Too $%#^& cold

[altivo]

Yes, I know, it's colder in Alaska and Manitoba or whatever, but I don't live there. And it's too cold right here. Dealing with water buckets that have frozen solid and snow that has half melted and then turned to rock hard ice is just not my thing. Mind, I don't like Arizona or Florida either. I should be somewhere on or near a west coast, I think. Doesn't have to be California, the west coast of one of the Great Lakes would do. I don't mind eight feet of snow, I just mind -15F wind chills.

When you go to scoop up horse poop and it has already frozen into cannon shot (I kid you not, that hard) it is just too friggin' cold.

In other fun news: At the beginning of the fiscal year, we changed the official way our network is managed, since converting much of it to Linux meant that the hired technodweebs couldn't deal with it any more, being Windows only types. So it became my responsibility. My boss wasn't sure she believed I could do it, I guess, because she kept the consultants on retainer. Well, it seems we were not the only ones to decide we didn't need to pay $60 or more an hour for their services. They've now reduced their staff and cut back their service to the point that they had to be honest and say they couldn't take her money for being "on call" since they probably wouldn't have anyone to respond. They refunded the full amount she paid for this year. And today, she gave me a bemused look when I explained that I was ordering replacement drives and memory expansions for some older machines to keep them viable as backup units. "We seem to be doing just fine without XYZ after all," she said. I just laughed. More than fine. We've saved about $7000 this year, and our users have hardly noticed anything.

Drove to Crystal Lake this afternoon to pick up a year's worth of contact lenses (just six pairs, since I only use them for fursuiting and they can be worn about 14 times before replacing them.) Handed the optometrist a photo of myself in suit, autographed even. She thought it was "Very cool."

Resleyed the loom to try another sample run at 16 warp threads per inch, my compromise with the others in my workshop who preferred the looser weave to the tighter one I liked. It turns out that the simple fabric I'm aiming for was once a widespread commercial item called "osnaburg", made from linen tow and frequently used to make clothing for workmen. Good, that's just what I wanted. :D It was in wide distribution during the period from about 1750 to 1880 or so, with huge amounts of it woven in mills in Scotland. It lost place to denim, oxford cloth, and chambray after the US Civil War or thereabouts, and gradually disappeared as linen was replaced by cotton.

Back to huddle by the woodstove until bedtime. It's too cold here at my desk where the computer is.

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

And this is one of the reasons I love not living in the far north anymore. Somewhere between -15°F and -22°F, metals start getting frail. I know of someone who somehow managed to snap a supposedly sturdy key... inside the lock of their front door. Much swearing ensued. This other time, constantia dropped a key on the concrete in front of her own door, and when she tried to pick it up, the key had frozen and gotten solidly stuck.

It's much nicer down here where winter just means rain.

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

from expereince i would say around -40 is when some metals starts to get more frail

i miss rain :(

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

To be fair to the weather, a proper well-made, non-worn stainless steel key would've had no business actually breaking inside a lock at any humane temperature.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ah, but at least over here, a lot of keys are made of aluminum. That does get brittle quickly at subzero temperatures.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

A west coast again. ;p

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

At least until mid-January.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wonder if in the southern hemisphere, one wants to be on east coasts for the mildest weather. There might be a sort of logic to that.

I do remember from about 5th or 6th grade learning that there was a climatic classification of "Marine West Coast" that occurs in the northern hemisphere on western coastlines only, and usually gets a lot of rain, but never gets excessively hot nor excessively cold even at higher latitudes. The coast of British Columbia, the southern part of the Alaska panhandle, the coasts of Oregon and Washington, and a large chunk of Scandinavia as well as all of the British Isles and adjacent European coastlines have this type of climate.

Around the Great Lakes we have a similar effect, only you do get the snow in huge quantities rather than rain.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Our western (and southern) coasts are less than a frozen hell pretty much solely because of the Gulf Stream, which warms up a large part of Europe. There's some speculation right now that global warming might actually shut down some of the (I assume mainly atmospheric) engine that drives its northern extension, the Atlantic Drift. This might then cool down temperatures in Scandinavia and Great Britain, altering weather patterns, but nobody really knows what the odds of this happening are, or how much the effect would be.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Suggestion: Hey, with horseshit that cold there's only one thing to do... break out the ol' five-iron and have at it!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think it would just BREAK the five iron. Especially if the crap is frozen to the ground as it often is.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

I've heard tell that in the "olden days" large well-formed cow pats were used for curling rocks out on the lake ice. Sweet! Hey, at least it don't smell eh?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unless, of course, you think that curling itself smells. I always thought it a rather amusing sport. Have you seen the film Men With Brooms? Hilarious.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Yarp! Was a funny one but not too much.

Mmm... curling can be a very exciting sport actually. Up here in Manitoba we curl OVERHAND!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think I don't want to be anywhere near a place where they are doing that.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear Rider.

Climb aboard, mount up and off we fly to sunnier climes. That island beach we like so much. Sunshine, blue skies forever.

Heh.

Imperator

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's hard to get into the fantasy when you're typing with stiff fingers and your ears are frozen. ;p

Way too cold

[doug-taron.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to be better over the weekend and next week. But I agree, this has just been much too cold, too early.

Re: Way too cold

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Any time a bucket full of water will freeze solid overnight it is too cold.

Re: Way too cold

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Overnight? Does it in a few hours up here!

Re: Way too cold

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Uh huh. Guess why I don't live there? ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*scratches his head* Such low temperatures so many people have, *looks at the UV fade on things in the house and the heat damage to plastics and where the road melted last year*