Life’s Tough in My Neighborhood
First, let me say that I have to shovel snow today, whether I like it or not. If the “climate” is warming up, how come there are six inches of snow on my front steps? And how come the neighbors were out at 7AM with the snowblowers and other noisy things, rousing me out of a perfectly good winter’s nap.
On the various weather maps that are intended to convey information to us peons in the outer darkness, it appears that the “storm”, which does not measure up to the 2011 blizzard that left cars buried in the northbound lanes of Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. It just doesn’t. However, if this is the worst winter can throw at us, I have popcorn and cookies, stories to write up, a new computer to mess around with, books to read and junk to sort out and decide what stays and what goes. The bulk shredding people like it when I show up. Cat food cans, being aluminum, can be recycled at $1.00/lb around here. Pull the labels, rinse out, bag up and take them whenever there’s a chance.
Winter days used to include starting a fire in the fireplace and making popcorn the old-fashioned way with a wire basket popper on a long handle. Nowadays, it’s either use the Whirlypopper or the microwave, and really, the Whirlypopper does a better job. We would also put hot dogs on a long-armed fork and toast the buns in a pan near the fire. Potato chips were just potato chips, not 24 different flavors including cilantro-lime-manganese.
Sorting things out includes going through books my mother left behind, which includes “The New Story of the Ship’, published in 1936 with nice artwork and a fully detailed listing of the rigging for a brigantine. I think I’ll keep that. There are other such things. For some reason, she kept all my Dad’s high school Latin and Greek textbooks, some of which were published in the 1890s. I’m keeping those, too, mostly because it’s a reminder that “kids” had to use their brains back in those days. Not knocking the schools around here. They do push the kids hard in STEM classes. It’s just a reminder that the kids had their brains stretched a lot back then. When I was in the 4th grade, the teacher had us draw a map of the USA with all the state borders filled in and then add the state abbreviations. I’m not sure some schools even teach that kind of geography now, never mind how to read a map or navigate without a WiFi connection.
Most of these books will stay here. The books I don’t keep will go to the library for their book sale room. I’m not nostalgic for the Good Old Days, just practical.
If you want a real adventure to read through, get a copy of Henry Beston’s ‘The Outermost House’, published in 1928. It’s about his spending a year on the Outer Arm of Cape Cod, regardless of the weather, and his observations. His fiancée told him ‘No book, no marriage”. Her stubbornness resulted in this small but fascinating look at the real world, something the ecohippies and Greenbeans miss entirely. To quote him, “The world is sick to its thin blood for the feel of fire before the hands.” Wiser words have seldom been put into print.
There are also Peter Mayle’s gastronomic adventures through Provence in southern France. “A Year In Provence” is one of those stories that takes you along on a ride to truck stops where Madame runs the kitchen, the floor is always clean, and all the camioneurs (truck drivers) stop for their mid-day bouts with chicken or beef and a good bottle of wine, followed by a brief sojourn with pastis (anise liqueur). Mr. Macron is still going to put a fuel tax into effect, and les gilets jaunes are now under the gun of the police. I wonder if Macron would miss the more respected wines if transporters of such things decided to not visit Paris.
Sometimes, the best things really are the simplest you can find: a good book, a large mug of a hot drink at your elbow, a plateful of cookies or brownies, and a snowy day, after you’ve shoveled that stuff off the front steps.
Category: Economy
Amen. Tyrone Power ‘Zorro’ on TCM, good books at hand, firewood laid in, work done. Popcorn… quart Revereware saucepan, oil, jar of Orville’s best, high heat and you have a gallon of butter-salted heaven in a bowl.
I want a fireplace. I may have to get one of those fake fireplaces, just for the effect it has on your senses.
Costco!! 🙂
Won’t buy a home without some form of wood heat… only alternative heat source I can do myself.
Propane can be your friend. We have a pellet stove that works well, heats the entire house on about 40#/day in the cold winter, albeit it may be more like 60# today as the low will be around 8.
Non electric pellet stove/fireplace.
Works as supplement and backup heat.
