The line of water and the line of cold crossed north of my house. So I ended up with God's Own Wrath of Rain at about 2:30 this morning, but not a touch of snow was to be seen when I got up to do chores ( Read more... )

Yesterday hit a high of 70 degrees. Today it will be 61 degrees. Tomorrow will have a low of twenty degrees ( Read more... )

It is a beautiful and sun-filled day again today. Everywhere, the ice glistens and gleams. This morning, there were enough places with snow on them that I could walk with reasonable confidence in that snow, keeping away from the icy paths. Tomorrow? Tomorrow everything will be a beautiful mix of ice and snow, dotted with sufficient clear areas to ( Read more... )

If ever we needed proof that cold sinks, as I drove down our hill and into the little valley that leads up to the highway, my car read 1 F. That's the lowest temperature number I've ever seen my car display. If I could have pulled over safely, I would have taken a picture just for posterity ( Read more... )

I woke up this morning to that distinctive hiss of sleet against the window. The radio announcer was starting into the litany of accidents in the northwest of the broadcast area (just north of me ( Read more... )

Maybe I'm jumping the gun by posting a day early, but I want to post something happy right now.

Zippy Roger, the 2005 (second model version hatchback) Prius, is running for the far end of the good side of the bell curve. While there are a lot of annoying things that are wrong, the car itself continues to run without too many major issues (or even ( Read more... )

This part of the world is not supposed to get this cold. A "cold snap" around here is 20 degrees F. With the notable exception of people who transplant from Vermont and Minnesota, society around here is, on average, poorly prepared to face this kind of cold. North Dakota is surely laughing at us for canceling schools while the temp is above zero ( Read more... )

While I was outside doing chores this morning, a tour bus drove down our road. The driver was really booking it, too. So either he knew where he was, or thought he heard banjo music.

I'd hate to be the guy who had to turn that bus around at the end of the road.

My Dad is - ahem! - was a classic nerd. As a child, he took apart clocks to see what made them tick - literally - and built radios out of spare parts. As a college student at Berkeley, Dad was far more interested in the chemistry lab than in the anti-war/social-based protests going on right outside of the building ( Read more... )

It's going to be an interesting Monday morning drive into work.

( Photo! )