That was amazingly painless. We just went back on the stricter form of the diet, and the pounds we gained (6, me) and about that for Jane, have peeled off.
We’re determined to keep going right now and get below the next target: for me, that’s going to be 4 more pounds, and if Jane can break just one pound below where she is now, she will be happy.
Our exercise machine is proving a real good investment: we enjoy using it, and it’s sitting right beside our living room chairs. It’s also quiet, so you really can watch telly and use it. It does really work the gut, and this has been a real problem of Jane’s: she’s taken way too many tumbles off real horses (her dad used to put her up on the untrained ones), and her tailbone healed so that sit-ups and rowing machines are a no-go for her. This one is a good exercise, as hard and fast as you want it to be, and it’s enough to make you aware of your gut muscles for the rest of the day. I’m of a notion to drop the YMCA membership, which is just sitting there.
Hope you are all surviving this cold blast that’s come down on us: the east is getting it worse than we are, and we, of course, are insulated and prepared for this, while southern states are not. Remember to keep those kitchen faucets trickling, and opening the attic access and the kitchen and bathroom cabinets to let house heat keep those pipe thawed. Come spring, be careful to have someone inside the house (or do a fast check) when you first turn on those outside faucets: a burst pipe behind the faucet can be a nasty surprise. You think (outside) it’s working ok, and meanwhile, inside, a water jet has burst through the sheetrock and hit the windows 20 feet across the room. I had this happen once. It’s a simple repair, but not if it’s damaged walls inside.
the pipes in my parents’ bathroom keep freezing, even though I wrapped them in polystyrene tubing. So, yesterday, I went out to the home center and bought some of that heat wrap cable, went down into their basement and put it on the cold water pipe beginning under the floor under the sink cabinet, and ending about 4 feet out before I crossed it over to the hot water pipe and back to the vertical portion under the floor. Then I put the polystyrene tubing back on, and replaced the fiberglass batting insulation. Everything except replacing the batting was easy, the batting kept catching on my coveralls and whenever I’d move to pull it back where it belonged, it would pull off the joists where I’d already stapled it. Finally got them up, but not after running out of staples (again!), then having to find the extension cord for the electric stapler they have, hoping I had enough staples in the thing. After I finished and pulled the extension cord off the outlet on the light fixture, FZZZT goes the bulb….I just love working in the dark. Well, I got everything put back, a new bulb in the light, and ran a longer extension cord (it’s also a 3-conductor cord) to the heat wrap, plugged it in, and let it go. It’s got an automatic thermostat to kick in when the air temperature goes below 38 degrees F.
After I got home, it was hot shower time to get off the fiberglass that had run down my neck and inside my shirt. No, I was a bad boy, I didn’t wear a dust mask (don’t have) or inhaler (do have), so I spent part of the evening coughing. I started to stiffen up a bit since I had had to twist and climb up and down to get to the pipes, most of the time lying on a shelf where I could easily reach those pipes.
Tomorrow’s (Monday) temperatures are supposed to get down to about -6 F, with nighttime temperatures Monday night at -15 F, and wind chills dangerously low into the -44 F range. I’m not going anywhere, I’ve got lots of cat food, plenty of litter, and I bought some goodies for myself, too, just in case. The girls are staying indoors, which is the normal way of things here. I feel sorry for all of the furry creatures in the neighborhood that don’t have shelter.
The Weather Channel claims we’re going from 62 down to 28 or so tonight, up to 43 tomorrow, and then down to 21. I do not ever recall a 40 degree drop in one day here, though it happened when I was in college, a few hundred miles (a couple of hours) north of here a few times. I will be surprised, therefore, if it gets down too much below freezing tonight, and quite surprised if it gets down to 21 tomorrow night. But ehh, my house is well insulated, the cats and I are in, and tomorrow night, if I think it’s likely to freeze, I’ll drip my faucets and open the cabinets. It is, however, windy and dripping rain out, so we might get close. I wouldn’t necessarily mind. I’m very glad to have heat and insulation and good water. So the cats and I will snuggle up when I hit the bed again.
