| Author | Message | ||
     86129squids |
... Got a bad case of the stir crazies today. Drizzly gray gloom is what we've got at my house- SO looking forward to work this evening. I've barely looked at the Beemer in weeks, yard and garden are soggy and sad, even my dogs are bored out of their minds. They got to chase a squirrel a little while ago, and my Basenji sprained a paw, dangit. At least I've got good radio with WDVX. Tomorrow we'll get sun, finally. How are youn's all doing? | ||
| Greg_e |
Just about the entire state is closed due to a massive snow storm. | ||
| Crusty |
It snowed/sleeted and rained overnight. Everything is coated with a mix of all three. The sun is out, but the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing until maybe tomorrow. I'm also housebound. I won't take the Roadster out when the roads are icy. | ||
| Buellerxt |
I'm right with you guys here in the Houston area.  Not as cold but cold, wet, and overcast. I'm so sick of overcast! I just want to ride. | ||
| Airbozo |
Record warm and dry weather in the Bay area. After the pounding we got at my house last year (135" of rain, roads closed several times for multiple days, no power for 4 days, no water for 3 days, main commute route down to one lane in 5 different spots, 3 still that way, branches through car windows, potholes destroying my front end), I am loving being able to ride all week and wouldn't mind if it stayed dry. I know we need the water though. | ||
| Greg_e |
We have a very big lot, went through four batteries worth to clear most of it. | ||
| Strokizator |
Wussies, the lot of you! Minus 10° when I got up this morning but the sun came out and it reached 18° in early afternoon. Went outside with the dogs and worked for a few hours doing this and that. Last weekend went to watch a 500 mile snowmobile race on a 1 mile ice oval. Great time. No grandstands so small groups of guys were standing around in 6° temps, with a 30-pack cube of beer chilling in the snow between them. Kind of like a frozen version of King of the Hill. Just for curiosity, I checked my old hometown temperature and find they're looking at sun and mid 70's. Problem is, they've had 1/2" of rain since October with another year of drought now in the forecast. Just the excuse Jerry Brown needs to impose more restrictions. | ||
| Fast1075 |
Its spring here this week. Winter may return next week. Everything in nature thinks it is spring though. Oranges and peaches are blooming. Willow trees are putting on new leaves, and my pepper plants are coming to bloom. And the bass are starting to bed. Two weeks from now a front could move thru and turn it all back off, but nature is rarely wrong. Going fishing and scooter riding this weekend! | ||
| Crusty |
Today’s Heartfelt Message: WINTER SUCKS | ||
| Ratbuell |
An old friend (ex-SAS) once told me, while we were prepping for a camping expedition: "there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear". Quite right. I love winter. Driving to work today, every surface (other than the over-salted roads) was glazed with 1/4" of sparkling ice. Sunrise was absolutely gorgeous. Diamond-crusted tree branches everywhere! | ||
| 86129squids |
Good quote, Joe, true dat. We're supposed to get sun today at least, highs into the 40's, I may just gear up and head out for a ride after a while. I've found that it's far easier to ride in the dang cold than in the dang hot... sometimes in the summer it feels like you're just riding in front of God's own hairdryer. My sweetie has a low tolerance for cold- despite having a nice hot-tub, she won't spend the few seconds it takes getting in/out. So sad. Any of the 4 seasons, she'll find her gripe. With me, I try to find the good over the bad. Noticed the buttercups are coming up out front yesterday, yay! Yeah, might just wake up the Beemer in a bit...  | ||
| Zac4mac |
Today - 61 and sunny Tomorrow 37 Saturday 21 and snow Colorado... | ||
| 86129squids |
OH YEAAHHHH.... just got back in from running errands. Window thermometer shows 44, FULL sun out, I believe I might have to get back out on my Beemer. Ya know, I've never named "her", maybe Frau Blucher... ? My day off is going nicely! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Pick a different name, or you'll get run down by a terrified horse. | ||
| 86129squids |
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| Aesquire |
A great name! The dutiful house keeper, reliable and terrifying, striking fear with the mere mention of her name. Compare to my Cyclone, Buttercup. Split personality. The demanding Princess/ "toughest fighter" in the Powerpuff Girls. Every kid's favorite episode is when Buttercup decided not to take a bath, went solo, & got so stinky sea monsters turned around back to sea to avoid her. ( seriously. They loved that one. "You're going to smell like Buttercup" heard during bath time chaos. Who says you can't teach life lessons and still be entertaining? & not preachy, if the kids are using it on each other. ) | ||
| Toro |
Hey Patrick. You seem to be the smartest guy on BWB. How did you ever get to be so smart. You seem to know every thing about most topics. How so? all the best. Salvatore. | ||
| Court |
I love spending my days . . . even with 12" of snow on the ground . . . . working and wandering transmission line rights of way daily . . . It's pretty.  Photo Credit: Gentleman Jon for taking a mundane photo and making it fun! | ||
| Crusty |
Spring is going to be colorful:  | ||
| Aesquire |
