Chilly Saturday Chatting 12/7/13

Good Morning everyone!  Not quite 30 here, and gloomy.  Weird to be in New England and have it warmer than Texas!

Sooooo....we had drizzly rain all day yesterday, then the temps really dropped and it turned to freezing rain for a bit, then finally snow.  We only got a couple inches I think, but the streets are clean, and apparently the city must do the sidewalks here, since those are clean as well.  I was a bit concerned that I'd need to run out and shovel....city law since you MUST clean your sidewalks within an hour of the end of a storm.....but that was already done, so cool!  We spent three years in a country setting with no sidewalks, so it was odd to have to even think about sidewalks.

Even though we are on a major road here, aside from the traffic noise, we don't 'feel' like we are in the city so much.  Our side yard (corner lot) is very large, behind the house is a nice little fenced area for the boys and I've been talking them for walks in the neighborhood, which is nice for all of us.  Behind us, although it is a neighborhood now, used to be a huge horse farm, complete with it's own race track.  Being weird, I sometimes think I feel the spirit of those noble beasts.

Gosh, I certainly am "mindless" today!!

Hope that everyone enjoys their Saturday!

-12ºF in my backyard, after the sun came up and warmed it up a bit.  You send the dog outside, stand on the steps and admire the whiteness.  Then you breath in through your nose and your nose hairs freeze and break off.  On the plus side, the mosquitos have slowed down a bit.  Apparently, it is unseasonably cold for MN.  Thats a fact I didn't need to know.

I had the joy of working outside yesterday with some electrical controls.  Bare hands with windchill.   The roads were rained on, then snowed on as the temps dropped like a rock.  Salt didn't seem to do much, so the roads are covered with hard packed snow, frozen rock hard and a little slippery.  I was doing about 35mph on a two lane highway because I didn't feel safe going faster.  A semi pulled out and passed me.  Even 4wd doesn't help much at highway speeds when it comes time to stop.  But it can get you deeper into the ditch (which are also ice coated).

Bacon, eggs, toast. and coffee on tap .  Have a good one.  Keep warm.  Uff da.

The forum site seems to be coming together now.  More comfortable feel.

Most everyone is too young to remember the dreaded snow suits!  Wool, and heavy and couldn't really bend arms or legs correctly.  By the time my kids came around, they were fiberfill that made them look like the Michelin man.  Now we have delightfully light multi layers!  Yay for progress!

I remember wearing big heavy snow suits and not being able to move very well.  I also remember using plastic brad bags to put over our shoes when our boots were the type we had to pull on over our shoes.  Sometimes it took so long to get dressed to play out in the snow that your friends had gone inside by the time you could get out there to join them!  That scene in the movie "A Christmas Story" where the kid can't put his arms down after his Mom bundles him up is hilarious!

Very cold here, 19 this AM, now it's 25.  Sun is shining, so we took Ruby out for a short walk.  The problem is how slippery it is to walk on the packed snow that was driven over.  We nearly took a spill a couple times.

We live on a big hill, so I'm not venturing out today.  There are still stranded cars on it because they don't plow or sand out this way and there's no melting in site all weekend.  Since I'm stuck at home, I'll try to be productive doing things other than what I had planned for the weekend.  Maybe I'll dig out our little fake tree and decorate that.  Or maybe not.  Bah humbug!

Haha I hope you got your tree out! I am debating on when or if to do a tree. I have been doing real trees the last few years. Love the smell.

Today turned out nice! Abbie remembered how to do sar. Yay for her. Then a friend and I went to the craft fair at msu. 4 floors of stuff to browse and buy. I bought some great jewelry. Some to keep and some to give away. I also bought my niece a cute winter ear wrap thingy that is msu themed. She will love it. After all that we went to bw3s and had great food while watching football on the big screens. Not bad for my first day back. I could have stayed in and Sat on my butt today recovering from jet lag but this was better :)

American horror story season 2 is on Netflix!

We had sun here for awhile, and then the temps started to go down. The ice storm seems to be covering a lot of the US and it's headed this way. Yuck. Doug, it's good to hear from you. I heard MN got a lot of snow and ice. Julie, I'm glad you're back home and Abbie remembered SAR! It sounds like it was a productive trip. Snowsuits equaled the snowman look when I was a kid! They were big and bulky.

I put up a  little wrought iron tree and hung up some old/antique ornaments on it. It's only about 18 inches tall, but it adds a bit of festivity. I haven't done anything else yet, including cards.

OK, apparently the dishes won't wash themselves, so I need to get that done. I hope everyone is safe in this weather!