I just can't catch a break this year when it comes to swim workouts. First the pool was closed for week for some repairs and construction. Then, the kidney stone. I finally got three consecutive, coached workouts this week, on schedule to do one more tomorrow, and then we're locked out Saturday and Sunday. The pool is always closed on Mondays so we won't get back in and get moving until Tuesday. Seems like an eternity from now. Miss too many workouts in a row and you get rusty. It's like trying to be a photographer but only using your camera every once in a while. The muscle memory fades.
I think we're ready for the cold this time. We've got automatic faucet drippers for all the exterior faucets. I tried them out last year and they worked great. When the temps dive below 37° a valve opens to allow a continuous drip. No frozen pipes. The fridge is stocked with lots of nutritious foods from Whole Foods as well as some fun trash foods to take the edge off possible cabin fever. We have a brand new central heating unit. Installed in August of last year (2025) and tested by a technician about ten days ago. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms refreshed and tested all over the place. Both cars just got serviced. Tires are great and the batteries tested perfect. Got logs for the fireplace; which was swept and cleaned late last Spring. Four or five big, Anker power banks full charged. Just in case. Got extra plutonium pellets for that surplus home nuclear reactor I bought from some Russian guy on the internet. Gotta remember to hook it up to a garden hose to keep it from overheating...
Right now the forecasts show that the freezing rain will start on late Saturday evening. I'm hoping the weather nerds are correct this time because I really want to make it to Will's "Wet Dog Show" tomorrow. (See yesterday's blog post: https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-wet-dog-show-is-coming-if-you-are.html ).
I found a new lens in which to be interested. It's another Thypoch lens for the M mount. It's a 21mmm f3.5 pancake style lens with nine aperture blades and a multi-coating that harkens back to the amber cast flare areas of a lens from around 1973. Maybe that's why the coating is called... 1973. The model is called a Ksana. Have no idea why... OOOOPS! I just bought one. I'm sure delivery will be delayed by the storms but that's okay. No rush. Full review after I've played with it for a while.
If you are in town, try to brave the storm and head over to Will's Wet Dog Show reception on Saturday from 4-6pm. Should be fun.
6 comments:
Admirable back-up plan, but don’t forget to turn the switch on that “surplus home nuclear reactor” before you leave the house, and do your part for the Texas electrical grid.
I'm looking at the front end of the storm right now. It's snowing on top of our ski mountain, but hasn't yet got down to town. It will, though, the weather gurus say.
I'm like the Marlboro Man. A rugged American Individualist. I ain't sharing my radioactively tainted power generation with nobody.
Currently 67° with dense fog here. Everyone is a nervous as cats on ice. The stores are packed with last minute shoppers. The plunge toward absolute zero starts later tonight. Every time I watch a forecast it gets more dramatic. It's the ice storms that will take the Texas grid down this time. And, true to course, Ted Cruz has already fled the state. Really. Not making that up. Ted has Fled.
Belinda is taking in the small plants while I am covering the sweet olive bushes with frost blankets. But I did take a short break to worry about the state of my photographic archive and worry about what might happen to it if I freeze to death... And to have a caramel, coffee milkshake at P. Terry's burger restaurant. Yum. If you are in trouble you might as well have something delicious to take your mind off it.
Here in Minnesota (-20 today, -25 yesterday) we tend to have these freeze proof outdoor valves that shut off a foot or so into the house, so the water doesn't freeze. Not sure how they work, but they work. You just can't forget to leave your hose attached and turned off at the nozzle, or everything freezes, and it's plumber time.
Up by Canada here & it is currently 31 below the donut. Will warm up to at least 17 below today - but no ice storm for us.
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