No shoveling yet here, but we’ve got maybe another 6 hours of snow to come. Actually, my good friend in the garage, Mr. Snowblower, will do most of the work. First real snow of the winter for SE Michigan. The newspeople make it sound like Armageddon has come, which is typical. It’s also pretty typical weather to have when the Detroit Auto Show opens. Nothing makes people love Detroit like freeze-your-tookus-off cold and snow. This is the last year for the Detroit show in January. It moves to June in 2020.
Me, I’m staying inside till it stops, making something warm to drink, and working on my railroad.
Isn’t that Snowmageddon? Detroit used to get all the masses of stuff from Canada.
Hi Ex,
We don’t get much in the way of Snowmaggedons in this part of the state. The storm is just winding down for us now, at about 4″ north of Detroit, with more down south. It’s a pretty typical storm. Every few years we will get a 10 or 12 inch snowfall.
Now, in the Upper Peninsula or along the Lake Michigan shoreline snow can get heavy from the moisture off the lakes when that cold Canadian comes in – which will happen tomorrow – Sunday night’s low could be around zero. Of course, people in North Dakota or Minnesota will say in good Arnold S. accent “You are wiiimps!! I laff at your puny zero!”
We don’t get snow in West Michigan, we get “lake effect”. The weather guessers have tried to explain it to us peons several times. Their explanations don’t make much sense.
It’s usually heavy in large amounts, comes down just like regular snow, and shovels just like regular snow.
I’ll see your outline map of the US with state borders colored in and raise you putting the Capitals in their correct geographic place. And I’ll salute your plate of cookies and brownies with a mug of Irish Coffee.
My folks in Nebraska and South Dakota are catching it, but they’re used to it and just hunkered down. Called Brother for the temp up there, he said it was a balmy 69 inside the house with a chance of 75 by the fireplace. We’re clicking on low 70s outside right now, but the rain will be coming in this pm and overnight will drop to the low 30s. By Monday feels like will be in the teens. Crazy stuff, 50 degree temp change in 24 hours. Typical GA, the threat of nasty weather will clean out every milk cooler and bread rack within 200 miles of the path.
Was coveting the listings of the books you’re culling thru. A good hard back printed doesn’t need a bat-ree, WI-FI, or innerwebz connection. Had a boat load of FIRST editions I didn’t get custody of after my final divorce. I’m slowly (12 yrs) replacing or adding to my collection thru the Friends of the Library book sales. Got a buddy that keeps an eye out for titles that I’d be interested in when I take them a box or so in. I’ll usually pick up a deal on some good stuff at the yard & estate sales. Go in on the last day when they’ll take about anything they can get. Most folks don’t take the time to go through boxes of books at the yard sale. What I don’t want, I’ll buy and donate to our Library sale.
Time for a bowl of the veggie beef soup that’s been warming up low and slow. Fresh batch of corn pone came out earlier. Got a beef orast in the crocked pot. Sure glad you mentioned them orast back last summer. Found some beef and porked ones in the butcher cooler at the K Roger.
Y’all stay warm.
This is a strange storm. The southern border is sleet and below that, it’s rain from Mississippi to West Virginia, and it’s all heading northeast into New England.
I should have been up last night with the shovel but the serious snow didn’t stuff until after midnight (of course).
“…veggie beef soup…” while that is a contradiction in and of itself, I’m sure you don’t care, and neither do I. So rock on, veggie beef soup man, rock on.
*grin*
You my Brother, just like my ampersand, are AWOL and missing the action. You both are, too, missing the vegetables AND beef soup with fresh corn pone that was gracing the bowl on several trips today. The soup had been crock potting, lowly, for 18 hrs and was done to perfection. In honor of my Swabbie Brothers, paying particular attention to Naval Aviation, the soup has a goodly supply of beans. It was complemented my a slab of peanut butter pie.
The beef orast is basking in the other pot as we speak. The struggle is real. Wish y’all was here! “grin back at cha!” rockin’ on
“The soup had been crock potting, lowly…”
All my snooty English teachers, some in Jesuit robes, are spinning now. They were right, I didn’t turn out well at all.
