Winter Weather

When I commuted, I would see dozens of trucks and SUVs in the ditches and medians, some upside down for every snow for the first few weeks. You would think that people in Alaska would remember how to drive in snow. It seems that those guys (mostly) believed that with 4-wheel drive and studded winter tires, they were immune to the laws of physics. There were always a few cars, but the majority were larger vehicles. I, however commutes long distance for 15 years and a shorter distance for 8 more, but never had a problem and never got stuck, slid off the road, or hit a moose.

We just bought my wife a new winter coat this morning, as the last one I bought her was over 20 years ago and she needed another. I bought my new one last year on clearance.

 

Speaking of winter coats, wife and I bought two, one for her/one for me, winter parkas, when we lived here in Colorado before. We were extremely lucky that we didn't get rid of the coats when we moved to northeastern Florida. They both sat in a closet for some 10 1/2 years, but, again luckily, we were able to fit into them when we moved back here to Colorado in 2019. There were some mornings last winter (2020/2021) where it was -13 degrees. Boy did those parkas come in handy then!

 

We all have our great winter stories. A cop came to route traffic out on a slippery hill where one after another car slid into the one before it. the Cop pulled in front of the mess and WALKED up to start to direct. I yelled at him to get back to his car just as he slipped, fell on his butt and slipped down the road.
He went back to his car and called for wreckers. This was almost in front of my house.
Now I just drive to the farm several times a day to water. No electric in the big barn. When the snow is deep, I have had to carry water in. And no one is forcing me to have a farm.
Maybe I really am an insane terrorist?

 

Ha, reminds me of 20-some years ago of a conversation I had with a younger guy. He was talking about going up the interstate to the Thousand Islands with his 4WD truck in deep snow and passing everybody, and how great it was.

I reminded him that STOPPING was the problem, and that ALL vehicles have 4-wheel brakes. All else being equal, a 4WD vehicle will not stop any quicker in the snow than a 2WD vehicle. He admitted that I had a point.

Having said that, I find myself with the first snowy roads of the season often going much faster than I should be. A little slip "gets my mind right" again, lol.

 

As for the weather, it is overdue but we have not had a frost yet. It was 38 a few mornings ago, lowest so far, but Saturday night might beat that.

 

I have a couple of those, different brand though.

I've had a fire going twice now, last one is still going from 3 or so days ago. Probably pretty much done having to start fires anymore until March or so.

 

Yeah I had to check, but I thought you were in Virginia so a bit warmer than here.

On milder days like today (60-ish) I just put small pieces of wood on to keep it going. It's down in the mid-40s now though so I need the heat. I will switch to coal in 4-6 weeks, depending on the weather, and go back to wood in maybe March, again depending on the temps.

So the fire will be continuous until probably a warm stretch in April when I let it go out. It's not much fun, but I have to have a warm house without spending a small fortune.

 

When we heated with wood the stove was going almost all year except to do maintenance. @John Brunner please be careful. I fell and broke my back when I was cleaning my chimney. It aged me ten years and changed my life forever.

 

We have a system in many towns here in Sweden called ”Remote heating”. What it means is this.

There’s a central power station in town that uses wood chippings from sawmills to heat water. The water is then piped under pressure at a temperature of about 120 degrees Centigrade through insulated pipes to private homes like ours. In our utility room we have a heat exchanger that transfers heat from the water in the incoming pipes to water in pipes in a closed central heating system in our house. That water is then circulated to radiators in each room. Because it’s a closed system the water in our central heating recirculates all the time.

The water that is piped into our home is also in a closed system so it then goes back to the power station and is also recirculated.

We have an outdoor thermostat that reads the outdoor temperature and automatically regulates the flow in our central heating keeping our indoor temperature at a constant 70 degrees all winter.

Of course the outer walls and roofs of our houses are well insulated and have triple glazed windows so heat loss is minimal.

And yes the water from the power station has a temperature above boiling point. Water piped under pressure in a closed system doesn’t turn into steam.