98 degrees

There was a 98 degree temperature difference this morning between here and Pengilly.  That just doesn't seem fair.  The good news is that the only person I know who actually lives in Pengilly was here at the time that TT did the math on the temperatures.  She and I were standing out on the dock, talking to our resident great blue heron.

The heron has become accustomed to humans, thanks in large part to our next door neighbor who does a lot of fishing off of his dock, and who has spent a fair amount of time hanging out with the bird.  It was a cool, gray and breezy day here, with a few showers -- going outside required the donning of an extra layer of clothing.  A light vest was about right.  Yesterday TT calculated the difference between the high here and the low in Pengilly.  105 degrees.  

Sunrise Park

My brother.  He's only been here for a day, and tonight he was across the street playing virtual tennis.  Take a break, TT!


Taken at Sunrise Park at sunset. It was a full day today, at least from my perspective. A walk around Ollie's Pond, a trip to the mall, lunch at the food court followed by grocery shopping at Publix. Later I watched NCW fix a chicken and wild rice dish for supper. TT made his world famous guacamole to go with it and the salad, broccoli and cheesy biscuits. We always eat so well when they are here! Their time here has been pretty well planned out -- baseball and tennis both figure prominently, along with a little bit of down time.  So far the weather has cooperated, and they've gotten a chance to throw off some of the chill that had been accumulating in their bones since about November.  We're quite glad that they are here.

And of course, here's a few photos for my daughter OSLO who is going stir crazy in the icy northland.

FOMO

FOMO is a made up word -- it stands for "fear of missing out."  Both GZ and TT blogged recently, so here I am.  I've been outside most days this week, at least for a while.  This first photo is from a morning bike ride that I took earlier this week.  If it is of any comfort at all, the sun is high enough in the sky at this point that it is hot on my head when I'm outside.  This wasn't true a month ago.  The sun is on its way back north, in spite of how it seems where you guys live.

Yesterday it was too windy for me to bike, so I took a walk along the Peace River.  The local historical society was holding an event for busloads full of school children there, and I had no idea that there were so many children in this county.  It was nice to see some young faces, for a change. Funnel cakes and hot dogs made an appearance, but I didn't particularly want to stand in line for grease and sugar.  Even tasty grease and sugar.  Besides, that would have used up my yearly allowance for funnel cakes, ruining Tulip Time for me.

I was back on the bike today for a short ride to the beach again.  It has been a humbling experience to begin doing a bit of biking after a long, long layoff.  I have no legs.

I tried a different point of view for my picture taking today.  Close-ups instead of landscapes.  The first and last photos are pretty obvious, but the middle one looked strange even to me when I downloaded it.  (It's a tree trunk.)

Out of the House, Gathering Warm Photos for OSLO

Sometimes it takes an effort of will to haul myself outside for some exercise.  Believe it or not, occasionally I use the wind as an excuse for my sloth.  It's a puny excuse, and I know it.  60's and windy is outdoors weather, especially when almost everyone I know is dealing with snow and ice and bone chilling cold.  I gave myself this pep talk a couple of days ago, and took a walk around Ollie's pond.  The alligator was not in its usual spot, which should have been comforting, but instead made me nervous.  If not there, where?  Here are a few images from that walk.

Today I was determined to take a bike ride, even though there was a lake wind advisory in effect.  I should have known better.  I got far enough from home before I gave up to make it necessary to do the evil Highway 41 waterway bridge crossing in order to get back home, but no harm was done.  I rewarded myself for my efforts with an iced coffee at the Hava Java grill.  It's a little over 1.5 miles from the house, and back in the days when I used to "wog", I went past it on a regular basis.  Today was just the second time I've been there this trip.

I checked a weather website when I got back, and the winds were "only" 24 mph at that point.  A slight warm up is in the forecast, along with slightly less wind.  Perhaps I'll give it another try in a day or two.

Here and There

Here:

And there -- photos courtesy of L. Hendrix.

 The streets are plowed the width of one county plow, when they're plowed at all.  This means that the garbage trucks cannot get through.  One got stuck this past Thursday at the first intersection, while trying to make the turn.  They gave up and no trash was collected this week.

These photos are probably much less interesting to those who are living through this stuff.

Catastrophe Avoided

Late edit:  The sensing device works a little differently than I thought, so I corrected that description.

I often check my Michigan neighbors' webcam in the morning. Yesterday morning the sun was out, and it was a toasty 7 degrees, according to my trusty weather websites. Then we got the phone call from these same neighbors, declaring that our day was about to take a nasty turn. Indeed. The two year old furnace in our house had ceased to function. And I believe I mentioned that the outdoor temperature was 7?  The interior of the house was, at that point, 44 degrees.

My mention of the webcam was deliberate -- this is a fairly tech savvy neighbor, who has a fondness for electronic devices, not limited to webcams. He uses some of these to monitor various household systems, both at their home and at a family cottage in another state. These devices make a phone call to give a warning when certain pre-set limits are reached -- such as hot and cold temperatures. Oddly -- but fortunately for us -- he got a new, fancier one for himself, and decided that it would save them some trips across the street in the cold weather if they set the old one up in our house during these polar vortex events that keep happening.  We were fine with this, and a week or so ago he installed the temperature sensor and plugged it into a phone jack in our family room.  We weren't convinced that it was at all necessary -- like I said, the furnace is only 2 years old.  But these are good neighbors, old friends, who have been checking on the house pretty regularly, and it provided some extra insurance.  That we were certain we didn't really need.  Given the temperatures inside and out, I'm not sure how far we were from frozen pipes, but the sensor did its job, he got his phone message and we got the phone call mentioned at the start of this post.  By noon the furnace repair guy was there and replaced -- wait for it -- a sensor -- on the furnace.  At last check the house was warm.  Catastrophe avoided.

Ground Hog's Day, 2014

The ground hog definitely would not have seen his shadow here this morning.  The official prediction of 6 more weeks of winter sounded grim, but realistic.  And as luck would have it, that's about when we're planning to return to the tundra.

The fog cleared, and the sun came out late this morning, for the first time in several days.  It did in fact, get uncomfortably warm on my bike ride today.  Kiwanis Park makes for a nice destination for a short Sunday ride, and I stopped to take a picture of the sun filtering through the trees at the entrance to the trails.  OSLO and the COTU Skyped with us after I returned, before the college girl returned to campus.  The last few times we've Skyped, she has been at school, so it was nice to see her.

Our next door neighbors invited us to a Super Bowl party tonight -- the food was good and it was nice to get to know some of our neighbors a little bit better.  I took my salsa/corn/black bean dip, and it was well received.  One of the women there, who has lived here year round for about 15 years, commented on the "winter" weather here this year.  I have been quite pleased with it -- mostly 50's and 60's, and until this last week, a fair amount of sun.  It's been a cold winter, she said.  Yes, yes it has.  But not here.