Good morning!!!!

[Eric Salop]

Good morning ! Forecast for today is sunshine and showers. Technically accurate, though with only 3 minutes of sunshine so far, not quite what I was hoping for.

I bet you played with your food when you were a kid

That has prompted an interesting conversation with my wife.
We both grow up knowing what day of the week it was by the food that was served up at teatime, the most memorable being Thursday, which for both of us was Meat & Potato Pie day (she hated it, I loved it). Sometimes I would be allowed to take mine into the living room to watch tv and I must confess I then occasionally arranged the pastry into a scenic mountain range, with a gravy river flowing in the valleys. :ashamed:

 

[Eric Salop]

... or make a mashed up "mud mountain", complete with caves. :ashamed::ashamed::ashamed:

 

[wngsprd]

Rain started when I was outside, and temps dropping a few more degrees this morning from 45.

So much tasty looking food and great chefs you are. Inspirational (except maybe frozen toast . Rick, I plan to show my wife your kitchen, although it may cost me big $$$.

Pop, those caulk plugs look pretty cool...better than my homemade attempts at plugging.

Got some outside chores done yesterday afternoon with the 67F temps, but ran out of time before doing the caulking I had planned.

 

[check]

11.9 inches of snow still predicted for Wednesday.
Perhaps I should go buy six loaves of bread tomorrow.
Actually I have a cranberry scone recipe I'm going to make tomorrow since
today was half spent doing my last two birdhouses.
That's it, I'm done. Ho ho ho.

Took a birdhouse across the street and chatted with neighbors, sitting masked but too close at kitchen table.
Too exposed for my tastes...but still fun and left with a freshly baked pound cake.
Which will clearly live up to its name by adding a pound to me.

my winter go to socks for cold days have been the socks my sister gave me for Christmas three years ago.
Almost too thick but comfortable to wear, these Smartwool socks have been pretty durable. Of course now
I might have to add some heavier weight alpaca ones...

nothing to do and nothing planned for tomorrow. How nice.

Perhaps only one project, need to move the generator over next to the house, test it, then install the cover for it.
I want to see how noisy it is in the corner area where it lives, facing a large open yard and the woods.
Am going to try to install some noise abatement fencing/baffles. Who knows, maybe build a little house for it.
Lots of fun threads on TBN of guys who have built amazing generator enclosures, some true little power plants with
powerful diesel engines. If I ever move out of here, I might sell this gen back to landlord and definitely go whole house again at
next place, which I would own instead of rent.
I particularly like the 25-50kw gens one can run off their tractor pto as a backup.
Just drive over and plug in.
Definitely a satisfaction in being self reliant.

oh gosh, it's oh nap thirty.

Yes! Let’s hear it for generator sheds!

 

[check]

The dusting of snow we got overnight turned out to be 12". Took me 4 hours to do two driveways. But I did stop and chew the fat with one neighbour.
When the tractor lugs down she sure has a bark. Straight pipes will do that.

Wow - and we got practically nothing here near Dorset!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 57F @ 3AM here in Cerritos, CA.No chance of rain.

I don't know about Audis, Drew, but the BMW car guys really go for those European snow tires with funny sounding Nordic names. Can't remember what they are, but a little googling will turn up lots of posts. And most have a set of steel wheels they swap to in the winter.

I've had pretty good luck with Lysol bowl cleaner on the hard water deposits here, RS. CLR never did much I could tell.

Uneventful drive down yesterday, but rain most of the way wasn't much in the way of fun. Partly cloudy skies in Los Angeles, not postcard weather by any means. I'd forgotten that the GPS clock was off an hour, so the late arrival time it predicted caused me to hurry a bit, and I ended up here at 3PM. Did some googling and found out how to reset it, and see that the time zone was two off. So it was actually two hours off. Fixed now, but had to dig through several menus to do it. Very nicely appointed room, no problems checking in, and the BBQ joint across the street had good food and sure was convenient. But I had to wait for it and it was cold when I got it.:grumpy: Biggest complaint is the noise in the room; sounds like a wind tunnel even when I turn the HVAC system off. Hard to get back to sleep after nature calls, which explains why I'm posting this so early.

I see that the propane heater I ordered off ebay was delivered yesterday; I didn't know FedEx delivered on Sunday. And now the Makita chainsaw is supposed to show up today, and I wonder where it'll end up if the FedEx guy locked the drop box. Maybe I can make it home by 3PM, but it's unlikely I'll get as early a start, depending how smoothly the loading goes. Then there's morning traffic to deal with, but it looks like I might be headed in the anti-commute direction. If there is such a thing in LA.