Hoping all will be well, here and with others. Please stay warm, folks.
Joe, I’m in Iowa and facing similar temperatures. Did my errands yesterday (a balmy 33 degrees) and the cat and I aren’t going anywhere for a while.
May I scold you about the dust mask? I bought a box of them for my trip to China last spring, wore a couple on especially smoggy days, and gave the rest to my son and his best friend, who are home-improvement types. They didn’t cost that much and really were helpful. I think the last time I tasted the air (not a good thing) was in Altadena, near Los Angeles, in the 1960s. We had rented a house and lived there for a week before discovering that we had a great view of the mountains.
I am suitably chastised……. 😉
The air around Los Angeles has improved greatly since the 60s. They don’t have to take the mountains out for cleaning nearly as often.
Yep. Your lung ciliae have to work super hard to get rid of those particulates. It’s like one vast anemone trying to rid itself of a shovelful of gravel. Be kind.
I know, just like silicosis or asbestosis. Hopefully, I won’t have to do this again, well, yes, I do, I have to insulate under my kitchen floor because it’s not in a heated space. I’ll have the inhaler on when I do that, probably in the spring when it’s warmer. One of the things I’ve noticed in my pipes is that there is no cutoff valve inside for the outside faucets. Those pipes are in heated spaces, though, and hopefully, won’t freeze….but it could, if the heat goes out.
Waiting on the snow to start here, it’s been raining since about 11:00 AM here in Ohio, the really cold air is just off to the west, so it’s just a matter of time.
I hope no one gets the ‘gift’ of burst pipes after this insane cold spell. Parents already dealt with it once in AZ; one hopes that the OH house is sufficiently winterized that all plumbing remains in one piece!
Totally off subject (We’rein the Arizona mountains and it’s beyond mild right now). But CJ, what type of exercise machine did you two get?
http://www.hammacher.com/Product/Default.aspx?sku=82763
It’s cheaper than the gym for 2 people, by far. No electricity. You rock. It works your abs. It’s quiet. You can use it and watch telly. There are some 5-direction types that cost 4000.00. Fahgedabaudit. You don’t need a sports bar rodeo bull. This does pretty nicely for us, and you can feel the warmth in the muscles after about 5 minutes. The only caveat: this has a 250 lb limit.
This looks interesting! and doesn’t require the whole living room. I’ll have to check into this one more.
I remember my father thawing water pipes in the garage a few times when I was a kid. 18-20F outside and no insulation in the walls or around the pipe does that. (He used a blowtorch with a sheet of asbestos behind the pipe to protect the wall.)
Hi Joe (and everybody): 6:30 AM in Iowa City, IA. -16 degrees. Wind chill -47. Need I say more? (Actually yes: another reason to love my downsizing. Heat’s included in the apartment rent.)
That’s cold!
They’re forecasting some snow here tonight, snow, snow, snow/rain, snow/rain, snow, snow, snow/rain…typical Spokane at this altitude. There are several weather zones in our little city, according to altitude. We’re just under 2000 feet, here: you can be under rain in the whole city, in winter, and drive to the airport and when you hit the hill before the airport, you get snowed on. First time Jane and I ran [walked, nay trudged] Bloomsday, the all-city race, we were sunshined, rained on, hailed on, sleeted, then snowed, then rained on again, and ended in sunshine: there are several hills and the race goes down by the river before it climbs Doomsday Hill. Our variable weather!
I called my parents this morning to check up on their pipes. No problems! I think the heat wrap cable did the trick. I didn’t apply it according to the instructions, but that was because they want you to wrap it around the pipe, and I think that results in a shorter coverage. Since the pipes are the standard 1/2″ copper tubing, I put the heat wrap onto the pipes with the wire side facing the pipes. That way, it was in direct contact with the pipe, the pipe was cradled between the two wires in the wrap, and I think with the additional polystyrene tubing insulation, made a world of difference.
