The General Chat Thread (2024)?
- Thread starter SatNavSaysStraightOn
- Start date
We’re at 7F/-13C, windchill of -11F/-24C.
My niece, two hours’ drive due east…windchill of -24F/-31C.
SandwichShortOfAPicnic
Veteran
Speaking of dogs hows fatty getting on?
Well, she seems happy, and she's not bothering me too much. She's pretty low maintenance. The only thing I have to do special for her is put her in her crate when I am doing any serious cooking. If not, she hovers around my feet, nose down, looking for food to drop. She almost made me fall once, and I can't allow that to happen.
CD
karadekoolaid
Legendary Member
Just as well with a chill like thatMy sister had a dog named Heather. I hated that dog.
Some close friends of ours had a couple of shitzus. Nasty, snappy, miserable little dogs. Large rats with fur. One day, the oldest shit/zu bit me. Got a smack round the ear. Never bit me again.
My German Shepherd never bit me, ever. My labrador sometimes bites, but then he's a bit thick. He thinks I'm food.
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic
Veteran
Too right, they cause many a fractured neck of femur!
They are also handy for clearing up those dropped bits though, when I’m in Spain and something from the table ends up on the floor it’s always a great surprise to me I have to get down there and clear it up
ERCOT (Texas Power Grid overlords) is telling us to conserve energy tomorrow, so the power grid doesn't melt down... again. Governor Abbot told us the grid was all fixed after the melt down of 2021, but I rather doubt it. If it goes down again, he'll blame renewable energy... again. He really wants to switch back to a 100-percent fossil fueled power grid, and ban "woke" energy forever.
I ordered a Jackery generator -- a Lithium Ion battery pack with a solar charging option. It can also be charged with no sun by the alternator on my car. BUT, Amazon says it won't be here until Thursday.
CD
I ordered a Jackery generator -- a Lithium Ion battery pack with a solar charging option. It can also be charged with no sun by the alternator on my car. BUT, Amazon says it won't be here until Thursday.
CD
Herbaceous
Senior Member
We’ve got a few of those Jackery solar-powered generators at work. We rent them out for events so people can use them to power laptops and whatnot in outdoor spaces. They work great! Hope yours arrives soon.ERCOT (Texas Power Grid overlords) is telling us to conserve energy tomorrow, so the power grid doesn't melt down... again. Governor Abbot told us the grid was all fixed after the melt down of 2021, but I rather doubt it. If it goes down again, he'll blame renewable energy... again. He really wants to switch back to a 100-percent fossil fueled power grid, and ban "woke" energy forever.
I ordered a Jackery generator -- a Lithium Ion battery pack with a solar charging option. It can also be charged with no sun by the alternator on my car. BUT, Amazon says it won't be here until Thursday.
CD
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- Joined
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So another cold front has arrived. Forecast rain was 1-5mm. 41mm later it appears to have stopped. Typically our dirt road was graded (scrapped, levelled and compacted for those not familiar with the concept) on Friday which means most of it will have been washed away and the potholes and craters are back which we'll now have to live with for the next 6 months until they come by for the regular repairs.
To add to the fun, that cold front brought a bit of relief from the 35°C high of Saturday, and at 8am this morning it was 9.6°C instead. We've warmed up a touch since, but not hugely and still only 14°C... for those in Fahrenheit 16°C = 61F... and 28°C = 82F, 37°C = 98F so doing from 35°C to 9°C has been a bit of a shock to the system with no air con or heating.
To add to the fun, that cold front brought a bit of relief from the 35°C high of Saturday, and at 8am this morning it was 9.6°C instead. We've warmed up a touch since, but not hugely and still only 14°C... for those in Fahrenheit 16°C = 61F... and 28°C = 82F, 37°C = 98F so doing from 35°C to 9°C has been a bit of a shock to the system with no air con or heating.
If the power grid goes down again, my Jackery will arrive just hours after power is restored.
Murphy's Law rules in my world. CD
It's 10F/-12C here right now, but as long as I stay inside, I'm comfortable.
When I had this house built, I went with 2X6 studs on outside walls, instead of the normal 2X4s. That allows a lot more insulation. I also used spray foam to seal up every air gap I could find -- my dad and I spent a whole day on it. My house has zero drafts. The high ceilings are not good for bitter cold weather, but help a lot in the brutal heat of summers here. My downstairs furnace has to work harder in this weather, but my upstairs furnace will barely run at all for the next few days.
All the roads here are concrete, and we have retention ponds in our storm drainage system (required by the city) in every neighborhood that make flooding virtually impossible. 41mm of rain would be nothing more than wet streets here.
If I had chosen to live out in the middle of nowhere, I'd surely have a lot of the same problems you have. That wouldn't work for me.
Different strokes for different folks.
CD
- Joined
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It's your winter. And in my experience camping out in temps down to -20°C, that's fine.
This is meant to be my summer in Australia. It's meant to be hot. It's meant to be 25°C at night and 40°C during the day. It isn't meant to be struggling to make it to 14°C day time temperatures.
The road, well, if it had had a week of people driving on it, would have been fine, but it hasn't. 41mm would be nothing normally. But that's on top of quite a bit this month already and it was freshly graded. That causes problems and crashes. Certain areas turn into quick sand and you don't get much notice. It's like hitting black ice. No control whatsoever and the vehicle does what it wants to, not what you want it to.
And since Christmas day, we've had over a foot of rain (300mm). There's a limit to what the ground can soak up and we've now exceeded it, so it is running down the track and into the gravel road and taking the road with it.
We've also got rain forecast everyday until Friday. That, just like your cold temperatures, is unusual for this time of year.