MAN it's cold out there. Not the cutesy "Baby it's cold outside" kind, either.
No, this is mind-blowing, bone-chilling, "I can't put my arms down!" cold. Are those things crossing the parking lot just people all bundled up in everything they own, or some kind of mutant bear? That kind of cold.
News people: "Stay inside if you can"...which of course I think of as I'm walking the 1/4 mile from my car to the building...yeah, I would if I could, BELIEVE YOU ME...
All's I can say is, I'm glad I had two layers of warm wool around my right leg. Otherwise I'm pretty sure all my blood would've just flat-out FROZEN, because it's so cold I know that hardware would've just shot right to about 20 degrees or so. And then, once the blood came in contact with that FROZEN METAL, it would've all frozen as well.
I can haz spring now? PLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSEE?
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Monday, December 10, 2007
Winter Weather Car Tip
Want to save yourself some time in the morning? Try this trick that a friend of mine from Michigan passed along.
Get a large garbage bag, at least a 30-gallon one. I like to cut it open along the 2 side seams and fold it out along the bottom seam (leave the bottom seam intact). Now, go start your car's windshield wipers, and turn off the car when they're in the "full up" position, so they stay that way.
Now, lift the wipers out of the way (away from the windshield), take your garbage-bag-plastic-sheet and spread it out across your windshield. Once it's flat and spread out as far as you can make it, put the wipers back where they belong to hold it down.
If you have any bag hanging over the sides of the windshield, open your front doors, and tuck the bag in. Shut the door to hold the bag.
Now you won't have to scrape that 3/4" of ice off your windshield tomorrow! It's great for keeping off snow, frost and (of current interest throughout the Midwest) freezing rain and sleet.
Small plastic grocery bags and a twist-tie or two may do a fair job at keeping the ice off the side mirrors, as well. I've tried drawstring garbage bags on that, so far, with a 50% success rate (one stayed on, one blew off). I'm trying the grocery-bag-twist-tie thing next.
Stay safe, dry and warm!
Get a large garbage bag, at least a 30-gallon one. I like to cut it open along the 2 side seams and fold it out along the bottom seam (leave the bottom seam intact). Now, go start your car's windshield wipers, and turn off the car when they're in the "full up" position, so they stay that way.
Now, lift the wipers out of the way (away from the windshield), take your garbage-bag-plastic-sheet and spread it out across your windshield. Once it's flat and spread out as far as you can make it, put the wipers back where they belong to hold it down.
If you have any bag hanging over the sides of the windshield, open your front doors, and tuck the bag in. Shut the door to hold the bag.
Now you won't have to scrape that 3/4" of ice off your windshield tomorrow! It's great for keeping off snow, frost and (of current interest throughout the Midwest) freezing rain and sleet.
Small plastic grocery bags and a twist-tie or two may do a fair job at keeping the ice off the side mirrors, as well. I've tried drawstring garbage bags on that, so far, with a 50% success rate (one stayed on, one blew off). I'm trying the grocery-bag-twist-tie thing next.
Stay safe, dry and warm!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sweet Corn & Sour Smells
Over the weekend, we went to a volunteer fire department fundraiser - an all-you-can-eat corn roast. They had pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, which were good, but Oh. My. Gosh. The corn. The corn was amazing. Fresh-picked that morning, we were told. As much as we wanted. More than we could eat. Speed-shucked, quick-cooked, and steamed to stay hot, with or without butter. (I took mine without. Totally unneccesary). I went back for thirds or something on the corn. I don't remember how many ears of corn I had, just that it was sooooooooo good. I have to get MORE CORN. I think it was the freshness that really did it.
Then, of course, we got rain. Fortunately, it was only about 1/2 hour or so, so hopefully the fundraiser didn't get rained out completely. But afterward...euchh. Outdoors now smells like slightly moldy vegetation. Down the street, where there are still really big puddles, it smells VERY sour, and mildewy. Bleachh. Hopefully things will dry out soon.
But oooohhhhh, that sweet corn. Fresh sweet corn. Yum. I gotta get me some more of that stuff.
Then, of course, we got rain. Fortunately, it was only about 1/2 hour or so, so hopefully the fundraiser didn't get rained out completely. But afterward...euchh. Outdoors now smells like slightly moldy vegetation. Down the street, where there are still really big puddles, it smells VERY sour, and mildewy. Bleachh. Hopefully things will dry out soon.
