This morning it was warming towards 40 degrees so the snow was pretty heavy to shovel. I got the sidewalks cleared but I still have to do the driveway.
This is one of those days when you’re happy to be retired. You don’t have to go out and deal with this mess and all the other drivers.
This is going to be good for two posts. Today and tomorrow.
We just got an alert on our phones about a severe winter storm. We looked out the window, and sure nuff’, it was snowing. It’s coming down pretty good. I’m not sure it’s going to stick or how much we will get. My weather app indicates it’s going to snow for a couple of hours.
Here’s how it looks right now.
Every week I get a delivery of infusion supplies for my Milrinone pump. The delivery consists of three to four IV bags of milrinone, several packages of tubing to attach the milrinone to me and then a variety of other items, depending on whether or not I need them replenished. Things like batteries, alcohol wipes, saline flush and shower gloves.
The milrinone is always delivered in a silver thermal bag with a couple of those frozen gel packs to keep the drugs cool.
After several weeks, I will have developed quite a little assemblage of gel packs and thermal bags.
At that point, I gather them up and take them down to the Meals on Wheels people, hoping they can use them for their food deliveries. They are always happy to receive them and I am glad they are not being wasted.
So that was one of things I accomplished today.
The other was to secure one of my outside faucets from freezing. I cannot shut off the water to it because the valve is quite corroded.
I have been able to get away with putting one of those styrofoam caps over the faucet for the last several years.
Last week when we had some freezing temperatures, I noticed a large icicle coming from the styrofoam cap. Clearly, it was not working.
I have decided to employ technology to the situation. I purchased a short line of heat tape which I wrapped around the faucet. That gets plugged into my outdoor outlet and I am golden…as long as the electricity stays on. I also put the styrofoam cap back in place to secure the whole affair.
My plan was to remove a screw, place a toothpick in the hole along with some glue and reinsert the screw. I have used this method with great success on many a door with a loose screw in the hinge.
I’m reluctant to even bring it up here as it was so easily implemented and completed with such alacrity that it seems hardly worth mentioning.
However, I like to note things here in this blog so I have proof that I do stuff with my day.
Continuing the tradition, as I always do this time of year, I have now posted for a second day. And again, I have information to impart. Nothing earth shattering. Just a snow report.
It started snowing about 4:00PM yesterday. By evening, it looked like we were on track for a couple of inches of snow.
When I got up this morning, it was raining. It was sloppy wet out there but I managed to get out and clear the sidewalks, much to Susan's consternation. Shoveling snow, let alone wet snow, is not a good activity for me to be doing.
But it wasn't bad. I paced myself and hung out there in the light rain and got my section of sidewalk clear for the safety of others.
It looks like it is going to snow again tonight so we will see what that brings when I post tomorrow.
Welcome to Twenty Twenty-Sex.
We rang in the new year by going to see a movie, "Hamnet". I cannot decide what I think about this movie. The acting was amazing. The cinematography was equally brilliant. But I don't think the story was very good. It was also hard to make out a lot of the dialog. We've spoiled ourselves with Closed Captioning when we watch TV and movies at home.
I'm tempering my critique of "Hamnet" because I don't think I'm intelligent enough to have a valid opinion.
I am, however, intelligent enough to know it is time to start dismantling Christmas. I got a start on things today by putting the train away. If you want to see it again, you will have to refer back to my post on December 13th.
I also want to point out that this Blog will become 20 years old this coming August. I can't wait for it to turn 21 so it can finally start drinking.
So Happy New Year and let's see how long I can keep this streak of Posts going.
It is official. Mountain Spokaloo is open for the season.
They only have two lifts open so it’s very limited skiing.
I think the story is the same at all the area ski resorts. It seems the best skiing has been at Lookout Pass. They have most of their chairs and terrain open.
From the looks of their webcams, they are busy and it looks pretty good there today.
I’m very anxious to be skiing. It’s now the second day of Winter and my mountain is not open yet. I know the globe is warming but I do not want to attribute this late start to that. Rather, it’s just one of those years. We’ve had them before.
But now that this is something that dominates my daily rumination's, I’m going to start keeping a bit of a record here on Mt Spokane’s progress towards opening for the season.