Love it, Bro, don’t go changin’
I have never heard a better explanation of slow cooking in my life.
Dibs on the corn bread, after I dry my eyes from laughing.
*grin*
Uh Thank you, Thank you very much. I’ll be here all week. Be sure you try the pepper steak and don’t forget to tip your waitress.
I speak, and write, a mixture of Southern American and nobonics. There is no filter between brain and mouth. It has caused problems sometimes. Some say it was caused by all of those years spent travelling alone. Others claim because I was dropped on my head as a child. (I was). Another theory is I fell off of a turnip truck. (I did) Being the starved for attention middle child didn’t help either.
Y’all keep up the good work, carrying on the Legacy that Jonn started. You really don’t/can’t know what it means to a bunch of us.
The beef orast will be served up for Sunday Dinner with sides of whipped garlic and cheese taters, baby peas with carrots and another slab of peanut butter pie.
And you don’t/can’t know how few we are, and how much a comment like this means to us.
Thank you.
When I retired in 2007 and moved to my late Moms place down here in South Florida, I mailed my car ice scraper and a pair of winter gloves up to my friend in Long Beach LI. Going to be in the mid 60’s this Monday, so I’ll throw on my 3rd 50’s-60’s era N-1 Deck jack and wear a pair of jeans. Seafarers are long gone.
There is some solace to living in a northern clime. You get to see the rivers and wetlands and whether they are low, below banks, or full and nearly overflowing by the end of summer, as they have been all of last year. I expect to see some real flooding come spring, with people doing silly things like getting out of their cars and trying to wade through a flooded spot on a road instead of going back where they came from.
Should be really good, come Spring!
Yeah, but it’s still Florida….
Beautiful essay, Ex. The snow is falling on my cabin (we’re expecting more than a foot) so we have 2 weeks of missed shows to catch up with as I have been working late and she has been coming home to an empty home.
This weekend is all I looked forward to. Supplies and beer to last a month and catch up on what’s important.
Thanks! My estimate of six inches turned out to be 12 inches of drifting everywhere, including my front steps.
However, the sidewalk and front steps are cleared off. And I’m going to fix an all-carbohydrate dinner of rotini with a veggie pesto sauce and some ice cream for dessert.
Sounds lovely! If I had my IFR we’d deliver an airdrop of Cabernet
Single handed IFR at night may not be worth the joy to be found in a bottle of Cabernet 🙂 If you have a single axis coupled autopilot, a wing leveler, it helps. Still, icing remains a perennial caution, day or night.
For all of that, it you really want to go… let me know!
Can’t ice over if the engine is on fire. See, I think ahead. I may have to take you up on that offer, though. Going after my license spring after next
Even if you seldom fly in IMC, learning to fly IFR will improve your flying and navigation ability more than may imagine.
I’ve been know to file just because of intense sun on the chosen course.
Airplane windshields tend to get scratched pretty easily. Throw in the glare and it’s nice to know that you have the system on your side.
There are two things you will need to know:
1. Pitch + Power = Performance
2. The 5 Ts; Turn, Time, Twist, Throttle then Talk.
Reverend Pointyhead: Maybe you can get Bernasty to airlift a supply of your favorite beverage. I understand he has a lot of free time on his hands these days.
I was afraid of this. Deep down Ex is a poet, and there is no cure. She may not even know it herself.
The eight inches of Global Warming we received Sunday lingers, but the roads are clear and I have a 4WD SUV anyway. I’ve ridden motorcycles in worse.
As far as the ‘hood goes, I’m so far off the beaten trail so that in the 23 years here in la Casa de AW1, not a single trick-or-treater has darkened my door on Halloween. Hey, kids do a cost / benefit analysis too, even if they don’t know they are.
Glad you’re up and running on the new-to-you computer, Ex. They do have games out there besides “Pong.”
Now is a good time to depart the fix, adios!
