In the gallantry department, however, remember I mentioned a house down the street with a tree down whose exposed roots stand higher (equal to the missing part of their lawn) than their house eaves?
They’ve decorated the fan of exposed roots with giant red Christmas balls. 😉
As someone who just paid a lot for a thermostat and a pressure switch to get a working heater again, in a much warmer climate than yours, I can sympathize.
OK, as someone who’s been without a working A/C compressor for two years in the summer, in a much hotter climate, oh, I can very much sympathize. I can stand being hot better than I can stand being cold. It’s much easier to say that when it’s not in the middle of summer.
I will hope that it’s something fixable and not too ‘spensive with your heater. Being without heat in winter that far north…not good.
I hope they get it fixed soon.
Hah, I love the neighbors’ holiday decorating idea. Great sense of indomitable humor.
And yes, after Tropical Storm Allison, I know just exactly what something like that tree’s root ball can look like. I was very, very glad when the tree trunks were removed and my house was repaired. A tree trunk can crumple an attic heating/cooling unit like a tin can. It was impressive, all right.
I wish your neighbors the best in getting the tree removed and any home repairs (and insurance) taken care of as quickly and painlessly as possible.
I wish you and Jane and company all the best with your heater repairs. Meanwhile, hugs and hot tea, cozying up at night, Ah, togetherness!
I wish you could get a break…..the floor, then the power, now the furnace……
I hope the furnace is under warranty…..
Don’t even hint that! I just got a new furnace! It died and I replaced a 25 year old furnace before something happened in February. The repairs could have caused more problems.
Photo of the tree roots please!
We got the furnace looked at. They think bubbles are working their way through the city gas lines because of the long area shutdown.
But another storm is taking form, and will hit us tomorrow morning (with rain-saturated soil around those trees this time) with 60 mph winds.
There shouldn’t be bubbles in the gas lines – that would mean there were leaks they didn’t find and fix. (Gas mains generally run somewhere in the range of 20 to 40 psi.)
In my neighborhood, by an online weather station someone within “walking distance” has, Sunday we got an inch. Monday 2″ by noon. And we just crossed 2″ again, later because it didn’t start till noonish.
Bubbles of what? Air? Surely not water!
Do you have your new Honda generator in your hot little hands yet? As long as you have power (preferably from utilities, but in case…) you can keep the fish tanks heated and hopefully yourselves. Can you lay hands on some extra heaters? Not kerosene, unless you can rig up reliable ventilation — we do not want ohana choking on fumes!
Yes.
Batten down the hatches and hang on!
I am somehow in the mood for a starship and crew story.
I’m restless and want to read something, but not sure what, either printed or ebooks. It will likely be a certain favorite author or two. It could be from Andre Norton or another few writers.
I’m still not up to my old reading habits and wish that would settle itself.
—–
BTW, I saw the first episode of the new TV series, The Expanse, based on the books by writing team pseudonym James S. A. Corey, whom I haven’t read. The show looked quite good, and reminds me of a few SF books / shows, but was original and entertaining enough that I’m on board for the first season. There was a nice mix of hard science fiction and social science fiction, which (of course) suits me. I wouldn’t be surprised if people here (authors and fans alike) give it at least a look. I could wish for more space-based science fiction on TV, but that’s a perennial wish. According to Wiki, SyFy channel ordered 10 eps for the first season and the series writing team was working on season 2 scripts before it’s been picked up for another season.
I’ve also been watching Star Wars Rebels, which is fun, but I’ll be waiting until later to see the new Ep VII movie…and the Peanuts movie.
Oh, wow! Just in time for the holidays!
The Faded Sun Trilogy (in a single omnibus edition) is now available for Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks. (And one presumes, for Barnes & Noble’s Nook and for Kobo.)
Cyteen: Regenesis is also newly available for the same ebook formats.
However, Cyteen, originally published as a trilogy, then as a single volume, is not yet showing up for ebook formats, but does still show up for printed books. One presumes it will be available soon.
Spanish: The Pride of Chanur (La orgulla de Chanur) and Chanur’s Venture (La aventura de Chanur) showed up, but not the other three Chanur books yet; and Foreigner #1 (El estranjero) in Spanish showed up.
German: A number of German-language editions of C.J. Cherryh’s books now show up in ebook format, at least for Kindle and presumably for other formats. Titles include several (all?) of the five Chanur books, the Faded Sun Trilogy (in one volume), and what appear to be Merchanter’s Luck, Serpent’s Reach, and 40,000 in Gehenna.
Alas, Merchanter’s Luck in English does not yet show up in ebook formats. However, Downbelow Station does. One could also wish for titles such as Finity’s End and Tripoint.
Visitor is showing up for pre-order, but not yet Convergence.
The Morgaine Cycle (complete in one volume) was released in September for ebooks.
So, all in all, there are new titles available in ebooks for Cherryh fans! Great news!
I would be frowning a lot at the gas company too. Bubbles really shouldn’t be in the lines. There are mechanical things in place to prevent exactly that from happening – I may not know the terms but I know they exist – so someone didn’t do his job quite right. But I hope everything settles out all right and soon. That storm you have incoming doesn’t sound like it’s going to play around.