It’s been a pretty warm Autumn up until the last couple of days. The forecast is calling for snow over the next few days but it could easily come as rain.
I’m posting this so I will be able to refer back when we get a crap load of snow and I start complaining about having to clear it.
Here it is, the last day of Autumn and there is no Winter in sight.
Mt Spokane was all set to open last week and then the monsoons came rolling through and washed away all the snow.
Here’s how it looked earlier today.
Looks like I picked the right year to not buy a Season Pass.
It seems like all I’m writing about lately is problems with Utility Services.
Our internet has been out since Thursday. We hosted Thirsty Thursday this week and we were looking forward to watching Thursday Night Football featuring the Seattle Seahawks vs. the L.A. Ramses.The game was to be on Prime, available only on the interweb.
So when we lost our connection to the World Wide Web, we were devastated to learn we would not be able to see the game.
Fortunately, my Tech-savvy neighbor Derrick was able to get the game on his phone. So we got to watch it on a 3” x 6” screen. Eighteen of us crowded around this tiny screen.
Earlier in the afternoon, I received an automated message from Quantum, my interweb provider who said they were working on the problem and would have it repaired by 5AM on Friday. So, we knew in advance that we couldn’t see the game on our TV.
I got up well past 5 on Friday morning and still had no interweb. I got a couple other automated calls during the day that said they were working on the problem and would have it repaired by 9:02AM on Saturday.
As I was going to bed last night, I happened to look at the modem and noticed a solid green light, indicating interweb service.
It was back. I checked my email prior to going to bed and erased most of the 127 emails I had.
Among them were emails from Quantum telling me my interweb service was out and they were working on the problem.
The fact that they were sending me emails makes me think they don’t really understand how the internet works.
All the weather services started talking on Sunday about the coming windy weather. They said it would be windy on Monday, ease up a bit on Tuesday and be back on Wednesday...all of this with intermittent rain. We were also told to be ready for power outages.
I got in the shower at 7:40 this morning and almost immediately, the power went out. I showered in the dark and made it a short one so as to not use up whatever hot water we had remaining.
I drove around the neighborhood to try and figure out the extent of the outage. It went from our block to the west, over to parts of Monroe Street and south to Buckeye. It didn't look like it went north beyond us and houses down the street to the east from us had power.
The electricity stayed off all day. I essentially did nothing but nap.
We left the house about five to go watch the Gonzaga game. As we left, the power came back. Then went out. After a few more minutes, it was on for good.
I'm sure I have noted this before here in this Blog but let me note it again. I find it quite disquieting how dependent on electricity we are. I do have a generator, but I did not bother to pull it out as I figured the power would come back on sooner. I mean, Hell, we are in the middle of the city. Isn't that a priority?!
Anyway, I think I'm going to dig out the generator and make sure it's working okay and place it where I have better access to it.
The other problem we ran into today was accessing the garage. With the power out, the garage door won't open. We have a side door on it, but the concrete has heaved up to such an extent that it prevented the door from opening much more than a Susan sized sliver.
She was able to get in and detach the door from the rail so we could open the door.
I took a sledgehammer to the concrete and made it a bit more accessible.
In short, not much accomplished today.
Being the second Sunday of December, tonight was the Annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride.
It has been unseasonably warm lately and tonight was another nice warm evening.
The forecast is calling for rain for the next five days and some huge wind.
So, stand by.
This is the day for the outdoor lights to go up.
Up on the balcony, we have the icicle lights, the star projection light and the neon running light.
On the front porch, we wrap the pillars with white twinkle lights.
So, here we go.
Thankfully, it was a relatively warm day but the wind was gusting pretty good. We managed to get the lights up in no time at all.
We also got the lights on the balcony up quickly too.
So now, we’re festive.We are down to the best possible conclusion to the Thanksgiving Season. Turkey Soup.
I think it’s the barley that brings me back to Mom more than anything else.
9:36 AM: The bird is in the pot and the pot is coming to a boil. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
9:55 AM: The kitchen is already filling with the smell of Turkey boil. Yum!
2:00 PM: The carcass has been boiled and the broth is cooling. We are going to complete the cook tomorrow and have it ready for Karen and Randy when they come over.
