Monday, February 15, 2016
We lost power during the night. I would not have known, but for the flashing lights of the clocks on the range and the microwave in the kitchen, which caught my attention when I arose to put the kettle on for coffee this morning. There was a point in the night when I was vaguely aware of feeling chilly, but it did not awaken me. The power could not have been out for long, it was cold enough last night that the house would have become frigid very quickly, had the heating system failed.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
A blizzard! First we had a cold snap, and now we have a blizzard. This is a mini-winter, a very short and intense version of the six months of winter we received every winter at the country house, all compressed into a week or two.
We are receiving a steady driven bombardment of heavy wet horizontal whiteness. Attila said the drive home from work this morning was dangerous. The roads had not been ploughed at all, so the conditions were a slippery undefined roadway, with poor visibility from the driven snow. He arrived safe and sound, and after a short rest, he headed out the door to start shovelling the drive.
I was unable to assist him. The recent cold snap meant that our heat was supplied by the oil furnace. The heat from the oil furnace is warmer, and much dryer than the heat supplied by the heat pump. We were down to 27% humidity in the house this morning, and my nose bleeds have begun again. I wanted to help Attila with the snow shovelling, but dared not risk it because any exertion would result in another nose bleed. I wet a few towels in the sink and hung them to dry, which will hopefully bring the humidity up and give my poor nose some relief.
As Attila slept today the snowfall intensified, and it snowed all day long. Then the snow plow came through, and it piled the snow waist high across the end of our driveway. When Attila arose from his rest, he had a little snack, bundled himself up in warm clothing and headed back out with his snow shovel. I don’t know how much snow fell, but I do know that the grass around the composter was visible yesterday, and today the composter has disappeared underneath the snow.
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The computer backup project is going great guns now, almost all the files are on the cloud, on the external usb drive, and burned onto DVDs. There is a learning curve with the cloud and cloud related software, but every challenge is tackled and resolved in time. The real issue is that I must make myself keep going until the whole project is completed. It would be so very easy to get distracted with other projects, as this backing up odyssey plods on and on and on.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
-22°C
Date: 6:00 AM EST Monday 15 February 2016
Condition: Clear
Pressure: 103.0 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: -21.5°C
Dewpoint: -24.7°C
Humidity: 76%
Wind: NE 12 km/h
Wind Chill: -30
WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT (it arrived!)
-3°C
Date: 8:00 AM EST Tuesday 16 February 2016
Condition: Snow
Pressure: 100.8 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 0.6 km
Temperature: -3.2°C
Dewpoint: -4.3°C
Humidity: 92%
Wind: NNE 18 km/h
Wind Chill: -9
Quote
“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”
George Bernard Shaw
1856 – 1950
Just a quickie as I need to start dinner… I got my back-up accomplished today! Successfully. Now it will back-up every day until I decide that I can wait longer in between runs… let’s see how it goes.
Congratulations Bex!!! I am envious, 🙂
I anticipate getting my backup done by the end of the week. THEN spring can arrive so that I can spend time out of doors, even if it is just sitting in the sun on the back porch.
The snow seems a real hardship for Attila, but he seems to be coping. You two have been really challenged this winter! Hope spring is in the offing soon!
Diane, Attila figures we received about 18 inches of snow during the day today, and it is still snowing. I think it will end tonight. Up until this winter Attila spent several nights a week shoveling the very long driveway at the country house, and then the decks, and then the snow that slid off the roof onto the deck and the paths. This event reminds us of those winters that are now in our past!
Perhaps by tomorrow I will be able to get out there and give him a helping hand.
18 inches of snow, plus what the plows piled high! I use to hate those plows! I was the shoveler.
I do hope you were able to increase the humidity in the cottage with the towel trick.
At least it is only 1-2 weeks, not months. And soup is a great way to work it off!
I hope you don’t have to shovel snow at your new place Lee Ann! I had to do it myself all last winter, lots more snow last winter than this winter. But now that Attila is here, he does the lion’s share of the shoveling. I like to help, mostly doing the fiddly bits, but today it just wasn’t in the cards.
I did a load of laundry this afternoon, and hung it up to dry in the spare bedroom. The humidity is now 31%, and it will hopefully rise overnight as the laundry dries.
Maggie, I like our version of snow much better than yours! Here’s sending warm and safe wishes for Attila as he shovels it and travels in it.
One thing that really helps my nose during the dry weather is the application of a good layer of sealing moisturizer inside my nostrils with a cotton swab, at least at bedtime and in the morning. Although petroleum jelly works, I don’t care for it myself.
Wendy, I like your version of snow better too! It finally stopped snowing! We got at least 18 inches of snow today, a lot of shoveling.
That is a good suggestion about the moisturizer, I will try it tonight. I think you mentioned this to me before, and it worked, and I forgot about that!!!