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Friday, January 19. 2007
About 95% of the ice around here has melted. You might see a little bit here and there, but the roads are clear (except for the sand).
When we got home last night I half expected to see the Corolla encased in it's icy coffin as it was when we left that morning. However, there was only a tiny bit of ice left on the trunk (notably the are where the ice was thickest).
We took the Corolla to work this morning, figured it needed some driving as it had sat in the driveway all week.
If another ice storm hits us this winter I will be here to report it to you. Though, I hope the rest of the winter is in the 50-65 range with occasional rain showers. I am dreading what the gas utility bill is going to be for this past month.
Back to the grind.
Laterz.
Wednesday, January 17. 2007
Wednesday, January 17. 2007
It is so cold.
I think this is day 3, but obviously the impending ice storm knowledge could make it an argument that this is really day 4.
Last night we watched the news, they had all the junior or rather non senior weather people out in the cold in their winter coats on the ice reporting on how cold it is. They had one lady kneel down to show us how slick the ice is on the pavement.
Then the best part of the broadcast. There was this hill that apparently they knew folks were having trouble coming down. If you were going down the hill it looks to have sort of a fork in the road. So you have to veer to the left or veer to the right. Obviously an ice covered hill doesn't give you much traction to veer in any direction.
They had someone with a camera down at the bottom filming folks coming down the hill. At one point I thought this SUV was going to take out the person hold the camera. I mean, I know TV journalism is hard up for news what with a war going on and all the political upheaval that is taking place. But couldn't someone go to the top of the hill and post a sign "Danger.! Road really ice, slow down.", I mean really just sitting at the bottom of the hill waiting for someone to slide and possible take out a traffic sign, isn't that just like a vulture circling.
Oh well, I need to get back to work.
Laterz
Tuesday, January 16. 2007
I think it had to be me fiddling with the 2nd spigot that made it start to flow again.
I went out and turned it open and closed a few times, as the water still wasn't flowing. Then I tapped the spigot a few times and set it to be half way open.
Just about the time I reached the door to go back inside, I heard the rushing rapid flow of water.
I went back and shut it off and turned it back on.
Yippee, 3/3 working spigots. I set the two trouble ones to just drip ever so slightly. Which is what I should have done last night. I might be wasting a little bit of water over night. But at least this way it should keep the pipes from freezing.
Laterz.
Tuesday, January 16. 2007
The spigot in the front of the house started spewing out water at a viscous pace.
Luckily one of the neighbors was kind enough to knock on the door and let us know that it was gushing water.
From what I can tell the noise has gone away.
I am not sure when the other one will work again. The temp should be back up into the 30s tomorrow. Hopefully that will free it up. I have the 2nd spigot open all the way right now. But I will likely close it to be about 1/2 way open overnight.
I think it is going to be another ice day tomorrow.
Back to the grind.
Laterz.
Tuesday, January 16. 2007
Yesterday it was very, very cold. We had a little bit of ice form on the deck and the driveway. I mean just a little bit.
This morning. That is a whole different story. I helped Gina scrape through about seemed like 1/8 of an inch of ice, probably closer to 1/16. But needless to say a solid coating of ice on her car. There are icicles hanging from the roof.
Gina wanted to get some Starbucks, I was going along to get some paper towels and what not from Randall's.
The strip mall was mostly closed. A bunch of the signs read as follows "Closed for the remainder of the night due to the weather." or "Don't blame us, blame the weatherman." The city does seem to be pretty much shutdown. The Austin office was told to work from home.
There is a strange noise in the house, I think it has something to do with the fact that two of the outside water spigots are frozen up.
I am hoping that it won't lead to a pipe burst. I have opened up the spigots in hopes that as the house warms up, and hopefully the weather outside warms up as well it will start flowing again.
I am probably just worrying about it too much.
Anyway, it is starting to snow here.
I best go and get warmer pullover to wear.
Laterz.
Monday, January 15. 2007
Just doesn't have the same jolly ring to it as "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow." now does it?
Today I am working from home, because the city has gone insane and and everyone on TV is telling us to stay home. I am glad that I have this nice new desk to work at.
I tried to convince Gina to work from home too. But she was determined to make it into the office as she has customers coming into town this week and she scheduled all sorts of phone calls that she must complete today. I think she doesn't like letting people hear the bird in the background. Who's name is Jasper, in case anyone was wondering. He is very loud. I sometimes call him the LBB, Little Birdy Bastard, my small tribute to the ODB, Old Dirty Bastard, who has left us and will no longer grace us with his talented rap artistry.
Anyway. She says that she will be coming home early. I can only hope so, as it is supposed to get worse before it gets better.
Of course that also just kind of sucks. Because I had really wanted to run to IKEA today to get the last piece of my desk that I think I just absolutely must have. The CPU holder thing. I forget the name for it, but it is basically a metal shelf that hangs off the metal frame underneath the desk here and it holds the computer. I think it will be quite nice. Also, my computer is a bit noisy when it is sitting up at eye level, like it is now. I have like 3 fans in it to keep it cool and well they make some noise. Notably I bought some quieter fans, but still fans are fans and they make noise.
Maybe I will do a heat pipe, water based cooling one next computer.
Well I have a few projects that I need to complete on schedule this week. So I best get to it.
Back to the grind.
Laterz.
Monday, January 15. 2007
Took me a few tries to come up with a header.
I was afraid "I think we are all gonna die!" was too scary.
There is a "Winter Weather Advisory" in effect for central Texas. This might have been upgraded to an "Ice Storm Warning" by now for Williamson county.
The TV news said we should have 3 days of food and water in the house. This type of advice apparently stirred quite the frenzy at the grocery stores. Gina and I went to HEB to pickup stuff for dinner (we had not yet heard the 3 days of food and water advice on TV yet). I knew a storm was coming but this was ridiculous.
So where did the headline come from? It comes from the fact that the meat section @ HEB had a big sign that had been put together quickly to say "SOLD OUT OF GROUND BEEF. NO MORE GROUND BEEF. SOLD OUT."
Ummm, yeah. I have never seen any store sold out of ground beef. I have seen them sold out of turkeys or good steaks that are on sale, but never ground beef.
What the fsck? Mind you the water section had PLENTY of water left. But man do people think the ground beef will be useful in an ice storm.
It might also be that it was on sale for $1.99/lb. But it wasn't the only thing going for broke. The whole meat section was picked over. They were even running low on brisket. The were sold out of Smokey Links. They were pretty much out of bread too.
From what the checkout clerk told us the store was a mad house right up until we got there. That all the lanes were open and it was taking up to 30 minutes to get through the line.
I mean, in all my years living in Michigan I don't remember people freaking out like that over an ice storm. I mean, sure they happen here once a year, at the very most. But good god. Buy some soup, some candles, some wood and some batteries for the flashlights and some extra jugs of water.
Do not buy all the ground beef in the store.
Well I really need to get to bed.
Laterz.
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