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We got some real, homecooked, bonafide snow yesterday for about fifteen minutes before it turned to our usual (althoug still rare) brand of sloppy slushy mess. The whole lot of it is gone now. Sunny and 4 degrees. Alright.
I have a small electric griddle, small toaster, coffee maker, and a crockpot. All of them work fine - alone, of course. The generator is good for the furnace motor, television and satellite receiver, computer, and a light.
Generator is a 3500-watt model. I wanted a bigger one, but was limited by my finances.
It's -34 now, and they say the wind chill makes it seem like -49 (wind chill warnings are in effect). I didn't really notice much wind, and I still worked up a sweat on the ride into work, although my fingertips and feet are thawing out just now. Another cyclist from work passed me this morning; I was grunting along, trying to push my frozen pedal crank, while this guy slipped by without any effort. I don't know if that is because he's a triathlete (he is, really) or he has a $2100.00 winter bike (he has).
$2100 wnter bike? Could you find out more info on this? Many thanks.
It won't have a motor, Boomer. "Winter bikes" are, basically, those that resist the rot of salt or are simply cheaper ones that can be sacrificed without too much grief...the son-in-law picked up a "commuter" version, which puts you higher in the saddle on the lookout for nutbar auto drivers, for $400. No heating for the handlebars.
Oh, I already have one of those, GV. I thought AQ was referring to a bike especially built for winter - knobby tires, better brakes, etc...
You're right, boomer. This bike has tires like I've never seen before (I dunno, 2 1/2 to 3 in deep and 2 in wide), and the rims are so wide that the spokes are offset to one side so the chain can get past the wheel. I'm waiting for the guy to get back to me with more info on the bike.
Here's what blew my doors off this morning:
It's a Surly Pugsley.
Wow! I've never seen one of those before. Very unlikely I'll get one for myself - I'm 61 with heart problems, I can only cycle from spring to fall, and only on a really light bike. I'm not as fit as I used to be.
The specs for that bike say its tires are 3.7 in deep, which is even more than I thought.
My bike looks something like this, except for the colour:
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/cruiser/classic/classic/
Ooh yeah; the wind chill warning's over and it's up to -28 now, with a sunny sky.
I sent an email to the address given, asking the price for a complete bike (with pedals) and taxes and shipping to Quebec. Just for fun! I might take up a collection online to buy one - I'd justify it by saying I need it to cycle year-round for my heart health!
We're bracing for a blizzard and very cold weather.
Your winter travail is nearly over, Boomer. :) Three robins (3), showed up among the other birds this morning. Big, fat guys (dark coloouring), they were hopping about near the others, looking, with birdlike expectation, for worms and insects in the small patch of grass bordering the snowed-over garden. This is as early as I've seen them...even ahead of the redwings, grackles and cowbirds that usually precede all others. They will need their fat.
I saw on another forum yesterday that a senior person at Environment Canada says spring will be late this year. Don't have a link, sorry.
Yeah, ours said that the local prognosticatin' groundhog, Wiarton Willie, must have been into the alfalfa in predicting an early spring. And I can't work up a belief that those birds know better. But they are a sight for sore eyes.
I've had crows, buntings, and another bird species here all winter. No robins yet.
Ms. C. car got stuck after dropping youngest off. Road to school is narrow and she had to pull to the right to let school bus through. It took 4 men to push her out. Has sent email to principal to see if she can excert some pressure to get road properly cleared.
It's been thirty below here for a couple of weeks, and it isn't supposed to warm up for another week-and-a-half.
This is an outrage. I'm going to write my MP to put pressure on Environment Canada to do something.
This has me thinking that one can always find information regarding food and alcohol parings, but never a seasonal/alcohol discussion. Fodder for another thread perhaps, but if at all possible, I avoid beer completely during the winter months.
Just too dilute a solution of antifreeze, right?
That, and the comparatively sedentary nature of the season combines to turn even vicarious six packs into 24s.
Wow, we are getting a lot of snow here! And snow mixed with rain today, and more than 15cm of the white stuff tomorrow, and more on Tuesday. If I didn't have a snowblower, it'd be very rough going here.
It's supposed to drop to -28 again tonight. I don't know how much more of this I can handle. It's March, for crying out loud. Our daily highs have been lower than the average lows for this time of year.
My Mom, out in Nanaimo, told me today me how the flowers, etc. are doing there. Argh!
Windchill -29C tonight, after last night's massive snowfall - over a foot of snow in 12 hours. Took me two hours with the snowblower to clear it all - Sunday morning I spent 90 minutes clearing 20cm of snow that fell Saturday night. My driveway has four feet of snow on one side, and over six feet of snow on the other side - higher than me.
We had a very mild winter two or three years ago here on the Quebec coast, and it looks like it will be repeated again this year. It's January 2nd, 2C, and raining, for goodness sakes. In a normal winter we'd have three feet of snow on the ground by now, and daytime temps would be in the -10 to -20C range. Very little snow on the ground here, but lots of ice everywhere. For the first winter I can recall since I moved here in 1995, we've had a crew out sprinkling sand on the roads and in our driveways.
Yes, indeed. And no winter maintenance budget.
My entire property will turn into a skating rink overnight.
ETA: Hard to believe, but it's warming up right now. The snow is almost all gone. Temperature is supposed to drop by morning, so I'm hoping there will be a sanding crew out tomorrow, or it will be very slippery.
Very mild here until today, and now we have streamers coming off the lake. Weather forcasters can't agree on how much we'll get, but i suspect it should be at least 15cm by morning, with more to come during the day tomorrow.
Today it was white out conditions a few times, broken up by sunshine.
It's snowing pretty good right now. First significant snow of the season.
What's a merlin?