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Eight years ago on the Pasty Cam: 01/31/99^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Eight years ago, Pasty Cammer Jonathan Hopper treated us to this sunset in the Keweenaw. We probably won't see any sunsets in the next couple of days, with lake effect snow in the forecast and cold temperatures -- highs this weekend around 0 degrees (F). Glad I'm not out at Tech working on one of those Winter Carnival statues.

Mornin'

Good Morning

With the approach of GROUNDHOG DAY, we exceed the limits of our own field
of vision......often even the limits of the world.

Good morning! It was so beautiful this morning. A little more fresh snow. The moon is almost full and the snow is sparkling.

Good morning! Both pictures are just lovely today!

Gormfrog--

I've always been a fan of Groundhog Day. My class and I
celebrate it in song, poetry and a Winter Sports Day, followed up
with homemade cookies and hot chocolate.

In the past I have held parties at home too. (This year were're
having a Super Bowl Party). Apparently, this time of year has
been celebrated for a long time. The Catholic Church had
Candlesmas and the Irish, St. Bridget's Day. A good plan, I
think. Isn't that day about halfway between the Winter Solstice
and Spring Equinox?

Good morning - great photos today.

Good Morning!

Ground Hog day may be on Friday, but our coldest weather of the season (so far, anyway), is supposed to be on Sat., Sun., and Monday, and early next week. Our forecast is -7 for Sat. night, and I don't remember it ever getting below -9 air temperature, (not wind chill), since we moved to mid-Michigan in 1979. I'm definitely not looking forward to the frigid weather!!!

Good Morning!!

According to the Almanac ...

February 2 -- Candlemas/Groundhog Day

* On February 2, some people think only of those critters that
look for their shadows: Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania, and Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario. In fact,
there is a bit more to the day than that.

* February 2 is also Candlemas Day. In the Christian tradition, it
is the day that a year's supply of candles is blessed.

* February 2 is 40 days after Christmas and is known as the
Feast of the Purification among Christians. "Februa" was the
month for cleansing, when Yule greens were removed from
homes and churches, and old brush and debris were burned to
prepare the fields for the next sowing.

* February 2 is exactly halfway between the winter solstice and
the spring equinox. Oh, about those groundhogs: If they see
their shadows, expect six more weeks of winter.

Thanks for supplying the details!

Phone call I made last night to hubby, who is somewhere warmer than where I'm at right now:
Me: "Are you staying nice and warm in your semi?"

Hubby: "Temperatures outside are in the negative digits...but I'm toasty warm in my truck."

Me: "That's nice."

Hubby: "So did you call me at 3 in the morning just to check on me? You're so thoughtful..."

Me: "Nope, I was awake anyways. I'm waiting for a phone call."

Hubby: "At 3am? Who would call you at 3am?"

Me: "Well I'm hoping one of the furnace repair companies that I have been calling since 1am will return my calls."

Hubby: "Uh oh..."

Me: "Uh huh...while you are nice and toasty warm in your truck, I'm here at home freezing my buns off, because the furnace decided to quit on me. It's now 50 degrees in the house..."

Hubby: "So why call me while I'm on the road? I can't fix the furnace when I'm driving down the highway, now can I?"

Me: "I just wanted you to answer a question for me."

Hubby: "Okay...I'll try to help you out the best I can over the phone. Go ahead with your question."

Me: "Remember the last time the furnace died on me...back in 2002?"

Hubby: "Oh yeah...I was on the road that time too..."

Me: "Well I'm standing here looking at the furnace...and you know those little service stickers the furnace company puts on the furnace each time they repair the furnace or do an annual service check on it?"

Hubby: "Uh huh..."

Me: "How long have we lived here?"

Hubby: "Is this a trick question?"

Me: "We've been here for seven years...so there should be seven annual service check stickers and one repair sticker on our furnace...right?"

Hubby: "Where are you going with this?"

Me: "So why do we only have one sticker on our furnace, dated for January 2002, when the furnace died on me the last time?"

Hubby: "Do you know how much they charge for annual service checks on that furnace? At least a hundred dollars! So I've saved us at least $700."

Me: "And I'm freezing my butt off."

Hubby: "So you're being inconvienced a little. I bet the service call and repair won't even add up to $700."

Me: Click.

Incoming call from hubby:

Hubby: "Why'd you hang up on me?"

Me: "I'm busy."

Hubby: "Doing what?"

Me: "Shopping online. I figure you owe me that $700 you saved on maintaining the furnace."

Hubby: "Don't you dare..."

Me: "You know that saying for that one credit card company: 'Mastercard, don't leave home without it?' Well you're gonna be their new poster boy: 'Truck drivers, don't leave your Mastercard at home with your wife who has no heat on the coldest night of the winter, and access to the internet'."

Hubby: "You're mean."

Me: Click.

Serves him right. Buy me something too!!

Sur5er, you poor thing! Why don't you take that $700.00 and go stay in a nice warm motel! It never seems to fail, the coldest day of the year and no heat.

Renee',
Remember what Deb says!
Mr. Deb

Mr. Deb, Yepper depper...Mrs. Deb would say, "buy yourself a divorce with that $700".

I sure hope you are warmer now, I was out of heat a whole weekend once because no one would come and fix it. Anyhow I have a few companies I will never be calling again. My pipes froze, my water heater started leaking and I was an angry (and cold) short person. It was the coldest 3 days of that winter.

Brooke -- Keep your water running at a trickle if that ever happens again.

The funny part was it was only the hot water was froze. A friend of mine told me it was because the cold water was already used to it.

