Sunday, January 02, 2005

Cold Weather

I wanted to post a picture last week, but I didn't get around to it, so here it is, better late than never. December 24th I woke and looked at my outside thermometer, and this is what I saw. Notice the negative sign. That was the temperature at 7:30am! The memory function showed that it had been about -20 some time during the night. I think that's the lowest it's been since spring.

The interesting thing is, I can't tell the difference between about 30 and -10 (or anything in between). Yeah, it's cold, but with jeans, a short sleeved shirt, a long sleeved shirt, and a thin jacket, I'm good to go. If I have to drive the car, gloves help because the steering wheel is -10 and holding onto that for any length of time isn't pleasant. So far I haven't felt the need for a hat.

As long as the wind isn't blowing, and there is little moisture in the air, the cold is quite pleasant. When it's windy, however, things feel very cold. The other day there were steady 30mph+ winds blowing, with 40mph gusts. You notice that. Not living a valley means that there is nothing to stop the wind. And we get a lot of wind. Some times I have visions of the roof blowing off; it's that much wind. But, so far, so good, and I'm assuming that this wind thing isn't a new occurrence. I'm guessing they know how to build houses to deal with it.

Last night was my first introduction to freezing rain. I don't actually think this was freezing rain though. I think of freezing rain as something that falls, then freezes into large blankets of ice, snapping tree limbs and downing power lines. This was more like frozen rain, or small, clear, hail. Basically rain fell, then immediately froze on the ground in the form of little balls, or maybe it just landed as little balls. In any event, the effect is much like a thousand little balls under your feet. Not easy to walk on, and I wasn't even going to attempt driving on it. A few hours later it started to snow, which improves the level of traction immensely, but creates an insulating layer, preventing the frozen rain from melting in the day. I don't think it will be a problem once the plows get out and spread some sand or salt.

So, first thing this morning for me was to go out and shovel the sidewalk (about 150 feet of it -- a good workout), and about a quarter of my driveway (the part I actually drive on), as well as a small path to my front door for when the UPS guy comes. I shovel the gutter in the street too so that ice doesn't build up right in front of the driveway's apron.

While I was shoveling, the town snowplow came down my street. With his angled plow he was throwing up quite a wake of snow onto the grass and sidewalk, so I stepped back up my lawn a bit. He must have seen me because he slowed to about half speed, reducing his wake, and therefore not depositing a large amount of snow onto my driveway apron (or me). I waved to signal my thanks. He waved back.

When I was done shoveling, instead of using a broom to clear the last bits (because I think the sweeping motion bothers my tendinitis), I threw down some of my newly acquired super-salt (good to -25F, normal salt only works to about 20F) using a scoop made from an empty orange juice gallon container. That worked well for traction up and down the driveway, and started to melt the remaining snow on the sidewalk almost immediately. After thinking about turning all the snow to water, and eventually back to ice, on the sidewalk, I wasn't sure I had done the right thing. However, I'm hoping that salt will melt the snow and ice, that the water will evaporate today (rather than becoming a thin sheet of ice), and of course the salt will be left behind to do its magic for the next snowfall. I guess as long as the salt is there, the water should pretty much never freeze, so I think I'll be OK. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

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