And I thought *my* crew was going through some bumpy times! We’ve packed nine people into the house now, due to taking in a cousin whose dad has turned violent…but overcrowding and tension is a much less difficult thing to handle than no heat and rushing to finish up the flooring project!
Kind of wish we were in your neck of the woods. I could offer you three strapping young men this month to crack the whip over! *grin*
Golly! Now there’s an offer you don’t get every day! :rofl:
Kidding aside, wow, I’m glad your cousin and others have a home with you, Hawke. A violent, abusive dad, not a good situation at all. Better that they’re away from that. Also better so they don’t absorb that as a model of how a man ought to be towards family and friends.
Just a note to say—we’re weathering the blow handily so far.
On to the flooring.
as of 11:58 AM today, Spokane International Airport says the temperature is 48 F, winds are from the SW at 28 MPH, Gusts to 37 MPH. The NWS has predicted that some of the gusts could be as high as 47 MPH. I hope the roof shingles are all secure, and that nothing comes down that should remain up.
Toes crossed that all is well with you. I’ve been seeing photos of downed trees and other bad stuff.
Echoing Joe, may everything stay up that should be up!
Oh please stay safe… Hope the traumas of the month are all eased and shrink back to a manageable size.
If you had my 36-inch cathode ray tube television (aka The Cyclopian Behemoth), you could heat your whole house with the BTU’s that sucker puts out. I hate it in the summertime when it’s 90 out and I can only watch TV late at night because otherwise the AC never shuts off and I get humongous electricity bills, but in the wintertime, I’ll keep it on all day and set the thermostat on 65.
I completely agree. It’s about time you guys caught a break. Bubbles in the gas line? They did get the heater going again, didn’t they?
I love the Christmas balls on the tree roots. Somebody at their house has a great sense of humor.
They might have to send someone out to de-decorate the root ball, before Mother Nature does it for them, if the storm goes as forecast! Eeek!
Back when I still lived in Houston, I noticed one evening that my water heater had gone out and I couldn’t relight the pilot light. I called the gas company and then I went out to inspect the gas meter to see what I could see. I found that the glass covering the meter had shattered and one of the shards appeared to be blocking the movement of the needle. After I picked out all the pieces of glass I was able to re-light the pilot light on the water heater and had gas to the stove again. The only thing I could figure was that somehow the meter was set up not to let the gas flow if it couldn’t be registered so I could be billed for it. Weird stuff happens with gas sometimes, even though in general it’s a lot more reliable than electricity.
The 21st is coming. I just want to assure you all, the Sun WILL Return!
Does anyone hear the sound of a Tommie whistling past the graveyard?
Have you gotten the furnace fixed yet? It’s unseasonably warm here in West Central Ohio, temperatures at my house are about 68 degrees F (20 C), and it’s projected that tomorrow will reach the 70 mark.
This is attributed to a rather strong El Nino event in the South Pacific, and according to NOAA, temperatures are supposed to be mostly above normal. They project that the El Nino will start to decline in early spring. Climatologically, what they’re saying is that it could result in reduced snowfall or rainfall for the country, although there are several other factors that could offset the El Nino effect. A lovely influx of Siberian air, for example.
I’d often wondered when I was younger why the air in Siberia was colder than at say, the North Pole. So, after my Oceanography course, I would tend to let my thoughts wander. The geography of that area of Siberia is pretty much flat land surrounded by mountains. The winter nights are usually clear, so any heat that is left after the sun goes down (or doesn’t rise high enough) is radiated out into space. Eventually, the air in those valley plains gets colder and colder until some other disturbance comes along and dispels that cold air – say a warmer wind from the south, blowing that cold air mass over the Pole and then down into Canada and eventually to the U.S. Ocean dynamics kind of intrigued me, especially when we’d be out somewhere far from land and I’d notice a patch of water that looked like oil, had very few waves, mostly ripples, and could never get a reasonable explanation. I’d even asked my Oceanography professor, and his response was “What do you think it is?” I didn’t know at the time, but after going over the book again, I believe I hit on the correct answer – cold water upwellings, such as we have with La Nina, but on a much smaller scale. El Nino being a vast cold water upwelling, bringing nutrient rich water from the depths, and La Nina being a warm water phenomenon and creating a relatively barren patch of ocean, both of which have a major impact on the climate for the North American continent.
Anyway, I hope the weather holds out for you and the temperatures are mild enough until the furnace gets fixed.
boy, did I screw THAT up.. La Nina is cold water, El Nino is warm water…….sorry…..I had the correct attribute in the first reference to La Nina, but then turned around and mixed them up in the very next sentence…..
We’ve been told the storm track in North America the past couple/few years has been directed by a warm-water “blob”/pool off the west coast.
Lol—I do that sort of thing all the time.
We’re getting ‘banded weather,’ next—that’s bands of snow and rain. It can add up to black ice, so one is careful.
Surgery at 8:30 Monday AM, snowy forecast, so we’re going to allow plenty of time.
Best wishes for Monday’s surgery to give you great results.
Best wishes: seconded.
Definitely best wishes for an easy and successful surgery – and steadier power supplies too!
Please add my good wishes (both for the surgery and for getting through the next round of rough weather) to your collection. And I hope your furnace is up and running well, too.