Sur5er--we lost our heat on Christmas Eve afternoon one year, when my older two sons were quite young. It was supposed to go below zero that night. The furnace repair guy came out & red-tagged our furnace because it had developed a hole in the heat exchanger, so it could leak carbon monoxide. Ironically, I had just had the furnace fully checked out a couple of MONTHS before, so having an annual checkup is no guarantee of anything! I was very unhappy about that. Anyway, we had to replace the whole furnace, which was done the day after Christmas. In the meantime, we lived by our fireplace, which fortunately has a blower that blows the heat out into the room. At least we had electrical power, or we would have been in a real fix. :-)

I hope you get your furnace fixed very soon! Keep as warm as you can. I wore two sets of long underwear, multiple sweaters, sweatshirts, you name it, plus a hat & gloves, in the house, to keep warm. Anything to keep warm! (Be careful of portable space heaters, though, as those could cause problems.)

speaking of a heat wave, right now its 0 on the spot with -22 wind chill, and we have -22 air temps on the way to north dakota for this weekend

Derek, I remember back in Dec 1968, my cousin got married in NW Iowa. We were there for about 2 weeks, and it only got above 0, even during the day, 1 day while we were there! It went down as low as about -28, but was routinely -20.

The groom was afraid his friends would mess up his new GTO, so he coated it with water, until the ice was at least 1/2" thick. You couldn't even open the passenger door, and not because of the lock, but because the whole door was iced over. And, they still managed to get it. They put mustard or something on the white GTO, that was still on it the day he sold it, even though the first thing he did was take it through a car wash.

And, believe me, I was sure happy to get home, away from that deep freeze!

Sur5er, one more thing: Brooke has a point. If you house is down to 50, you should keep your water faucets dripping steadily, I think. And, to prevent the hot water line from freezing, run a mixture of warm & cold water.

When we lived in Texas, our pipes froze several times. The silly builders down there think nothing of installing the water intake for the house, exposed, uninsulated, on the outside of the house, above ground. They also run the water pipes through the attic. And, you'd be surprised how many houses burn down because the silly people decide to try to thaw their pipes with a blow torch!

Well, courtesy of the Z-Man, I got a total makeover. It took him a long time to get me this way, guess I'll keep the new look. I was gettin' kinda hot with all that hair and I just couldn't do a thing with it.

A Winter storm watch is in effect for some area's of S. Kentucky & N.Tennessee.31 degrees, clear & sunny for now.Will just have to wait & see what the next few hours will bring us.It would be chaotic to get just afew 2 to 5 inches or so in Knoxville.

I put a picture of a Church on my profile taken from Rich Mt.Road that takes you out of Cades Cove,a one way 2 track rough road over into Townsend.I seen regular sedan's take the road,but I would rather use a 4 WD SUV.The 2 track is not for the faint at heart,so if you are afraid of height,no gaurd rails,and Bears keep off.If your not, circle the Cove to the Mill then use Hynatt lane to cut across to Rich Mnt.Rd.

Silly builders in Texas???? Naaaaaaa!!! :P

Speaking of silly people with blow torches. I have heard about people (in Texas) carving the Thanksgiving turkey with all sorts of new and exciting implements.......

I'm here...laughing at hubby. He came home from the road and went straight to the thermastat and installed new batteries (Hullo, I did that last night). Fan controller for the furnace works from the thermastat...so no problem with that. But what do I know, eh.
Anywho, while he was changing out the batteries on the thermastat, he broke one of the connector thinga ma jiggies...so he is now down at the heating place getting a new thermastat. At this rate, I might have heat by June.
Okey dokey, hubby is back...am now trying to explain to him that he cannot install the front of a new thermastat on the back of the old thermastat...and he has to change the old thermastat out completely.
I think I better get off the computer and keep an eye on him...this is the same man who 'fixed' the leaky shower faucet, and now all I have is hot water. This is also the same man who 'fixed' my truck and it took the mechanic days to 'undo' what hubby screwed up. Well, you get the picture.

Wow, you are in for some entertainment. Sounds like the time my father in law "fixed" my fuel filter and didn't do it right. When I took it into the mechanic he told me that was a creative use of duct tape, in the meantime I was driving that vehicle with the kid. Gave me a warm fuzzy. You better get up and change that thermostat yourself before the AC gets kicked on.

One more silly Texas builders' trick: for houses that are not on cement slab foundations (those that are up off the ground about a foot or two on cinderblocks): they they just run the water pipes under the house (above ground). Gee, and then they wonder why the pipes freeze when the temp drops below freezing? Sadly, these are the ones who usually the ones who use a blowtorch to try to thaw their pipes.

Sur5er, it sounds like you definitely need to keep an eye on your hubby! So he has to fix what he breaks, before the heating people can come in to look at it to figure out what the real problem was in the first place and then figure out how to fix the original problem. Now, that's a real bummer! At least he's home to be freeze with you!

That reminds me of a story. My hubby, the pipefitter, tried to replace the water pump in the dishwasher one day. What an expense that was. He ripped his arm open, took 25 stitches, and still had to call the plumber. The moral of this story is; don't try to do it yourself, call a professional. You won't save any money but it'll be done right, except in Texas.

My post to Su5er "Is that the same man that stood in a water puddle in the basement while fixing something electrical?"

Cheryl, Don't forget that this is the same man who stood on a metal ladder in a lightening storm, to clean off the siding...I think he was hoping to save on water from the storm...I dunno. And we can't forget the electrical cord that he tossed into the pool, either. That man doesn't under the concept that water and electricity doesn't mix :)

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