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Flat Wheel Cafe - Winter '09 Locked

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Posted by jeaton on Friday, January 16, 2009 10:04 AM

 

Found this as four ways to beat the winter blahs.

http://healthyliving.msn.com/default.aspx?section=archive&contentType=article&contentId=Beating%20the%20Winter%20Blahs&GT1=25037

I am still going to hold out for my best ideas.  1.  Spend winter on a Caribbean Island, or, 2. Hibernate.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

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Posted by piouslion1 on Friday, January 16, 2009 10:03 AM

tree68

PL - I'm guessing that +9 for you is probably like -20 for us, maybe even worse.

Tree,

Perfectly said truth as only a  true gentleman can say it.

PL

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, January 16, 2009 9:45 AM

PL - I'm guessing that +9 for you is probably like -20 for us, maybe even worse.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by piouslion1 on Friday, January 16, 2009 9:33 AM

Good morning from Winston-Salem.

 

Can't say we have temps quite like you folks North and West of us, but cold just the same. Low this morning was 9 and presently 14 degrees with the high expected to be 24. The good thing is that the skies are clear with bright sunshine.

Great day to stay inside for us here.

Back to work on Tuesday, Feeling much better

PL 

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Posted by Modelcar on Friday, January 16, 2009 8:50 AM

We hit our low point about sunup this morning...{normal}, -10.5 and bright sunshine.  Should be on an up trend now for temp in our area.  We'll have about "0" tomorrow morning and then start the climb out of that. But today it will get about + 5  if it does what they projected yesterday.

Recoverery should continue on into next week with high's in the 20's and 30's....That will feel like a much more normal winter temp. 

You know, January is half over.....a good achievement.  We'll just look forward {out there a ways yet}, towards spirng. 

Quentin

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Posted by grampaw pettibone on Friday, January 16, 2009 8:21 AM

Howdy. 21 degrees and windy with sunshine in Carolina this morning. It is supposed to get up to 38 later with a low of 8 tonight. Everybody take care and stay warm.

Tom

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Posted by SactoGuy188 on Friday, January 16, 2009 8:11 AM

Good morning everyone. (Grabs big mug of hot chocolate and a bear claw)

If you see my last post, the graphic automatically references the current temperature in the Sacramento, CA area. It's a pretty cool 38 °F. outside as I type this....

 

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, January 16, 2009 7:34 AM

Had -22F at the house early this morning.  There's only a wisp of wind, so the wind chill is nil.

Still, the forecast is doom and gloom.  Continued cold, and the lake effect "machine" is supposed to crank up today and tomorrow.

As long as I can make the train show in Utica on Sunday.  It's not a big show, but it's at Utica Union Station (a gorgeous old station, nicely restored and maintained), and I know the organizer quite well (he's one of our volunteer engineers).

Time for some tea.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by blhanel on Friday, January 16, 2009 7:14 AM

Although there's still time to do it this morning, we haven't broken the all-time record low that was set yesterday- currently officially at -27 degrees according to the PC readout.  My thermometers all read somewhere around -21 when I left the house.  A light wind out of the south gives reason for optomism.  I must be a glutten for punishment this morning- drove over to an outdoor ATM to get cash and then stopped to fill up the tank.

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, January 16, 2009 7:06 AM

morning

well it is friday but its cold.NW ohio is closed today.-17 at last check on the radio.Cw thanks for breakfast.good day to stay in and keep warm.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by cherokee woman on Friday, January 16, 2009 5:59 AM

Good Friday morning, everyone.  We're right at 0 F this morning.  Wind chill anywhere from -10 to -15, depending on the area you are in.  May make it up to about 17 or so degrees for a high today.

There's plenty of hot coffee, hot chocolate, hot cider and water for hot tea, to go along with bacon, sausage, eggs (however you want them this morning), fried taters, homemade buttermilk biscuits w/sausage gravy, along with bagels and bear claws.

All of you, keep as warm as you can, and take care today.  Bundle up!!

 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, January 16, 2009 4:54 AM

We were at -13 when I retired last night; it's -18 now (the Bug shows that it hit -19 sometime during the night).  The car gets to spend the day in Pat's parking lot today, instead of on the hump.