Not the smartest here, surely. I'd expect to have a lot more in the bank. I know a little about many subjects and a lot about a few. Aircraft, space technology, an incomplete aerospace engineering degree. Aka nothing that gets you paid. Machining, manufacturing tech, tool maker & QC career, R.I.T. & RTMI. ( don't know why Rochester Institute of Technology uses the periods & the Tool & Machine Institute doesn't ) History buff, specializing in tech. There are lots of arm chair Generals that can endlessly argue that the battle of Little Round Top would have gone differently if they'd turned left instead of right. I'm more interested in the advantage the Henry rifles gave. Or the use of trebuchetes in the siege of Stirling in 1304. ( after Edward built the world's biggest catapult, while the defenders watched, the castle surrendered. Edward refused to accept the surrender until he got to try his new toy. So he fired off several shots, trashed a massive stone wall, then accepted the surrender. ) Don't really blame him. Trebuchetes are a hoot and a half to shoot. A visual physics lesson. A hard heave on the trigger line, slow, ponderous motion as stored energy turns massive leverage against massive weight, accelerating arcs on arcs, a moment of "that can't be right?" as the stone swings on it's sling high overhead, & the creaking wobbling mechanism recovers from it's near destruction as the projectile flies a perfect parabola and hits with literally stone shattering force, 3 football fields away. And, as it turned out, not only wasn't aerospace hiring after the Cold war paused for a peace dividend, encyclopedic sythesists couldn't even convince corporations that the field existed, much less get a job doing it........ obviously not the only poor career choice I've made. The last 25 years working for a bureaucracy older than the United States that rivals buggy whip making in looming obsolescence is just icing on the cake. | ||
| Aesquire |
Toro, if that was a rhetorical question to mock my long winded assumptions of knowledge, then..... mea maxima culpa. It was more fun to take you literally. You're obviously no Julie. | ||
| Etennuly |
Hey Toro. I don't know your age, but when a person such as Patrick has lived as long as we(he and I) have, his being a person of intellect and curiosity combined with ambition, is a real good platform to obtain and retain knowledge. Put that with the fact that the man is a truly nice guy who is willing to share that experience and knowledge with us here, makes us the lucky ones to have him. Since his retirement we have been privy to be able to see his value here daily, as he takes his personal time to relate anecdotes that are helpful and always of a positive light. BadWeB is like that. You want or need help here with most anything? Just ask. He is likely to be the first to help you. | ||
| Strokizator |
Yeah, well it's my contention that Aesquire is actually an acronym for a group of people. Nobody can be that well read and still have time to do all those things unless he multi-tasks (hang gliding into a Renaissance fair comes to mind). Yet to find a subject he doesn't know enough about to carry on an intelligent conversation. Hope I don't end up on Jeopardy the same day he does ("I'll take "the Holy Roman Empire" for $1200, Alex"). | ||
| Etennuly |
some lucky folks have that see it, learn it, remember it pathway into their brain. Y'all will be the winners on Jeopardy! I'll be over on "Let's Make a Deal"  | ||
| Aesquire |
Stop. I'm blushing. Obviously I post so often because I'm bored. Hang glide into a ren-fair? I have a story about that. I had to document man carrying kites used as reconnaissance platforms in ancient China, & since the late 19th century had multiple inventors developing recon kites... there were pictures and references. Box kites aren't hard to build, so a train of 20 was enough to support my weight on a swing seat. Teathered to my van's trailer hitch, the hard part was finding someone to run the winch. So I only had a few flights over 30 feet or so. Surprisingly safe & stable too. Oh yeah, remind me to tell you the hang glider story. | ||
| Aesquire |
For a real kite hero...... Ishikowa Goemon used kites to steal the golden scales from a pair of carp sculptures on top of Nagoya Castle. A Japanese Robin Hood. I just learned that....and now have to find the anime. | ||
| Aesquire |
On topic, 14 f tonight, & I filled the house with smoky flavors almost burning some pork chops. Pepper spray level coughing. At least the smoke alarm didn't go off. One of those, "pan is smoking so it's time to add meat" coupled with "rolled in fresh ground pepper" moments in cooking chemistry. My error. It's supposed to be oil in pan smoking, not seasoning in cast iron pan smoking. So.... 650 degrees? That initial blast of vaporized pepper was brutal. Local climate is coldest & worst Feb-April. The Great Lakes delay the season about a month vs. The Great Plains. Thermal inertia. So for me Spring is months away. The poor guys in Syracuse and just south of there get serious Lake effect snow bands where one town gets light snow and a mile away it's blackout blizzard. For days. And the bands shift. | ||
| 86129squids |
Patrick, a real fart smeller.   | ||
| Oopezoo |
We take an annual ski trip to Vermont every January. Once we get back, I am always in full "springtime NOW" mode. I've had enough. I don't mind the cold, but the sloppy crap, salt, and chemicals all over everything just sucks. Watched my dog bust his ass trying to take a piss after an ice storm on Wed. Poor guy was a rescue from down south, so he's not a big fan of this crap either. We are regulars at the local dog park in nice weather, but its a sloppy mess this time of year. We at least found a nice doggy daycare place to take him to once a week or so to let him get some energy out with some other dogs. Its supposed to be in the mid 50's here this weekend, but calling for rain. I've got some bike projects I still need to do before spring......rebuild the forks on the S1, and service the brakes on my GS. I should probably get on that before it actually gets nice out and they are both still in pieces. Dilly dilly, bring on spring  | ||
| Etennuly |
I grew up 60 miles or so East of Erie. Just miles South of the lake effect snow belt. When ever there would be a slight Southerly shift in the Jet stream we got hammered. Ha, that is where I made snow at a ski resort. I don't miss spending twelve hour shifts outside while the temps hovered at zero F. It was an enjoyable job though. Came with beautiful benefits.  |
