Fogbow

I was supposed to fly home yesterday evening, get in about midnight. Our plane had arrived, and everything was on time, then suddenly… Canceled! And the cancellation was not because of the horrific Midwest freeze. It was because of the mini hurricane that moved through the Fort Myers area yesterday, leaving the airport fogged in, or, in my case, fogged out.

Tonight going down to 20° F. but that's not the alert, I could roll over and add another blanket. No, the alert is I have to go out in it at 8:15 am for a pre-op tuneup and oil change (yanno, EKG, A1C, all the tests) and drive all the way to my doctor's office in Durham, then I have another pre-op appt at the hospital in Durham where they will cut me open like a fish in just 13 days but nobody's counting.

Beaming positive energy your way! You're a tough old bird I'm sure you'll be fine.

It's 18°. For Rawly, dat's cold, bro.

But, a miracle - somehow I set my calendar for a 9 am doctor visit, but their website says it's 10:30. I got a 1.5 hour reprieve, signed by the governor. I am not supposed to enter wrong times for doctor's appointments, but in this case I am not going to report myself.

This is the first time I get to meet my knee surgeon, and I just know he's been dying to finally meet me. Put the scalpel down, punkin', today is just pre-op.

Six degrees here at Maybelot right now, but clear as a bell.

It is boiling hot four right now but I don't know if it is clear. It's still dark out.

northland10 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:20 am It is boiling hot four right now but I don't know if it is clear. It's still dark out.

But a positive 4ºF, right?

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:35 am

northland10 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:20 am It is boiling hot four right now but I don't know if it is clear. It's still dark out.

But a positive 4ºF, right?

It did seem sort of chipper, excited, ready to take on the world.

The 4 degrees was singing.

It's 22F in central Arkansas. It was 6F at 6 a.m.

It's varying in the area, but around zero.

My back porch says it's a brisk 16F right now. At 10pm last night my trucks were both truckcicles. We had a fresh batch of rice (rain+ice) last night. Coated everything real good, but not thick enough to break trees (yet). Super slippery out. Only Merrell hiking boots stick to the ice well. Must be the kind of rubber/plastic/stuff in the sole. My Romeos are suicide on the ice without crampons.

ETA: If you've never used crampons before, put them on your shoes and leave them on. They don't take kindly to going on and off a lot. Dig out an old pair of boots that still fit, and most importantly don't leak. Sit down. Slip the boot toe through the strap, and then pull the crampon toe over the boot toe. Try to keep things from slipping off as you prop the boot upside down between your knees. Now pull the heel portion of the crampon towards the boot heel. Stretch it out. It's going to be hard. Once the heel is set, start pulling the sides over the sole edges. Tug all the straps to kind of even out the tension. Slip it on your foot, and set the top strap to Goldilocks - not too tight and not too loose. Repeat for the other boot. Set them by the back door. Don't walk through the house with them. You don't want to aerate your flooring. Put them on and off as you come and go. These things will thrash your wooden deck and back steps. Be ready with a little paint this Spring.

We've warmed up to 33 degrees this morning, but it's raining. I'm at sea level and it appears all wet, but alerts spotted on FB that the upper hills are icy and should be treated with caution. I'm working from home today, so lucky me.

Well, here in Las Vegas our highs have been in the 50s and last week lows were in the 30s which is about the lowest they ever go in the winter, and only for about a week. December is when that usually happens. There was some snow in the south valley last week but not in our area. There's also been some cloud cover on and off. This week we are warming up to 60s and lows in the 40s with rain forecast for this weekend. Some people here wear shorts year round, but not me.

Our Big Melt started too. Lake_G is forming as we speak. I already cleared the street drains, but the gutters are still frozen over. The drive lanes are thin from traffic, and melting first. The water is following the crown flowing to either side and almost meeting in the middle unable to reach the drains yet. I attempted to trench a path but the barnacle ice is not letting go yet. My shovel still glances off. So, lake it is until it warms up more.

Annnnnd we have a burst hot water pipe under our sink in the kitchen. We also have The World's Greatest Plumber under there. It finally got above freezing for a couple of hours but dropping again now. Oh goodie.

55 predicted high for tomorrow.

The hot water pipe to one of my kitchen sinks froze, but did not burst. My husband had to climb under the house with a heat gun to thaw it out.

Turns out, when he added the second kitchen sink over the summer, he encountered a nest of carpenter bees just as he was completing the work. He told himself he needed to remember go back under there in insulate the pipes before the cold weather set in when the bees would be dormant.

Then he forgot. Until today. All fixed now.

Ugh. Bee nests under the house. I think that would be worse than skunks or raccoons.

Our Big Melt contunues. It made a dent in the road ice, but kind of made it worse by smoothing out the surfaces near the shoulders making them really slick. Carcicles thawed themselves quite nicely. Anyone with a vehicle held hostage by the ice are now free to try to start it. I'm curious if the wipers work on one of my trucks now. They went part way up on their first swing Tuesday, and that was that. So I drove it by looking around with the wiper stuck in front of my face. I'll put it on my list for today.

I demonstrated to some neighborhood kids yesterday that wrapping your shoes in towels gives you traction on the ice. I imagined mothers for blocks around would be wondering where all their good towels went. Unlike the cardboard tobaggans from Monday, I have not seen abandoned towels lying about. So maybe none of them tried my idea. In the meantime my shoes with crampons tightly strapped are still on the ready by the back door. There's still enough ice in the most common places out there to warrant wearing them.

We're supposed to have the most snow tomorrow in almost two years, 3-7 inches. We'll see. Never shoveled last winter; haven't really this season so far, either.

I can't speak for ice, but these are great for snow and other slippery stuff. I don't use them often, but when I do, they're appreciated.

Skechers Women's Max Golf Shoe (I can't find the link to the pair I own, but try searching Amazon for that).

I don't golf, but they are handy for snowy days and the *spikes* are plastic and haven't harmed the floor yet

About 1.12 inches? Sounds kinda specific to me.

Slushy Alert in Portland and surrounding areas. BYO Torani. And you can switch from crampons to high wader boots. Insulated if you can still get them cuz the water is barely 40F. Drains are clogged all over the place because ice and snow have blocked them. Go through the road ponds fast to clear the underside of your car thoroughly as well as wash the windshields of oncoming traffic. They will be very grateful.

In typical Portland style, people are out in force to shovel their drives and sidewalks NOW that they've melted enough to sweep with a push broom and floor squeegie. That's because many people prefer shorts and sandals year round, but they don't want their feet to get wet. When the walks are frozen, it's too cold to walk around anyway. So fuck it. But when it warms up to 40F, it's time to run to the store to get more Cheetos, and a slushy walk to the car makes life hell.

They break out their worst Crocs and brave the frostbite to get *only* their drive and *only* their portion of the sidewalk cleared. They push it all into the street so it clogs the drains more. God forbid they give the slushy a little push from the curb to clear a path for the water to flow. Oh hell no. Not their responsibility. That's what they pay taxes for. And besides, they have to warm up now cuz their feet are wet damn it.

I don’t see this very often. This should be the last night of minus double digit temperatures.

We got the snow. Here, I'd say we got 4–5 inches, although it varied really widely up to about 10, depending on altitude. The official at the airport is 3 inches (7.62 cm). Still very cold, but we will see 50 degrees next week with rain.