| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
It's 7º F outside (that's -14º C). I have to go out to the supermarket in a little while to pick up a few necessary items. I'd say it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Did you ever wonder where that phrase came from? Here's the definition from Urban Dictionary: brass monkey Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the "brass monkey", but would rust to an iron one. When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. I've heard that that's a false story, but it does make sense to me. In any event. I think it's cold enough to freeze the balls off an unprepared motorcyclist. I'll be dressed heavily when I head out in a bit. Whether the story is true or false, there is one statement that's always true: WINTER SUCKS. | ||
| Zacks |
Yes, winter sucks. -1F here this AM. I'm not riding - when the salt hits the road that's the end of my season. But to help get me get thru this - remember in just 6 weeks pitchers and catchers report. | ||
| Crusty |
In 74 days, I'll be sitting in the stands watching the Daytona TT! | ||
| Sifo |
No riding here... This is from this morning.  | ||
| Sifo |
There was a local out surfing on Christmas though...  | ||
| 86129squids |
No snow, no precip all week, but temps here in E TN will barely get above freezing all week! Most nights in the teens. One of the coldest New Year's Eve's on record expected. Me and my sweetie both trying to get over the head/chest cold crud. My coughing sounds like a horny elephant seal. Yeah, I know I don't have it THAT bad, but- What Crusticle said. | ||
| Tootal |
My brewing/racing partner and I have brewed beer on New Year Eve for the last 16 years. Well not tonight! When it's so cold that the water hose freezes in a few minutes it's hard to brew beer! So tonight we will keg the beer in the fermenter, which will take 20 minutes, and then it will be an evening of celebration and watching Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail...again! Be safe out there guys! And yes, I'm spending the night! I never drive on amateur night! Stay warm Crusty! Just get the spicy sauce at Woot's to warm you up! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Been single digits here for a while now. At the moment...11. Here at 1500' elevation there's a couple inches of fluffy snow, I'm about to head out with the snowblower to expose blacktop in the hopes that the driveway will de-ice in the sun. Definitely be safe tonight, all. Amateur Night, indeed! Topped only by St Patrick's Day around here for drunk driving stupidity... | ||
| 86129squids |
Amateur night, oh yeah. By the time I'm done with my shift this evening, hoping to peel home ASAP, hopefully before the ball drops. Yeesh.  | ||
| Etennuly |
Yeah right! Won't be any balls dropping here this week. Running fully retracted! Ever since I retired from being a snow maker at a ski resort in the late 70's I somehow learned to dislike being cold. May have something to do with damage caused by more than one case of minor frost bite. Anytime temps got near 0, we were outside for our 12 hour shift moving and maintaining snow equipment. We had our own scale for these temperature drops went too far. The weather guys were not so accurate as they are now. Below 0 became known by us as "R - F Cold" (real ••••••• cold) mostly because being outside working all night. we would base it on when with a little wind chill, your pee could freeze as it hit the snow stacking into little yellow tubes. | ||
| Greg_e |
Currently 1.4 F here in the middle of NY. Any idiot standing around outside to watch the "new year" come in deserves the frostbite they will get. Might hit a flat 0 buy midnight local time. | ||
| Ourdee |
0 here now -13 with the 7 mph wind. | ||
| Bartimus |
I feel for y'all out there in the cold country! I grew up in New Hampshire, shoveling the driveway every storm because my dad was too cheap to buy a snow blower as long as he had sons that could shovel the snow. I retired from the Marine Corps in New Mexico, what a great climate to live in, I thought, perhaps I will stick around for a bit. It gets cold, below freezing, and gets snow now and then, but I do get to ride all year. I rode the Beemer yesterday, and the DR650 today. Got to ride Christmas weekend also. So, I'll take a ride tomorrow, and think of all my Buell riding brothers and sisters. spring is just down the road, and you all will be enjoying the sunshine once again. | ||
| Aesquire |
I'm pretty sure I'll need to spray the bottom of the screen door with windex to break the ice just to leave the house tomorrow. Luckily we've only had about 6 inches of snow to go with our Martian High Noon temperatures. | ||
| Gregtonn |
I'm pretty sure I'll need to spray the bottom of the screen door with windex to break the ice just to leave the house tomorrow. Windshield washer fluid rated for below zero temps in a spray bottle works well. Keep one in your car to deice things after you sweep snow off the windshield. Happy New Year! G | ||
| Fast1075 |
Raining here this morning, to be followed by freezing temps. Do you know how many Floridians actually know how to deal with ice on the road? May happen tonight. | ||
| Aesquire |
6. I know 2 of them. They moved there from Colorado and learned to drive in New York. There might be more. | ||
| Ourdee |
They will be the first ones hit taking it for granted that everyone else knows how to drive. | ||
| Damnut |
Going out for my polar run on the bike in a bit. Should be a fffffun ride.  | ||
| Fast1075 |
I know it won't seem like COLD to a lot of you, but it is 34 degrees, drizzling rain and blowing about 30 MPH here in sunny flawduh. I'm gonna take my warm coat and go south until nobody knows what it's for. | ||
| Bartimus |
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| Biffdotorg |
Ha HA!! Cold. You guys need cold weather hobbies. (See, I can't be the only sledhead here. Thread on the QuickBoard) We have been hovering around -20f to -15f during the day and -30 overnights. A couple buddies and I put on 167 miles on snowmobiles last Friday in -15f. Video to come. Until then, enjoy our -20f antics!! (Message edited by biffdotorg on January 03, 2018) | ||
| Orman1649 |
was visiting my parents in SD over the holidays. I think the HIGH the week I was there was -9 not including wind chill. The low was somewhere around -40 with wind chill. It was almost like going on a tropical vacation returning to WA where its 45 degrees. | ||
| Jaimec |
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| Fast1075 |
17 degrees on my porch this morning. Hasn't been this cold here since '83. The coldest I have seen was in '70. A low spot near I-4 hit 13. Killed an entire 80 acre orange grove. | ||
| Jaimec |
Looking out my window and fantasizing again: | ||
| Doz |
Bomb Cyclone: how's everybody doing? | ||
| Ebutch |
They youst to do this here  | ||
| Sifo |
I saw something new yesterday. A guy was removing the packed snow from his driveway with a leaf blower. It seems the air just gets under the edge and blows it right off. Pretty slick! | ||
| Crusty |
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