So, aside from it being a brutal night, it’s an even worse day. -9 F, wind chill to -22 in the steady winds, but -37 or so with the gusts which are nearly 30 mph. So far, the tarps on the roof have held, but if they let go, there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.
I can remember about 35 years ago flying into Minneapolis around Christmas from LA. With the windchill it was -51 (and I looked at my then husband and said this wax insane) and this was about 5 pm. Never did find out what the temperature was later that night when we all went out to a few bars, but it had to be even colder. Severely stupid thing to do given the road conditions, but typically for folk in their early 20s. I may have been born in Alaska, but I’ll take the southwest where we occasionally get a few inches of snow in the winter. Everyone stay safe!
Yay for the heat wrap.
I think the coldest I’ve met I met in delicate strap sandals and snowbanks. Had a plane abort 3 landing attempts in a snowstorm in Halifax, then divert (losing a lot of stuff from the seat pockets and nearly braining the stew on the way) to Monckton New Brunswick at 2 AM …we were the last 747 parked out there, way down the runway, there was no transport for us, and we were just told to hike to the terminal: a case of ‘walk toward the light’ which at that distance was about the brightness of a guy holding a flashlight several acres away. We hiked. My shoes weren’t ruined: it was too cold to have ice-melt. We hiked, and when we got there, half frozen, we were told we’d have to go to a hotel. When they got our luggage. A guy went into meltdown at the counter, screaming that his wife was waiting for him in Halifax—well, yes, meltdown-guy, a lot of us had business in Halifax…but we’re alive. I rather like that outcome.
Don’t you love how people think that the airlines are responsible for the weather? Must be nice to have a “God-complex”.
My car doors were blanketed in ice today, it rained most of yesterday and when the cold front came through, it was a cold snap, and that rain froze. I couldn’t open the car doors when I went out to make sure the car could start and to get the engine oil warmed up a bit. I waited for a couple of hours until the sun thawed some of the ice on the passenger’s side, then went in that door and pushed the driver’s door open. Much less stress on the opening mechanism to push than it would be if I had pulled.
I did try to clear snowdrifts off the driveway, as well as those of my neighbors’, but even with a long sleeved shirt, a hoodie sweatshirt, a thick quilted parka (like police and fire have), and a scarf wrapped around my face, my tolerance was just about 10 minutes. So, I only got 2 other drives done.
Now my car battery is on its last legs, and the cold weather isn’t helping it any. I’ve got it hooked up to the battery charger on a 2-amp “trickle” overnight so maybe it’ll start in the morning. It’s an automatic shut-off on the charger, so there’s no danger of overcharging the battery. It just means that the hood of the car is open a couple of inches to clear the clamps, while the main body of the charger is in the garage and the lead goes under the garage door. Well, there’s another $100 I can kiss goodbye this month.
Tomorrow is supposed to be -4 F, and winds are supposed to be in the 25 – 35 mph ranges. I hope the tarps stay put on my roof. If they don’t, well, nothing I can do about it until it warms up enough to brave the cold. Right now, it’s -10 F and a wind chill of -27 F. I saw a graphic last night how it was warmer in Pt. Barrow, Alaska than it was here. Ever wish to live in someplace like that? Personally, I’d rather move back to Guam, if it weren’t so damned expensive, and didn’t have those pesky typhoons every so often. The SCUBA diving was great when I lived there in the mid-1980s.
In the Boston area, it rained last night and most of today with temps in the high 50’s and low 60’s (unusual but not unheard of weather here for the season). Then the temps dropped in early evening and it is supposed to be in the teens tomorrow (again, nothing unusual but people are moaning about “bitter cold”). It’s the ice from the rain and snow melt that has me worried. I sprained an ankle years ago from slipping on black ice and it’s made me more cautious ever since.