch things at work this week and will be making some more meals from my new cookbooks.

As for freezing pipes where it doesn't normally freeze. The very worst time of my life was in late 1989. I had just had my second miscarriage and it got unusually cold in Houston for many days. The pipes in our house burst and in almost all of the houses in our neighborhood and many others. The pipes were in the ceilings so all of the ceilings in the house came down-- the house was practically ruined-- all of the furniture, floors, walls, kitchen cabinets, etc. had to be replaced. We had to live with my parents (who I didn't get along with). It was a sad, dark time! So do what you need to do to keep your pipes from freezing!!!!

When I went out to the gym this morning before dawn, I felt like I was in a movie, as the fog was thick with the vapors rising from the warm rain pelting the melting snow. It was 53 degrees when I drove to CT this morning in one of our periodic traffic jams: Everyone's gone back to work & school.

But I'm worried about the commute home, as the temperature is supposed to start dropping at noon and reach the teens overnight. I just want to get home before black ice starts forming. Why did I set up a 5 PM doctor appointment today? I know why, actually: My prescriptions are running out, and the doctor won't call them in without a visit.

I worked a lot on the weekend, transcribing from a video of a conference presentation, so I ought to have a peaceful re-entry, but I feel mulish and resistant to having to power up today. It was kind of nice when my colleagues were all out on holiday and not pestering me for stuff all day.

It is eerily balmy in NY - 50 F this morning! The predicted low temp for tonight is 5 F. That's a pretty monstrous temperature range for this area.

I feel very fortunate that my car started and the heat stayed on and the water remained hot through the frigid period that finished off the week. Hope all in the Midwest and Ontario can stay warm.

Michele, yes, that's where I am! Indianapolis and the county I live in are both under travel warnings. No driving except for emergency vehicles and people seeking shelter. Needless to say my office is closed today! :lol: Luckily we have not lost power (knock on wood). I was pretty scared last night though, since lots of areas around here did lose power and I was listening to the wind howling outside while reading city facebook updates on where they'd set up emergency shelters. I'm not sure how we'd get to shelter if we needed to though because the street we live on hasn't been plowed yet and is pretty much impassable, even for my 4-wheel-drive SUV -- that is, if the car is able to start at all. As long as the power stays on we're just staying put.

The snow blew around a lot last night so it's over two feet deep in our backyard. DH had to shovel a path for Carter to go out to pee! We tried to get Carter out with just the deck shoveled but the snow was up to his neck, and he's a big dog. Current temperature is -12, feels like -37 according to the local news website. I opened the east-facing blinds to let the sun warm the house up some, but it's moving away so I think it's time to close the blinds to keep the heat in. You can feel the cold by the windows.

Edit -- the official snow total for my city is 12", on top of the 2-4 we already had on the ground. Strangely enough the neighboring town only got 5".

Hi all!

Just checking in even though I don't have much going on!

I woke up today and it was 45 degrees - DH yelled "It's summer!!" Like everyone else, the cold is moving in rapidly and the low tonight will be below zero, but, with the infamous lake effect they are calling for 5 FEET - yes you read that right - of snow in some places!!!!! Fingers crossed that it hits south of me!

Everyone out there, stay safe and warm!!!

Jen

Has anyone successfully gotten out of a parking ticket?
I'm going to dispute mine but I don't have any real grounds for dispute.
We were parked in a lot for over 3 hours-- I paid $9 and my time expired about 10 minutes before we got back. I had a parking ticket on the car for $25. Does it pay to dispute if I don't have a real excuse?? I'm more annoyed than anything. There used to be lots of free parking in the town we were in and now they've started charging-- it's not even a big city so I thought $9 was pretty ridiculous already!

Jen, oh boy, I was thinking about the Tug Hill Plateau when we started talking about snow accumulation measured in feet. But I know there's a point every winter when lake effect is less likely because of the bitter cold temperatures, because of the lake freezing over. Or maybe that's just folklore.

I'm not looking forward to seeing my doctor, but then again, I never am. Finally, though, I may be doing something about it. I just got a referral from the wife of a friend of mine at work, a different doctor. She left my doctor for exactly the same reasons that I don't like him. She is quite happy with her current doctor, but she's not sure he's in my network. I will have to make time to do this research and try to set up an appointment.

saef, this sounds like a good lead. Give your current doctor the heave-ho (transl = shove). That man has been annoying me vicariously for ages! Interesting that your friend doesn't like him for the same reasons as you.

My blood pressure is 100/70, my pinprick non-fasting blood sugar level was 85, and he wants me to lose 10 pounds, just because I was 10 pounds lower last January. He'll see me again in April.

"By then, I hope you'll have lost some of that weight."

Another friend mine told me about her wonderful female doctor two towns away. I'm definitely open to a new relationship with a primary caregiver.