Winter Wonderland
I just got in from shoveling the sidewalk and part of the driveway. I gave up on the part where the truck is parked. The snow is too deep and I'm too old! I had read somewhere last year that this winter would be a difficult one: lots of cold and lots of snow. Well the forecast seems to have been quite accurate. We've had worst winters as far as snow goes, but not much worse. And the cold is something I don't remember experiencing here in Southwestern Ontario before. I would say we have about a foot of snow on the ground right now, With the chance of more in the next week. But it's the cold temperatures that we are concerned about. With expect it to get down well into the minus teens Celsius in the next day or so.
Apparently there is a arctic vortex or some such thing that has to descended down into the Midwest of United States and the central part of Canada which is brought record low temperatures to the region. I heard on the weather this morning that this should last for about 72 hours as it makes it makes its way north and east and we return to more seasonable temperatures.
The roads are not in great shape either according to the broadcasts. Robbie is driving my car, of course, since his pickup is miserable on slippery roads -- quite aside from the fact that he needs new tires on that thing! I don't know what he's going to do when I go south in February. He'll just have to deal with the truck, I guess.
I'm sitting in the living room next to the gas fire listening to Rufus Wainwright wail on the little Northern Electric radio in the corner. He does have some wonderful music! The dining room pocket doors are slid shut to preserve heat in this part of the house. Someday I would like to live in a house that has true zone heating. It makes so much sense! Trying to heat or cool this big barn is not easy! We do our best by manipulating doors and vents, but let's face it! This is an expensive house to keep environmentally comfortable. In winter, sweaters help, of course!
Robbie has taken down most of the Christmas decorations. Only the tree remains up along with the garlands across the fireplace and the side table in the dining room. It will be hard to take those down because they are quite lovely and bring a little warmth and light into this winter-dark house. I suppose at some point I'll have to take them down. Certainly the tree needs to come down this week since the city will be picking up the Christmas trees from the front yard next week. I will be sad to see it go because it's a very beautiful tree and warms my heart every time I see it.
This time of year, just after the holidays, January through February is really the hardest time of the winter for a lot of people. I try to focus on those things that keep me preoccupied; my ham radio, for example, is a great hobby to have in the winter. Signals are at their best and leaning over a warm transceiver - or better over a hot tube transmitter and receiver - can be a heartwarming experience unparalleled anywhere else in the house. I actually have been working some foreign stations on PSK31, A digital communications protocol similar to radio teletype, but much, much more effective. There are actually quite a few different digital modes available to us amateurs now, and I would enjoy playing with some of the others than just PSK31. I almost had a conversation with an Italian station using Olivia, another digital protocol that is extremely effective in noisy or low signal situations. This guy's signal was on 30 metres at about four in the afternoon. I was quite excited to work him and copied his signal perfectly in spite of the fact that I barely heard him, but he was unable to copy me apparently. I gave up trying when I heard my friend, Tim, VE6PG, calling CQ on our regular AM frequency, 3.725. We proceeded to have a very nice chat, me using my Johnson Ranger transmitter and my Hammerlund HQ-140-X receiver.
I'm still debating in my mind whether or not I should try to install my HF rig, my Yaesu FT-857D, into my new car. If I were to do so, I would wait until I got to Florida next month. I must admit that during the last couple of long trips I've taken, I did not use my radio very much. But, then again, I remember how much fun I had with it the first couple of years I used it in my car.
I suspect I'll take everything down with me to Florida to do the installation and decide when I get there. My problem is there are too many distractions in my car as it is! What with the satellite radio, the iPhone/iPod, audiobooks, and regular terrestrial radio, there is a lot to keep me occupied on the long road south. But there is also the mystique of having your own personal radio in the car with the capability of talking around the world as your travel down the I-95!