Yes, I am a poet and not ashamed to say it. 🙂
Pong?? What is Pong, Earthman? 🙂
And this is serious video game shit! The family of nine fought over this for months … then my dear departed father from Dublin took it outside near the pond and killed it with an “H” stick.
Then came Pac Man … a wee bit later.
We saved up to get a roll of quarters for Friday night Pac Man. Tough choice, doing laundry or killing the “eaters”.
Got your message, MCPO!
N.B.: Click on IMG1921 link at the top of this article if you want to see MCPO’s ‘burning of the greens’.
We spent 5 winters in Utah and folks in those latitudes take a low of snow in stride. One New Years eve in Sun Valley, Idaho I cleaned over three feet of snow off of the pickup then a few hours later another three feet. Took a city bus to dinner and it had tire chains on but the next a.m. there was actually too much snow to ski their small slope. Only advice for those in random snow areas is park the car, light a fire in the fireplace if you have one, open a bottle of decent German Riesling and wait it out. If you have to go out, word of caution, don’t eat any yellow snow. Temperature in Mid-Arkansas is 38 degrees. It is snowing in North Arkansas and people in South Arkansas are working on their tans, well they could be if there was sunlight inside the bars.
The ecohippies really don’t know what they’re missing out on.
I live in Lakeland, Florida. It’s 72ºF and partly cloudy, but we’re going to get some storms later tonight.
Neener Neener Neener. ;o)
Put a marker pole in the yard, one with flood lines on it. If it floods, you can get the pix and send them to us.
I live at the top of a hill, so all the meltwater will flow away from my home and my neighborhood.
52 degrees in Tacoma, WA right now. 0.19 inches of rain projected overnight.
What, no snow?
Not here. Only had to scrape frost from the car about 6 times so far this winter.
Coldest I’ve seen driving at 0530 has been 28 so far. Sunday at midnight it’s supposed to be down to 34, but otherwise overnight lows in the low to mid 40’s for the next week.
House is at 285 feet Above Sea Level 10 miles east of Puget Sound and 40 miles west of Cascade Mountain Range & Mt Rainier. The snow level is 1500 feet+.
Mount Rainier is forecast to see about three feet of snow in three separate 12-hour forecast periods:
32-38 inches on Monday
33-39 inches on Tuesday
33-39 inches again Tuesday night
Normal winter for us down here is snow 2 or 3 times overnight and it’s gone by the afternoon. Longest snow stayed around in the 30 years I’ve lived here has been 5 days.
Living in Tacoma is punishment enough so don’t wish them snow. I loved the place so much after retiring at Fort Lewis, I left the ex wife there. Receive regular reports from the adult daughter on how much the place sucks.
https://youtu.be/GVFgEBq0EKM
Oh, yeah?
Well, hell, then how about some blues?
https://youtu.be/5zECNsIeH9g
Made something almost like a perimeter check a bit ago and the yard was soggy. Creeks running about half full as well.
70 degrees inside. Stuff to eat. Stuff to drink. Generator recently serviced. Plenty of critter food. Books from the library not due for a couple of weeks plus some new purchases I have not yet read. We are all set.
Ditto! Almost time to tap that last bottle of Tuscan red….
74 degrees in the radio shack tonight, 27 degrees outside. Generator is fueled and ready, 50 bales of hay in the trailer, water hoses stashed in the basement for watering the horses in the morning. Snowblower ready to go, five extra sheer pins. Enough food to feed ourselves and the neighbors.
Only weak link is beer supply. I’ll deal with that in morning. Case of Heineken and a few cases of Yuengling ought’a hold us over until cabin fever kicks in.
Picked up some hardware in Gloucester, yesterday. The cashier took a call while checking us out. One of the local fishing guys called to see if she wanted to go fishing this weekend. She declined but I told her to tell the skipper that I might be available, depending on what he was looking for!! Haha, fuckit, I am NOT even going to “go there”.
FWIW, I prefer Mrs. Paul’s to Gorton’s but Van de Kamps is a decent alternative.
Hope everybody gets through the next couple of days without loss of power or access to civilization.
Right now, at 2323hrs, it’s a balmy 6° on the deck, the guy who plows the driveway just left, after snowblowing the sidewalks and plowing the driveway, there’s not a cloud in the sky, so I’m sure we’ll descend to o° or colder tonight.
Had to laugh at that – thinking about just how many miles away is a sidewalk…none in my neighborhood. Even the closest housing development (if you can call it that) has none.
Woke up to -4° in my AO. No snow up here. In fact, it’s been light on snow all winter so far.
I was at the beach today in Southern California. It’s around 70 F. But oh wait, you hate California because it’s so liberal. You want to give up all the military bases in California and cripple America’s strategic advantage in the world because you don’t liberals. Maybe you should just build a wall around the Appalachian mountains and set up economic ties with Russia? Would you be happy then? I doubt it.
EAFBOD.
For the record, this native Californian left because of LA/SF controlling the rest of the state.
I for one love SD, Orange County, and the Central Coast. Just have zero intention of ever paying the ungodly taxes and insane cost of living there.
Hi. I see you are new to Trolling here. Do try harder. We have standards to maintain.
California’s a wonderful state. It’s that moonbat governor – whatshisname, brown or black or tan or something – who is ruining it for real people.
Try harder, amateur. And get some manners, willya? Your amateur status is showing.
Not sure, but maybe we are supposed to be insulted or something?
Whatever.
*YAWN* – Try again little cockroach, you did little more than bore the hell out of us this time!
My wife talked with her childhood friend today. She lives up North in Yankee territory. It’s supposed to have a wind chill tonight well below zero. Wife tells me of walking to school the first 9 grades in snow that was a foot deep with drifts that were higher than she was tall. She had to walk in the streets to avoid snow higher than she was tall.
I lived in a lot of places in the Rockies as a kid (CO, NM, ID, WY.)
I remember when I was about 10-11, one winter we got so much snow, I could slam dunk a basketball at recess until about April.
I’d need a stepladder to dunk a basketball in any weather.
Here in the he Pineywoods, it is a cool 26 degrees. It has been just over a year from our la and playst snow.
Sunshine is out which makes our Congress of felines, who are far more productive then those who are of the Congress in Washington, want to go outside and play. That is until they realize how cold it is to them.
Today is a much needed “lazy day” here between my job and constant scrambling by the Mrs. to all the appointments for her sister and her myriad of health issues.
Later, I will make some mild chili and some rolls for us to eat while the football games play this afternoon and evening.
But for now, I am laying in bed next to my beautiful and awesome wife and might catch a few more hours of the world most popular movie “The Insides of Eyelids.”
Have a great Sunday, all.
We’ve got single digits, clear skies and sunshine right now. I have the blinds on the southern windows raised to let in solar heat. It does work, as long as the sun is available, but when the sun has set – not so much. 🙂
I still have to dig out the sidewalk so that I can get the trash bin to the curb for Monday. If I don’t, I’ll just wait until next week.
all is quiet near DC…the hot air blowing from the center of town is warming the burbs well, so we are at 40 degrees this morning.
Depending upon the MPHI (Moron Produced Heat Index) today we could see 45 or more.
rain seems to have passed through and taken the snow from last week with it.
Therefore, the day calls for a fine honduran or Dominican cigar and a few fingers of Macallan. I finished my book last night, so today it is prime video…might watch From Here to Eternity or In Harm’s Way. The Bridges at Toko-Ri is also on the potential playlist….
https://valorguardians.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/IMG_1921.mov
So the above clip is what we did yesterday, today we have 2 – 3 inches of slush at 34 degrees.
Later today at about 1700 temp will plunge to -5 to -15 with wind chill factor.
We are ready and will survive.
I’m working just up I-87 from you. 16-18″ here, had some sleet this morning, tapering off now, and -30 wind chills tonight and tomorrow morning.
Definitely earning my paycheck this week.
One of my favorite Frank albums, second only to Another Band From LA
I the 70’s we would sneak into NYC on Halloween night to see Zappa play at the Palladium … that was one of his favorite venues.
