SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011!!!!

Resourceful..

Humidity?

Day three of being iced in.

Going a bit stir crazy, but perfer good health to freedom.

How long did it take before the Donner Party became, well, the Donner Party?

Jes, no! It's not that bad, really, it's not. Stop eyeing Reg that way and stop trying to maneuver him closer to the cutting board. There are alternatives! I know for a fact the Beacon St. Star is open. You can get anything you need there, and besides he'd probably be really stringy and tough, no matter how long you cooked him.

Laughs.. ok, well, chuckles, re the Donner group. (Is there a band with that name?)

I ventured to the store, but our streets right here are not icy and no snowbanks. On the other hand, my car barely started and showed weird symptoms. Had discussion on Sinatra and Streisand at the checkout counter (I'm not fond of either of them; I realize at least re Sinatra that this is heresy. My hell will be Strangers in the Night played over an over on a scratched record). Got home to see my neighbor with his truck hood up, asking me about the blanket over my hose bib.

Sigh. I didn't know until butrflynet's post yesterday (thank you!!!) that one is supposed to let hose bibs attached to the house drip just a little bit in this kind of weather. I'd known enough to remove the hose weeks ago. Anyway, yesterday latish afternoon I struggled to open the bibs, one in front and one in back. The back one I move, oh, an eighth to a quarter of an inch. Nada. Wrapped the beauty with four facecloths, a bunch of plastic over most of it, and some serious wire. I have what I take as baby carpal tunnel, so this was a push.

I got the front bib open, much easier, but nothin' flowing out. Much as I feared, having belatedly read up more on the internet re freezing pipes. Wrapped this one too, and put a moving van blanket over it and over the bib and its dressings in the back, more wire on both. Opened my faucets inside to drip. Kept the house heat up (watch gas flowing as money..) in case that could warm the house walls. Worried off and on through the night re breaking pipes (the pipes in these houses are for ****). Relieved as the temp rose this morning.

And then we heard there were gas outages in Abq.
Chihuahua!

Came home from the grocery store, as I said, to the neighbor - he'd worried I had a broken pipe. Turned out the hose bib was nicely pouring out water, which I curtailed, cut to a drip, replacing blanket et al. (Neighbor told me he has used an old sweatshirt.. as a hosebib wrap.) Neighbor also told me dripping faucets inside the house are supposed to be enough, and I had done that last night. Talked with Dys this a.m., and he said that was good as it lets out air.

Learning experience, yet again.

We're out of regular food, but will not starve...and we won't go Donner.

For sometime now I have been buying all sorts of food that my family considers weird and won't eat; mostly international stuff...that keeps for a long time.

Tomorrow morning it's Norwegian fishball Vindaloo for breakfast!

thanks for that grin-inducer

Sounds most appetising!

Good god, Finn, I'm with the rest of your family on that one.

Looking over the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque. It is three days after the big snow storm of 2011 and the mountains are still encased in ice and snow thanks to the below freezing temperatures.




Sandias above Paseo Del Norte in Albuquerque 3 days after the big snow storm of 2011.



Sandias above Rio Rancho, the area hardest hit with the big snow storm of 2011.

My son broke our only snow shovel yesterday. I just don't have the money to buy another. Pay from the college is two weeks from today.

I wonder how efficient an ordinary garden spade is. More snow, along with the dreaded sleet and "wintry mix (a condition so terrible it is spoken of only in euphemisms)" is forecast for tomorrow.

I just got a fairly sturdy plastic one from the hardware store for about $10. (We have one but I wanted a second so two of us could shovel at once.) As in, might be cheaper to get a usable one than you think. (If they're not out of stock of course!)

Norwegian Fishball Vindaloo would make a great name for a rock band.

It was!

I expect, however, that I am going to be tasting it for most of the day.

Just about dinner time, silver ware and napkins were passed out... Two guys started on a third, one at his head and the other at his feet... After a while the guy who started at the head asked: How're you doing... The second said: I'm having a ball... The fist one said: Slow down; you're eating too fast!!!

Sounds like a good cheap, and lasting, meal, then!

They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. They steal your snow shovel, you cover their car with a ton of snow. That's the Chicago way!

I didn't like yesterday's red sunrise. It took most of the day for the snow to begin. It was still falling when I woke up. The official word is for 2 - 4 inches. I will take the garden shovel out to do the lower driveway if the writing group I have been trying to attend meets today. Otherwise, I will wait until it is time to go to work this afternoon.

nothin' but rain in town...