Happy Friday! Winter is finally really here. A weather front rolled in yesterday and we dropped 20F and got a bit of ice and snow. It's so dry the snow is kind of blowing around. Today is Kiss a Ginger Day. I hope you have one at home because the stores are all out. Who here is a bit redheaded? It's your lucky day. Pucker up, buttercup. A couple days ago I watched Boyz n the Hood for the first time and it has stuck with me. It's such a good slice of life movie.... but honestly it kind of put me in a mood so I need to think about something else. Like what kind of shenanigans y'all are into. Who has hot plans this weekend?
Ice is happening in Central Texas on Sunday and Monday. We're probably fucked because we still don't have the infrastructure or power grid to deal with it. It is a thing now that if you move in Austin, you can have the realtor find a place on the same grid as a fire station or a school because they usually don't lose power during rolling blackouts. I made sure of it during my last move. At least this place has natural gas so I should have heat even if the power goes out. After 2021, I made sure to get an indoor safe propane heater and a big battery bank with a solar charger. I also make sure all of my camping gear works and is stocked about every six months. I generally always have 20 gallons of water and a couple weeks worth of non-perishables/MREs on hand anyway but still managed to spend ~$200 at Sam's earlier. If everything goes to shit, I'm having a bunch of steak and drinking bourbon. Hell, I'll probably do it regardless. It's not like I'm going to drive into work when there's ice. People here don't know how to drive in the rain.
Tonight was a fucked weather night... dumped down a bunch of snow, complete with thunder and lightning, wind came up, then it thawed out and rained... huge clumps of snow falling out of the trees... what a mess. This weekend it's supposed to get -10 to -16 or so. Good weekend to stay inside and cook/drink/netflix Of course, tonight I get a warning that my shop heater (that also heats the garage) isn't kicking off any more. It's a big radiant heat tube heater powered by natural gas... and I think the igniter is fucked on it. The big problem is that it's hanging from a 14' ceiling, and I'm a bottle of wine into the night... no way I'm climbing that ladder to try and fix it tonight... but I will have to tomorrow or else the shop will get too cold. Joys of home ownership I guess.
It's only the shop, which is heavily insulated. I just don't want glue and other finishes to freeze or get too cold as it can damage them. It's sitting at 14° now, and I usually keep it at 16°. I'm hoping tomorrow I can just climb the ladder and clean up the ignitor, get the spark happening again. I have a spare flame detector on hand, but not an ignitor. Not sure how readily available a spare will be on a Saturday... it's not something that's carried by a big box store.
And yeah, this is what you get for not doing proper preventative maintenance on it for 4+ years... my own fault. I could have done all this in the middle of the summer in the heat, but instead it picks the first super cold weekend to fuck up.
I've dated a couple of redheads in my day; I wouldn't recommend it. Stick to brunettes. In other news, I've been needing a haircut for awhile. I hate, HATE, HATE going to the barber shop, so I've been cutting my own hair for years. I used to do my own fades/ crew-cuts, but ever since the Chinese Virus shut down all the barber shops, I've gotten more skilled. Jungle Julia hates it when I cut my own hair, because she says that I cut it too short, and I "look like a lesbian." Even with the beard. If it were up to her, I'd have shoulder length hair. Anyway, I went ahead and cut it, AND SHE DIDN'T NOTICE. Instead, she asked me if I had trimmed my beard, because it looked longer! So I'd say that's a win.
Should have worn the track suit you got her for xmas while cutting your own hair. She probably would have noticed you then.
She decided to keep the pants of the tracksuit; we decided that her ass looked really good in them. My hips/ ass are nowhere near wide enough to fill them out. I'll try to get a picture of her in them soon.
The next big home upgrade is going to be new windows (and exterior doors, if we can swing it). I know it is drafty in here. We have insulated curtains on a few windows and sliding doors. But shit! Look at this mess. I found frost on the inside of at least 2 windows. Edit: now I am reading online about frost in windows. Maybe not as unusual or indicative of failure as I thought at first. Still want new insulated windows though.
Glad I did all the shopping last night when it was just -6°F Two years ago, right after closing on the house, our furnace took a shit and we had to be red-tagged…during the same stretch of weather. I bought three of those little electrical radiator heaters, and we kept the house going pretty well. So we’ve got those out to keep things warm for the kid.
Yeesh, guess I shouldn't bitch about our 50* weather. But I will because cold weather sucks ass. And 50* is cold.
Finally our first real stretch of winter. Just managed to get the RV winterized and stored yesterday, so perfect procrastination-induced timing on that.
Northerners rag on guys like us for saying that 40-50 degrees is cold, but you have to keep in mind that is about a 40-50 degree difference from the normal temperature down here, sometimes within the same day. Example: it was in the mid 40s when I went to work yesterday morning, and by the afternoon, it was in the low 80s. I just wish it would stay one temperature.
In other good news, it looks like my shop heater started working again for some reason. All because I looked at it for about 30 mins from afar last night trying to figure out s replacement parts list for ignitors and flame detectors. At least I don’t have to climb a ladder today and can call in a pro during non-peak time. And shit won’t freeze in the meantime.
We are on emergency heat since we have a heat pump and that shit isn't very useful at these temps. I keep oil filled radiators around - the bedrooms, downstairs living room, insulated garage. There's a crappy gas fireplace upstairs that helps a little. I'd love to have a pellet stove downstairs. There's a stove pipe vent and cover, we just need to install one. My neighbor recommended gas though, as a better option if we have a power failure. Luckily, we almost never have power outages due to proximity to the power generation. I spent a load of time reading about wood vs pellet stove a year ago when I was just itching to buy one, but now I'm torn over the idea of gas.
I like gas, because it usually never goes out due to bad weather or traffic accidents like hydro does, so my gas insert fireplace runs great without power. I have a small battery backup to help run its fan to help distribute that heat better, and it'll run for days based on the power drain. And I'm seriously looking at getting a natural gas generator, for 2 reasons. The biggest problem I have with my shop is that there's no 220 into it, so I have to run a long extension cord from the garage where I have a single 220 outlet. If I wanted to run proper 220 to the shop, it will require a major upgrade of the mains to the house, and a bigger run to the pony panel in the garage. Minimum cost I've been quoted so far is about $20k. What. The Fuck. Right now I have a 40amp service to the garage, and it barely runs my dust extractor (set to 220 right now), and my 110 table saw. Never mind my shaper, power feeder, and other things I want to run. Never mind it's tough to provide my RV with adequate shore power. (the pony was repurposed to do some other circuits in the house as well, such as front hall lights, living room lights, etc, when the shop addition was put on... less than ideal than if it was properly designed from the start). I am seriously looking at getting a gas generator that I could fire up to provide the shop with 220 when I need it (it's not like it's every day), and also act as emergency power. I can back feed the 40amp pony panel to the mains if/when the power goes out, and it will more than be enough to drive things like the furnace, freezers/fridge, kitchen, etc, as needed. All for about $6k.