The General Chat Thread (2024)

It is now 10F/-12C. I just put FattyPoodle outside for a last pee and poo before I go to bed, and there were tiny snow flurries happening.

We get at least one heavy cold snap like this every winter, generally not more than two. Looks like the next few days are this year's snap. As long as the power grid stays up, it will be no big deal. If it does go down, I'll just have to set up camp by the fireplace until it comes back on.

CD
 
I was just about to climb into bed, and looked out the window to see the street and parked cars with a thin layer of snow. I checked online to see what Pete Delkus, the local weather guru had to say, and he said this snow was very rare for North Texas -- it is Lake Effect snow, which is something you see in Chicago and Cleveland all the time, but not here.

Basically, bitter cold winds blow across the relatively warm lakes, and pick up moisture that freezes and falls downwind of the lakes. We have a lot of lakes in North Texas.

There is more normal snow coming later this morning, but Pet seemed almost giddy about this Lake Effect snow.

Fatty poodle has never seen snow in her life. When we have some more on the ground, I'll let her outside to check it out. It's always fun when dogs experience snow for the first time.

CD
 
Not too cold here :)
IMG_20240114_125153_049.jpg
 
caseydog said:
Fatty poodle has never seen snow in her life. When we have some more on the ground, I'll let her outside to check it out. It's always fun when dogs experience snow for the first time.
Click to expand...
Kate absolutely loved the snow (rain, too, for that matter).

After a fresh snow, I’d put her out first thing, she’d do her business, then she’d sort of lope around the yard and suddenly rear up on her hind legs and take a huge shoulder roll into the snow and roll around like crazy. If it was deep, she’d come back up covered in it.

Back in the house, I’d rub her down with a big towel to dry her off and five minutes later, she’d be back at the door, wanting another round.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
caseydog I don't really understand 'furnaces' we use boilers here. You need two? Are they linked?
Click to expand...

A furnace is used for forced air heating. Think of it like air conditioning, only hot. The furnace heats a heat exchanger, and a blower blows air over the heat exchanger. The hot air is distributed through the same ducts as your air conditioning. My furnaces are gas fired. There are also electric heaters and heat pumps, but they are WAY more expensive to operate, at least in the US where natural gas is abundant and cheap.

Boilers were common in the US 100 years ago, and are still used in the Northeast, especially in old homes.

My house is two levels, and has separate heat/AC systems for each level. It is called Zoned HVAC. I have two thermostats, one upstairs, and one downstairs. The systems are not linked. In the winter, my downstairs system works harder, and in summer, the upstairs system works harder, due to the physics of hot and cold air.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I lit a fire in the fireplace, and decided to lay on the couch and relax by the fire. I woke up three hours later. :facepalm: I guess I'll be up for awhile.

It is currently 20F/-7C outside, on the way to 12F/-11C by sunrise. :cold:

CD
Click to expand...

Thay nothing on my wifes oldies bro. Was invited xmas day about 10 year ago. We thought it funny he never fronted .
Next day boxing day he turned up. He slept through xmas day.
Hes a hare Krishna. Away with the fairies.
It's a big joke here. My wifes 7 brothers.
He oldest next one down is gay.(Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Seinfeld) :)

Russ
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
caseydog I don't really understand 'furnaces' we use boilers here. You need two? Are they linked?
Click to expand...

We have heat strips in our electric A/C units in South Florida because it rarely gets really cold here. They are VERY inefficient and cost a lot, even more than A/C, to operate. They also smell like there is an electrical issue when you turn the heat on after it has not been used for a year or 2. We ended up buying room heater units for the rooms we actually used because it was easier and cheaper to use than to try to heat the whole house on the rare occasions we needed them, which was a couple of times in early 2023, none so far this year.
 
medtran49 said:
We have heat strips in our electric A/C units in South Florida because it rarely gets really cold here. They are VERY inefficient and cost a lot, even more than A/C, to operate. They also smell like there is an electrical issue when you turn the heat on after it has not been used for a year or 2. We ended up buying room heater units for the rooms we actually used because it was easier and cheaper to use than to try to heat the whole house on the rare occasions we needed them, which was a couple of times in early 2023, none so far this year.
Click to expand...

Yeah, any kind of electrical heating is going to be expensive to operate, but in South Florida, it's not as important as it is in much of the US. I have a space heater for my master bathroom. I hate stepping out of the shower to even a "cool" room., but don't want to heat the whole first floor up to 72F just to take a shower. If I turn the space heater on 30 minutes before I shower, the bathroom is toasty warm.

CD
 
But in the bright side, hubby's SUV is back on the road after 2½ days in the garage and cost $500 less than the quote.

The bad news is that they washed it for us, so it has to go back tomorrow to get the inside of the wheels cleaned because there's a very bad wheel wobble now. It's a design flaw with the alloy wheels that you only get to know about if you live in a dirt road (there's a 7-10mm or so rim/depression on the inside of the wheel only and if you drive dirt roads regularly, the dirt builds up evenly in the rim and is fine until someone washes the vehicle for you, at which point the dirt becomes unevenly distributed and the wheel wobble is undriveable for those with wrist problems and just dangerous for everyone else. ) the garage door know about this issue, they're new to us after we left the old garage because of bad service. Excellent service from this garage, but they WASHED THE VEHICLE for us... lol

The main problem is that you can't get to this rim at home unless you have ramps to service your own vehicle and get underneath it, so you need to take all 4 wheels off to clean the rim out of your 6 trying to do this yourself, DAMHIKT.
 
Went to the doc yesterday, BP was a little high (and I’m on meds for it). They took it again a little later, and it was lower.

She told me to throw out my years-old home BP machine and to buy a new one, one that’s been validated by the American Heart Association for accuracy, take readings regularly, then come back and see her in three months.

I did that, and I’ve taken my BP twice today, following all the rules about when/how, etc, and I’m getting crazy-high readings, so now I’m going to have to bring the monitor into the doc to have it checked for accuracy against an actual human taking it.
 
TastyReuben said:
Went to the doc yesterday, BP was a little high (and I’m on meds for it). They took it again a little later, and it was lower.

She told me to throw out my years-old home BP machine and to buy a new one, one that’s been validated by the American Heart Association for accuracy, take readings regularly, then come back and see her in three months.

I did that, and I’ve taken my BP twice today, following all the rules about when/how, etc, and I’m getting crazy-high readings, so now I’m going to have to bring the monitor into the doc to have it checked for accuracy against an actual human taking it.
Click to expand...
You can also check it against your old machine, it might have been time for a new one but you’re probably only looking at a 10mmHg difference.
You’ll still need to get it checked by another source (pharmacists are usually good for that) but it might give you a little more info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom