Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[ronjhall]

Denton, TX, supposedly has an average annual rainfall of 37.79 inches. I figure so far this year, I've gotten 23.27 inches so that would only leave me 14.52 inches behind for the year. I just really don't think we'll make up much of that before the end of the year. And if it hadn't been for that 7 inches in May, we'd be even further behind.

I thought you lived in a dry place. Average for my area is 29.28". (GM Proving Grounds) Your normal is 8" more than us. We live in a area where much of the farming is done without irrigation. Must be the lower temperatures and heavy dew that we get during the summer that keeps things growing.
This year we are at something like 44" inches for the year. November will be the 5th highest on record. 2011 is headed toward being the highest precipitation amount on record. Something over 47".

 

[Bird]

Ron, it would just be speculation on my part, but I reckon our hot dry winds in the summer dry things out so much faster, and then this whole area being over-populated (perhaps only in my opinion:laughing means we use more water and the lake levels recede faster.

For some reason, I hadn't really thought about you being close to the GM proving grounds. I believe it was 1982 when I went on a tour of that place as a part of the Fleet Managers convention that was held in Flint that year; very interesting tour, and some beautiful country around there.

 

[ronjhall]

Ron, it would just be speculation on my part, but I reckon our hot dry winds in the summer dry things out so much faster, and then this whole area being over-populated (perhaps only in my opinion:laughing means we use more water and the lake levels recede faster.

For some reason, I hadn't really thought about you being close to the GM proving grounds. I believe it was 1982 when I went on a tour of that place as a part of the Fleet Managers convention that was held in Flint that year; very interesting tour, and some beautiful country around there.

I serviced machines there. Wife also worked there for about a year.
Went on test rides around some of the tracks. A real experience. :confused2:

 

[Bird]

I serviced machines there. Wife also worked there for about a year.
Went on test rides around some of the tracks. A real experience. :confused2:

Yeah, Ron, it's quite a place. A group of us rode around the 3 mile circle in a bus, and then on some of the other test tracks. A group of us were up on a hill overlooking the black lake where some state troopers were being trained in skid recovery. The trainer was a 50 year old female. Our tour guide called her on the radio and asked her to show us some 180s in that Buick, so she did. I don't how fast she was going, but she was really moving on and without ever letting up or slowing down she'd swap ends with that Bucik, going forward and then backwards, forward and backwards; lots of tire squalling when she'd change directions.

I said I thought it was 1982, but maybe it was 1984. I know we saw a vehicle we'd never seen up on a lift in the shop and someone asked about it and our guide said he couldn't talk about that one. The next year it appeared at the dealerships as an Astro Van. And I think the Astro Van was introduced in 1985.

 

[Western]

Looks like some real winter temps coming next week, at least for N Texas.

Did y'all see the news segment from the Climatologist meeting last week?

Seems the consensus is we are building up for another year like the one we just went through, weather/drought wise. They say, that this could easily rival or surpass the drought in the 50's, which for Texas agriculture and all the added people drawing from the water tables, it doesn't look to promising.

 

[Bird]

I guess I missed that news story, Dennis. But perhaps the good news is that the NWS just upped the forecast from 20% to 60% chance of rain tonight. All day the forecast was for "mostly sunny" and I never saw any sun; overcast all day. But we're supposed to have a chance of rain day and night through Monday.

I have a window unit A/C in my shop/recreation room and it also has a heat strip, but the heat isn't working. Gonna cost me $278.42 to get it fixed. I know it would have been cheaper to just get a portable electric heater, but I hate to have something that ain't workin' like it's supposed to.

But my luck may be better than the old gentleman's next door. I noticed a trickle of water across my driveway this afternoon and tracked the source to his water meter box. Of course, I told him and then dipped enough water out to see that the meter was running; bad news. He called the city and the city guy came and confirmed that it's on the customer's side of the meter. I don't know what a plumber is going to cost him.

 

[txdon]

Last night I researched the internet to find out how to fix an intermittent problem with the Toyota Prius blower motor. Luckily another person had the same problem and gave very detailed instructions on how to replace the motor in about 30 minutes (or 3 hours for me). The motor cost $120. Before I ordered the motor I called Toyota for grins to see how much they would charge, I was figuring $400-$600. I told the service tech It had just gone out of the 75,000 mile extended warranty and had 82,000 miles. He said that my extended warranty was for 100,000 miles or till 2014. That made my day!!!! .

 

[pacerron]

I guess I missed that news story, Dennis. But perhaps the good news is that the NWS just upped the forecast from 20% to 60% chance of rain tonight. All day the forecast was for "mostly sunny" and I never saw any sun; overcast all day. But we're supposed to have a chance of rain day and night through Monday.

I have a window unit A/C in my shop/recreation room and it also has a heat strip, but the heat isn't working. Gonna cost me $278.42 to get it fixed. I know it would have been cheaper to just get a portable electric heater, but I hate to have something that ain't workin' like it's supposed to.

But my luck may be better than the old gentleman's next door. I noticed a trickle of water across my driveway this afternoon and tracked the source to his water meter box. Of course, I told him and then dipped enough water out to see that the meter was running; bad news. He called the city and the city guy came and confirmed that it's on the customer's side of the meter. I don't know what a plumber is going to cost him.

Wouldn't it be prudent to turn the water off at the meter and check for a loose fitting with a wrench before paying a plumber big bucks to do the same?

 

[Bird]

Wouldn't it be prudent to turn the water off at the meter and check for a loose fitting with a wrench before paying a plumber big bucks to do the same?

Of course, the water was turned off at the meter to get the water out of the meter box. We know the leak is not right at the meter. That was checked. And I don't think there'll be any fittings to check. I think it'll all be sweated copper, although we don't really know that to be the case. The leak is not from any of the plumbing in the meter box. It's coming from the pipe somewhere between the meter box and the house. But the neighbor is 81 or 82 and in pretty poor health. And even though I won't be 72 for a couple of months, I'm afraid I'm not up to doing that kind of plumbing myself anymore. Five or ten years ago, I'd have fixed it myself, but not now. In fact, I spent Memorial Day of 2002 digging up my own water line from the meter and fixing it where a PVC "T" had pulled apart. That was about 6 months before we moved back to town. The neighbor's son is in his 60s, has had one heart attack, and had cataract surgery today. Unfortunately, I'm afraid he's just going to have to hire a plumber.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Central Texas: 39 on the hill, 29 in the valley. Kyle you're right on the border did you have frost are are you green for another weeK?

We held out warm, still green but grass is thin.