One thing's for sure. The high cost of living in California sure isn't going into maintaining the roads. I hit a pothole on I5 yesterday that almost ripped the steering wheel out of my hands, and the sections in LA county were almost as bad. Glad I was driving a truck instead of the van; might have lost a wheel!

Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

... or make a mashed up "mud mountain", complete with caves. :ashamed::ashamed::ashamed:

I knew it! But then what kid can resist playing with mashed potatoes and gravy, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner?:laughing:

 

[RoyJackson]

A set of dedicated winter rims and snow tires like Roy has might be
in the cards for next winter. This year the all weather tires have deep enough tread I should be just fine on local roads.
But for a snow tire, I'd go down to 235 or 245 width.

Yep, looks like PA is going to get hit pretty hard...this is the kind of snow to stay home.
I normally run all-season tires year round...even in Vermont. They can be a ittle dicey sometimes, but I've only gone off the road once...and that was on the cul-de-sac I live on. The motivator this year was I was running a spare tire on the right rear....you may recall my chainsaw wrench in a month old tire escapade 6-7 weeks ago. Since the local dealer couldn't find a replacement, figured I'd go with snow tires this year (new snow tires, new cab tractor...guarantees no snow this winter).
Haven't got rims yet...I'll have OEM rims by the time it's time to swap out the snow tires with all-seasons.

Drew, have you got somebody to clear your driveway/parking pad?

 

[check]

good morning all. Very cold weather coming in this week, I see 10 one morning, 15 another, and they still are predicting a foot of snow
on Wednesday. Today will be rainy later on, possibly with some snow mixed in. I need to remember to take my glues and car wash stuff out of unheated garage and
bring them inside.

Might make a trip to supermarket this morning to beat the crowds tomorrow. Really don't need much, milk and bread primarily.
If it's raining this afternoon, going to bake some cranberry scones. I'll try not to overcook them this time...
A mug of Earl Grey tea and a warm buttery scone. I can do this.

It might be fun to make some Christmas cookies even if I don't eat them.
Take them into hardware store or similar to stay thank you. Maybe even give some to trashmen. (along with 20 bucks for each of them)
My trash cans get put back nice and straight...plus nice to always support the front line workers. The guys who likely are to come out in that snowstorm
on Wednesday just to pick up my trash. If they are smart, they'd come Thursday.

With this snowstorm coming, I enjoy driving in the snow, have done it all my life and even driven firetrucks in it.
One gets a serious appreciation of the concept of grip...

There will always be someone out there unfortunately wanting to test their limits.
We all need to know our limits, no joke. So we can operate within them...but you get someone
who wants to go 35 in the snow behind someone doing 20 and then the unsafe passing starts.
They hit the snow in the center of the road and lose control, spinning out to who knows where.
I find it educational to watch the Russian winter time car crash videos, there are lots of them online, seems everyone in Europe
has a dash cam. Australians too. Those I enjoy because I can enjoy the words since they speak English.
Well sort of... The term wanker and the old fashioned f word is sure used a lot by the Australians.
And they burst into howls of appreciative laughter when the police pull over someone for a ticket.
Of course I have no idea what the Chinese guy is saying when he is screaming at the other driver.

I put Vredstein Quattrac 5 all season, severe winter rated tires on my car. Got to study the
tread pattern in a curious way when I parked on my rubber mat in the garage.
Wanted the Michelins but these tires were almost as good and much less expensive for a set of four.
Stock Continentals were poorly rated particularly in winter. So I knew they had to go.


Biggest problem I have is the oem width of the tire, a 255 tire, which is pretty wide for the size and weight of the car.
Probably why dry weather handling is so good plus full time awd. A set of dedicated winter rims and snow tires like Roy has might be
in the cards for next winter. This year the all weather tires have deep enough tread I should be just fine on local roads.
But for a snow tire, I'd go down to 235 or 245 width.

Yup. Winter tires are a must up here. Just got Michelin X-Ice for the wife’s new 4Runner - the best! (Have them on my F 150 as well.)

Here is the rim we got from Canadian Tires for the new winter tires:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

One last comment, then I have to see if I can't get a little more shuteye. The internet speeds here are just obscene! 172/185 down/up, only 9 ms ping! And that was the free version; I can't imagine what the deluxe ten bux a day version would have been like. Those speeds are something like 50 times what I get on the satellite at home. But there's still a noticeable lag, showing that the servers most of us hit during our online adventures are over subscribed, too.