But oooohhhhh, that sweet corn. Fresh sweet corn. Yum. I gotta get me some more of that stuff.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Thoughts from the weekend.
Fog! We had fog this morning! Woohoo! I never thought I'd get so excited about FOG. Actually, I'm happy that we have enough humidity to make fog. Another thing I never thought I'd see: Hoosiers spontaneously cheering in WalMart because it started to rain. Seriously. The Official Indiana State Obsession is apparently The Weather, and we loooooovvvveee to complain about it. If it's lovely weather, people gripe about how we'll "pay for it later", or "oh sure, it's doing it while I'm at work", or it's just a tad too warm / too cold / too breezy / not breezy enough / too much sunshine / not enough sunshine / etc. / etc. / etc.
If it's not "exactly perfect" then that's of course prime gripe fodder. But this....this was amazing. People started applauding, and cheering, and trying to pay for their groceries as fast as possible so they could get outside and get rained on before it quit raining. Because it wasn't a very large cloud or anything. But bygolly, it was a rain cloud, so we were bygolly gonna go out and enjoy it. Which I've also never seen here. People try to get under cover as soon as possible so they don't get wet - they don't run out into the rain, as a rule.
This, plus some comments from Pastor's sermon on Sunday, got me thinking - why are people, as a rule, far quicker to complain than we are to express appreciation? We all know it happens - if we do something really nice for someone, but mess up one small detail, what are we going to hear about the most - the 1% we messed up, or the 99% we didn't?
Why do we focus on the 1%? Why do people do that? We've done a lot of volunteering for various organizations, and to be honest, I heard a few "thank yous" while we were doing stuff, but mostly it was things like:
"you didn't do this part right."
"I would've preferred you do it some other way."
"I certainly don't want to criticize, but..."
"The program was too long."
"You should implement MY ideas, they're WAY better than yours."
Not "hey, I've got some great ideas, would you mind if I helped?" Not "Hey, can I do something like that too? Would you mind if I tried it next time?" Not "hey, thanks for helping out - we really appreciate it."
When the appreciation and the "thank yous" do come along, they're very much appreciated. The sad thing is, I can probably count the "appreciators" on one hand.
So, I've made up my mind to try harder to be an "appreciator" instead of a complainer. Sure, there'll be times when I still need to say, "you know, this really isn't going to work," but maybe if I'm more known for expressing appreciation, it won't be taken as criticism so much as an offer to work things out. That's always good.
If it's not "exactly perfect" then that's of course prime gripe fodder. But this....this was amazing. People started applauding, and cheering, and trying to pay for their groceries as fast as possible so they could get outside and get rained on before it quit raining. Because it wasn't a very large cloud or anything. But bygolly, it was a rain cloud, so we were bygolly gonna go out and enjoy it. Which I've also never seen here. People try to get under cover as soon as possible so they don't get wet - they don't run out into the rain, as a rule.
This, plus some comments from Pastor's sermon on Sunday, got me thinking - why are people, as a rule, far quicker to complain than we are to express appreciation? We all know it happens - if we do something really nice for someone, but mess up one small detail, what are we going to hear about the most - the 1% we messed up, or the 99% we didn't?
Why do we focus on the 1%? Why do people do that? We've done a lot of volunteering for various organizations, and to be honest, I heard a few "thank yous" while we were doing stuff, but mostly it was things like:
"you didn't do this part right."
"I would've preferred you do it some other way."
"I certainly don't want to criticize, but..."
"The program was too long."
"You should implement MY ideas, they're WAY better than yours."
Not "hey, I've got some great ideas, would you mind if I helped?" Not "Hey, can I do something like that too? Would you mind if I tried it next time?" Not "hey, thanks for helping out - we really appreciate it."
When the appreciation and the "thank yous" do come along, they're very much appreciated. The sad thing is, I can probably count the "appreciators" on one hand.
So, I've made up my mind to try harder to be an "appreciator" instead of a complainer. Sure, there'll be times when I still need to say, "you know, this really isn't going to work," but maybe if I'm more known for expressing appreciation, it won't be taken as criticism so much as an offer to work things out. That's always good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)