Carl

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CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by locomutt on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:53 PM

 According to the 10:00 news here, we're at 7 degrees,

with wind chill at -12.  Dead

(we need a Smiley that shows BRrrrr! )

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by Modelcar on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:26 PM

Right now for us:  -7.1.......Wow, that's at 10:26 pm.

Quentin

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Posted by piouslion1 on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:23 PM

 

Hey Sac: 

Thank you for sharing your good fortune with us folks out here in the places of Winter.Sigh

The warmpth from Miss Paulas' soups and stews Yeah!!are almost as famous as the great and wonderful Wow!!taste of her cornbreadBow (that is the yellow kind that comes in both plane and sweetened varieties).

Come to see us when you can,

PL

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:17 PM

SactoGuy188
(I better run before all the people suffering from the cold snap pelt me with big snowballs Whistling )

Too cold - the snow won't pack.

Computer recorded about 5 above at 3 pm, but the sun was out and that tends to skew the sensor upwards, even though it is in a shelter.  I'm betting on an even zero.

Right now I've got -14.6F, and it's still early.  Gonna be a cold one tonight.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by SactoGuy188 on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:03 PM

Good evening everyone. Thanks for the big pot of beef stew! Dinner

By the way, here's the temperature in my area:

 

(I better run before all the people suffering from the cold snap pelt me with big snowballs Whistling )

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, January 15, 2009 6:26 PM

mudchicken

CShaveRR

Mookie
Unlike Mudchicken's dogs that given a shovel, have enough energy to scoop as they......  yup.....

They also tamp, line, and surface when they're done.

Oh man am I missing something! Must be something with The Scottish Terrier Union, Local One. I can't even get 'em to go in the same general direction, much less in a straight line.

You got the independent ones.  They made them and then broke the mold.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, January 15, 2009 6:22 PM

CShaveRR

Mookie
Unlike Mudchicken's dogs that given a shovel, have enough energy to scoop as they......  yup.....

They also tamp, line, and surface when they're done.

Oh man am I missing something! Must be something with The Scottish Terrier Union, Local One. I can't even get 'em to go in the same general direction, much less in a straight line.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by blhanel on Thursday, January 15, 2009 6:13 PM

Recap of the day from here- we struggled to reach a high of -9 degrees, after setting an official all-time record low temperature of -29 degrees this morning.  Tomorrow morning could break that record.  My weather station here at home indicates a current temp of -13.9 already.  The heat wave is just around the corner, though- supposed to get up to +8 tomorrow afternoon.  Woo-hoo!

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Posted by miniwyo on Thursday, January 15, 2009 5:22 PM

Howdy all!

Wow, it sounds like the tables have turned! The last 2 or 3 Januarys we were having lows down near -40, and highs near -10. Then add in the winds we get here! That kind of weather is a normal January Today It was almost 40 degrees and sunny. I actually drove through town with the window open and washed the truck! (with the window closed that is....)

RJ

"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling

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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:52 PM

afternoon

Well  Carl we have the snowpile at the end of our street that keeps getting bigger and bigger.Matt is already delayed 2 hrs for tommorow.CSX is looking for room for cars in the yard.(probably more Maw cars have arrived).Cw thanks for supper.Yes going to bundle up for work tonight for sure.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:30 PM

Mookie
Unlike Mudchicken's dogs that given a shovel, have enough energy to scoop as they......  yup.....

They also tamp, line, and surface when they're done.

Woke up to an official temperature of -6 this morning (the 4:00 a.m. reading at O'Hare); it degenerated to -10 by 7:00 (Jim, you're not missing much; they gave the Aurora temperature as -24).  My thermometer at work read warmer than O'Hare for the most part, and I watched it struggle to reach -0.2 shortly after noon.  However, by the time I left work it was back down to -3.1.  The Bug at home is now showing -9.4; it never went above -1 today..

We had a couple of switch malfunctions at work (one solved with a broom; another was more involved), but still managed to lower the count in the receiving yard.

Tonight we're expecting to dive down to the mid-teens below zero, but should break through into positive territory about noon tomorrow.  Just in time for more snow on Saturday.  Both the Proviso Yard and the Shaver (front) yard are running out of places to put it all!

Carl

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Posted by jeaton on Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:47 PM

Larry, nice to have a neighbor like that. 

