global warming, anyone?

[sumgai]

Jan 8, 2010 4:59:26 GMT -5 gumbo said:

..... that was probably due to the 4-day 40C+ heatwave here....

Just for you, ol' buddy:



This is what you see when you're standing on the other side of the pond from my front door. It'll get deeper, I'm sure (oh so sure, @&$!%). It was still snowing as I took the pic, which explains the slight bluriness.

Jan 8, 2010 4:59:26 GMT -5 gumbo said:

..... and absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that I'm out of Old Fart pills.. ;D

Weeeeellllllllll, I just happen to have a batch of Uncle sumgai's Famous Happy Pills, right here in my pocket. Since they're virtually with me all the time, I can virtually share them with anyone, anywhere, at any time - so here ya go! Don't take 'em all at once, mind you, the euphoria can be overpowering, to a rookie in your age bracket. (!)





sumgai

[ux4484]

Wow...., except for the split staircase, your place looks frighteningly like my folks house!

[sumgai]

Jan 8, 2010 18:04:25 GMT -5 ux4484 said:

Wow...., except for the split staircase, your place looks frighteningly like my folks house!

Uh oh..... Bobby, is that you?

Well, to be honest about it, that image was taken several years ago. I've got some more recent ones, showing where I've put a bridge across the pond one summer, and replaced the 'dual' staircase with a landing and planter box (and a single staircase) the next year. It was the snow factor that gumbo needs, so I figured that the photo's age is sorta irrelevant. (Besides, newey's got way more snow than that, just now, so I'd lose any contest with him. Come to think of it, most of the Eastern Seaboard can probably trounce my "paltry" 4 inches or so.)


sumgai

[newey]

24" and counting here on the North Coast!

[ashcatlt]

As some of you may recall, Christmas was on a Friday - two weeks ago today, in fact. I happened to have some "use 'em or lose 'em" sick days left over. Gambling on not being deathly ill during the last week of the year, I got myself out of working starting on the Tuesday.

Wednesday I got up way stupid early in the morning and drove the wife, kids, sister-in-law, and one of sister-in-law's boy-toys to Minneapolis and put them on a plane to Florida. Well, the boy-toy (actually a pretty cool guy, and beginning guitarist) didn't get on the plane, but... Mineapolis is less than 180 miles from here, but it costs about the same to fly from Duluth to MSP as from MSP to about anywhere else in the world. Don't bother asking why my wife got to fly to FL to visit my family while I stayed in the frozen north.

So I got home early afternoonish and took a nap. Early evening, I went over to my bassist's house and grabbed my rackful of gear. Stopped and got a 12 pack of Guinness and a case of Leinenkugel's. Got home and wrestled the rack (which weighs about what I do) into my living room about the time the snow started to fly.

There was already bit of snow on the porch, so the screen door wouldn't close all the way. I figured since I was the only one here, I could get away with blowing my tobacco smoke through that little crack rather than going out to my car (the VIP smoking lounge) like usual. So, from about 20:00 that night, I never opened the screen door beyond the couple inches it was already.

Come Thursday morning afternoon, when I got up, I couldn't open the screen door thanks to over a foot of wet, heavy snow on the other side. I had nowhere I had to be, though, and everything I needed (rack, Guinness, Leinie's) right there, so I didn't bother.

Friday came and the snow was still falling. Now that was Christmas day, and there wasn't anywhere to go even if I'd wanted to, which was good thing. Even if I could have gotten out of the house, neither of my vehicles were leaving the driveway until about 00:30 that night (Saturday morning) when my landlord came around to plow. Of course, he can't do much with 2 cars in the driveway.

So here's where it's a good thing the screen door wasn't closed all the way. There was just enough space where I could get my arm out and around to dig out enough snow to allow me to squeeze outside. Also a good thing I'm dangerously underweight. From there, I had to shovel my way off the porch, shovel off the cars (there's no brushing when it's 2 feet deep), shovel a space to open the door to the car, the space between what could be plowed and the first car, and the space between the two cars. By 01:30 the driveway was wide open. I mentioned it was wet, heavy snow, and plowing was slow going in a rear-wheel drive pickup.

Aside from a quick trip to the store on Saturday night (beer was running low), I still didn't leave my house until Sunday afternoon. I thought about shoveling the rest of the walkway that day, but didn’t get home until drunk thirty the next morning.

The next day the temperature dropped from the right around freezing point it had been while the wet heavy snow (and some rain even) was coming down to somewhere below 0°F. All that wet, heavy snow (and some rain) turned to that nasty styrofoamy hard packed ice crap. I walked across the crust for a week until the day before I had to go retrieve the family from their return flight. That day, I had to try to chisel through all that icy styrofoamy stuff with a flimsy plastic shovel.


Oh, why can't I go back to New Orleans?

[ijustwannastrat]

You left the south for this? At least I was born here, I don't have an excuse. BTW, Duluths hills + ice = broken limbs. I think I slipped on ice about 20 times the week after christmas.

[gitpiddler]

We've had the longest stretch below freezing in many years, but it's stayed above 11d F. They say the Norway spiral has caused the whole Northern Hemisphere a record winter.

I've got a bunch of old firewood just for such times, and hoping the grid stays on.

[sumgai]

Jan 9, 2010 0:14:24 GMT -5 gitpiddler said:

I've got a bunch of old firewood just for such times, and hoping the grid stays on.

You'll notice the fireplace chimney to the right side of the house....

We have an acre and a half, and have burned about 25 trees worth of cordage over the years, at something like 3 cords a season. The neighbors don't burn, so whenever they have a tree come down (via Mother Nature or via some judicious arbor-ations), I get to haul my chainsaws over there and bring it all back. It's good to not piss off your neighbors!

As for "the grid", we've got natural gas, and a large generator. Plus, I installed a deluxe switch-over box years ago, so we're all set. Let 'er rip!


sumgai

[ux4484]

ash,

I used to live Here. I loved the winters there as a kid, tho' we almost never had snow days, because they know how to deal with it up there. That's why I laugh when I see them panic pedaling here about 6-10 inches of snow in the Midwest. The only Northern MN-like winter we've had in Chicago since I've been back here was '79 (many folks say '67, but that melted after a couple days). '79 was just like every Northern MN winter... gobs of snow on the ground for months and a month of sub zero temps.

[ashcatlt]

ux - we camped on Cut Foot Sioux Lake last summer. That was really cool. Actually, it was pretty warm, and really nice.

wannastrat - I was born in Biloxi. Things are a little blurry from back then, but I think my parents brought me up here sometime in my second year. We went to Oklahoma for a little while, then back up here (actually, Superior, right across the bridge) for my entire school career. I moved to FL 2 years after I graduated, and lived south of the "frost line" (Tampa, New Orleans, Belize, New Orleans) until Katrina came along. We tried FL for a minute, but nobody wanted to rent to us, so we came up here. My mother and in-laws are here, and we are very much enjoying the closest thing to Scandinavian Socialism available in the US, but I've been threatening to move south every year.

BTW - I wish you would have let me know you were in town before you got home.