Comments on: Thoughts While Shivering

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:19:37 +0000

Nebraska and the Dakotas are OK unless the wind picks up or the Missouri is in flood.

When I came back from SoCal to Florida I had to wait a couple of days for them to clear I-8 because of snow. I didn’t have a problem with road conditions, but the semis were fish-tailing the first time I made the attempt, so I turned around before the Toyota truck got pushed off the road into a canyon. I was closed an hour after I turned around, and I had to wait out the chain requirement before I tried again.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:46:49 +0000

Ah, but I go visit it in the mountains *after* it finishes snowing, after the snow plows have finished clearing the roads and the dump trucks have rattled through spreading sand and salt. I mapped out every state I’ve visited or lived in once. There was one commonality in all of them except for Pennsylvania: there’s places you can live in those states where you never have to worry about snow :). (Yeah, it looked sort of like a bowl, I’ve never visited Nebraska or the Dakotas and never intend to do so 🙂 ).

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:09:41 +0000

Well, you could drive 50 miles and visit it in the mountains, which is convenient if you ski. 😉

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 06:43:14 +0000

The nice thing about winter here in California is watching it on the television as it happens in other states :).

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 02:32:01 +0000

They finally called a hard freeze warning with below 0°C for about 8 hours. I already have the plants inside and I’m dripping water to protect the pipes. This should be last really cold night for a while.

When I was flying out of Omaha, Nebraska [the home of US corn-fed beef] I only ate steak in Okinawa at the Kobe beef places. The chunks braised on a hibachi right in front of you were melt in your mouth good, better than any of the filets in an Omaha steak house. I never had a bad meal on the island.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:59:22 +0000

I just got up and put the coffee & heater on. 🙂 It’s 6 AM and 6C! Was a cold night (as I expected). The BoM is forecasting 29C by 1 PM. They’ve also issued an ‘Extreme UV Alert’ with a UV index of 11 expected. I am so glad I get my ‘skin’ (melanin if you want to get technical) genes from my paternal Mediterranean side, and not my maternal Irish side! I’d burn today just hanging the washing out! 😉 😀

30 years ago, Victoria’s climate was considered quite moderate where temperatures varied around 25C all year on average. Now it’s 25C+ in a single day!

EDIT: LOL Posted at same time. 😀

I love *real* Sushi/sashimi. I acquired the taste during my stay in Japan (and curiously, whilst recuperating in my paternal grandmothers village in Sth. Italy with an Uncles family who were tuna fisher’s.) 🙂 I also learned that the best place to get AAA grade Aussie beef is Japan! LOL

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:54:19 +0000

Yesterday 50% of the US had snowcover, the normal range for November is 4 to 20%. Buffalo, New York is trying to dig out from 4 feet of snow. Looking at the world temperature anomaly charts, the North Hemisphere is a actually warmer than normal, while the Southern Hemisphere is colder. The cold in the US is offset by warmer than normal temperatures in the Arctic. We are experiencing a wind pattern caused by Post Tropical Cyclone Nuri that should dissipate later in the week.

Sorry, but ‘bait’ doesn’t appeal to me. If I’m not stranded in a life raft, I want my protein cooked to avoid any microscopic critters.

A lot of bad ideas were born on napkins, like the Laffer Curve that supposedly justifies giving tax breaks to rich leeches to increase tax revenue.

The only problem I had with 5¼” diskettes was teaching people which side went into the drive first. I had to get a special marker to label them for some of my clients, and then had to stop them from using magnets to keep them on document stands. The joys of user support 😈

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:41:05 +0000

Yeah, weather is pretty screwed up down here also. In the past 2 weeks, we’ve had from near 0C to mid 30’s. Today was a nice 25C @ 2 PM, but it’s already dropped to about 18C @ 10 PM.

I had sushi for lunch (a bento box actually), with salmon, tuna (not the canned variety) & prawn (not little shrimp) sashimi, chicken teriyaki, gyoza and a nice seaweed salad). Yumm! It’s a new Japanese Sushi bar that opened in Bendigo, I was surprised to see it here as it’s one of a known high-end chain in major cities usually. If anyone is curious, bento simply means “convenient” or “convenience”. It was originally a slang term. 🙂 Another bit of trivia… The original IBM Thinkpad design was inspired by a traditional Japanese black-lacquered bento box when the designers met for lunch to discuss the design. Much like the 5.25″ floppy disk which was simply the size and shape of a paper napkin. 😀

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 05:21:48 +0000

There is a chance of the Gulf Stream and the Japanese Current both stopping if there isn’t enough cold water in the Arctic to power them. That will totally screw up the weather in Europe and the North American Pacific Coast.

Try to stay warm, Juanita. It’s spells like these that make me appreciate my Mother’s fireplace to warm up my feet.

Actually, until you said it I didn’t realize that I had done that, Hipparchia. It wasn’t done consciously.

Yeah, another round of cold enough to make us miserable, but not cold enough to provide benefits. The insects and small critters come inside for the heat, and make cats and people even more miserable.

Looking at the maps I think were are going to have to put up with this warm, cold pattern every few days for a while yet.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:54:17 +0000

I hope no one else understands why.

and all the posts you posted after this one were about mackerel tabbies….

it got up to 73 here today, but the polar vortex is supposed to be returning shortly, like tomorrow, i think. it’s not even supposed to get down below freezing, but wind chill is going to make it feel like 19 or so – cold enough to be miserable, but not nearly cold enough to kill the fleas.

speaking of fleas. they’re undergoing a population at chez xs cats. argh.