 My daughter was born in January 1978, the winter of 6 feet of snow accumulation in the Chicago suburb where we lived.  My driveway into the garage in the lower level of the house sloped down about 4 feet below grade and the snow was piled up another 4 feet above grade.  One night the wind came up and and filled it all in.  Thought I would never get out, but during the night someone with a pick-up and snow plow cleared it out.  Never heard from the good Samaritan.

The sun is shining, but not too strong.  Still -8 and I don't think it is going to get up to the forecasted nothing.

Mookie, my pups are a pair of minature Doxies, Sassy and Molly. We got them after Fritz died from complications of diabetes last spring. Sassy is 4 years old and obviously has experience with snow and cold, so she reacts to yukky weather the same way I do.  Molly is 7 months and loves to go jumping around in the deep snow.  However with at least a foot on the ground, I have run the snowblower over the patio and some of the back yard.  Since they are both only about 6 inches tall, we didn't want them to get lost.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, January 15, 2009 12:45 PM

Still below zero here.

I can identify with the high snowbanks thing.  Fortunately I know the town highway people and can get them to wing it down, even if I do have some serious digging to do to re-clear the end of the driveway.

One of my neighbors now has a small farm tractor with a snowblower on it.  He likes to play with it, so I have no problems at all these days.  He's even gotten the driveway for me once or twice when I wasn't there to do it myself.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, January 15, 2009 12:41 PM

They trained cats to use litter; they even trained them to use the human litter and flush when done.  Did anyone ever talk to the dogs and discuss using litter inside instead of having to go out?  I am sure that if you approached them in the right way, they would see the logic of not going outside during rain, snow, sleet, etc.  Especially tiny dogs and short hairs.  Unlike Mudchicken's dogs that given a shovel, have enough energy to scoop as they......  yup.....

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by cherokee woman on Thursday, January 15, 2009 12:26 PM

I'm not sure what our current official temp is, but on our indoor/outdoor thermometer, it's reading is 12.4 outside.

I'm glad I made a humongous pot of beef stew and about the same size pot of vegetable beef soup yesterday.  There's still plenty enough of both for our lunch and supper tonight, here in the Cafe.  And I just took a couple of large cast iron skillets of cornbread out of the oven.  

Jay, guess I'd better bundle up and take our dog, Winter, out so she can do her business again. Sure do wish we had a doggie door for her!

 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by blhanel on Thursday, January 15, 2009 12:26 PM

We've got a nice bright sunny day here as well, but the mercury sure isn't responding to it.  Temp readout on PC currently shows -17 degrees.  At one point around 9 AM this morning it read -28.

At least there's no wind to speak of...

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Posted by jeaton on Thursday, January 15, 2009 10:28 AM

Reported -12 as of now, temperature suposed to go up to nothing as a high.  That is the "official" on-line number, but the reading on the house is about -18.  I'll go with the warmer number.  The pups usually run around the area of the back yard for at least a few minutes, but this morning they were out-take care of business-in.  Then they look at me like "When do we get indoor plumbing?"

Snow banks at the bottom of the drive are now in the 5 foot range.  Getting to the point where a preiscope is needed to check for traffic on the street.  Good thing there is no more snow in the forecast, as it is getting to the point of needing a dump truck and front end loader to make more room.

At any rate, I am glad that I don't have to leave the house.  Even with an inside job, a trip from a parking spot to the door cannot be fun.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

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Posted by Modelcar on Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:46 AM

Status in Muncie this morning......It was 0.3 F at my first check this morning and then dropped at sunrise to -3.7 degrees.....Our projected high for today is "0".  Wind chill is a factor too....up to 25 mph winds possible sometime today.  But  a bright spot....!  The sun is shining brightly and the heat coming thru the windows from it is very warm....That helps.

Looks like we'll be in Artic conditions thru Sunday.  And not above freezing until about Wednesday.

New battery in my little truck in 2007 too Larry so that should keep the starter doing it's job.  Have a full tank of fuel too....helps to try to prevent  water forming in the tank.  Our garage seals well too and has an insulated garage door plus all walls and ceiling are insulated just like the house....Actually, my garage entrance visible in Avatar.

But this is critical winter stuff and eveyone must be careful.  I don't try to challenge it as I did as a young fellow some years ago....

Quentin

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