Frank was very popular for late teens … not so much for the parents.
Frank was brilliant.
An large electronics and home goods store now resides there now.
That was about the time that he added Ruth Underwood to the band. Her amazing percussion riffs changed the direction of Frank’s themes.
I believe that the NYC period was after Flo & Eddy (The Turtles) had left the band and Napoleon Murphy Brock was handling some of the vocals.
Ugly as all hell in NE Massachusetts. Not a shadow shall be seen, freezing rain, drizzle and dropping from 27 to 8 in the next couple of hours.
Snowblower is about useless in this slushy mess, the chute keeps icing shut with icebergs in the discharge chute.
Horses have not been out of their stalls today, gonna be a mess to clean up tomorrow but at least it will be frozen 🙂
On the uptick, plenty of beer in the fridge, house is warm, only broke one sheer pin on the blower. Roads are passable, boots are dry, 60 days until spring and the days are getting longer by nearly two minutes per day at 43 n Lat.
I don’t mind 2 feet of snow if it’s nice and fluffy.
Half an inch of ice? Nope. Slush isn’t much better, and yeah, snowblowers are next to useless in that crap.
Had my first jackknife last Wednesday on I-91, about 30 miles south of the Canadian border. Less than two inches of snow, hit black ice while towing a horse trailer. Been driving for more than 50 years but the jackknife was probably the most thrilling moment of all. Diesel rigged F250 4×4 crew cab was moved by the momentum of the trailer. Did not expect to have about 3,500# load control an 8,000 truck! I felt like Bernath must have felt on his last plane ride, increasing oscillations and each one more drastic than the one before! Eventually the trailer pulled around and we did a 360 into the side of a mountain. Poor dear geldings had only been in the trailer for about 16 miles when they experienced a Joey Chitwood Vermont style sleigh ride. After a time, a VT State Trooper happened upon the scene. The trailer was off the road and the truck was partially extended into the right lane. After discovering that there were no injuries AND that the horses were just fine, as were the truck and trailer, we still had the problem of how to get back on the road. I am here to tell, that Trooper might have been about 30 years old. He walked back to his cruiser, pulled out a shovel and started digging us out like yeoman. I grabbed an empty water bucket and tried to match him. Then, along came a fire truck and they had an extra shovel and THEY started in digging with great gusto and zeal! That was my first trip to Vermont… that I remember. To say that we were impressed by the hospitality, cordiality, professionalism and enthusiasm is to understate our gratitude. After bumming another shovel from the fire truck, the three of us had the rig ready to try an explication and extraction. Sure as goodness, we pulled back onto the highway with nothing more than 4×4. After thanking the Trooper and the firemen we were able to get back underway but could only go about 35 mph due to front end shaking.… Read more »
I believe it. And I-91/89 are not roads you want to screw around on in bad weather. Don’t even want to think about what it’s like on Rt. 4, US-3 in NH, etc.
It happened a couple of winters ago, and may now, but I was having some horrible vibrations in my truck as I was driving.
Seems it was so cold, the tires had basically frozen and were lopsided until they had warmed up for a while. Sure enough, by the time I got to Conway, no problem.
Square tires are a common event North of the Franconia notch.
Down here in the flatlands.
Not as much.
This morning -30 wind chill was a tad much.
Cold weather is nice provided I’m not in it. I had a VW Squareback from 1971-1977. Actually I had two of them. I loved those cars but they didn’t produce much heat in the winter. They were air cooled IIRC. When my daughter was born at Bethesda in the winter, I left the car running for 40 minutes immediately in front of the hospital. I left the heater on max during this time but the interior was still pretty cold when we got in to go home with our bouncing baby girl. We got her home to a nice warm apartment in Silver Spring after a time and all was well.
At 1130 … 9 degrees here now and wind is howling …
You know you getten old when you resort to rechargeable pocket warmers so you can snow blow the yard.
https://www.celestron.com/products/celestron-elements-thermocharge-10