nearly there, but only a wet dream

[mbouse]

well, i nearly thought i'd made it. nearly thought that it was actually spring. yesterday it appoached 60 F and all but the most stubborn piles of snow were melted by the day long rain. i am sure that a couple more days like this, with no back peddling in between will wash all the sodium and silicon from the roads.

this morning the weather report said 55 F currently, with a high of 52 F...as i struggled to grapple that concept, i noticed the further report that predicts constantly falling temps throughout the day, ending with 36-38 by supper time and (once again) solid precipitation warnings.

regardless of the reports, i was forced to move both the '78 Spider and the '69 Triumph from the garage before i left for work. Today, the garage gets a new 12 foot overhead door and a new electric opener. the stanley opener quit after only 20 years of service. the new door is aluminum sandwiching foam insulation, and is promised to be at least half the weight of the old wooden door it is replacing.

I am NOT supporting China with my "economic stimulus package". the door, the opener and the installation labor are 100% American made and bred. and, i am spending about 1/3 more than Mr. Bush is gonna mail to me. Thank you very much.

Taking bets on whether i make it home before the cars are covered in snow....

[ga.spyder]

It must seem like the endless winter!! I cant imagine dealing with the snow for months on end.When we get a snow warning the grocery stores sell out,the schools close ,and the town shuts down. Then it snows a couple inches and its gone in a few days.It has been cold this winter ,but I have driven the car at least once a week.Keep the faith ,Mike!
Craig

[dinosabella]

I feel your pain.
I live in Montreal and we received record snowfalls this year. So much so that the city ran out of placed to put it, all the usual snow dumps were filled to capacity. We usedt o dump it into the St-Laurence river but the environmentalist put an end to that, What the City of Montreal did was it used a recently abandoned rail and container storage yard to deposit the snow. Wow its scary. The massive artificial mountains of black and grey filthy snow pilled 100ft high row after row for about a mile.
Its not so bad where I live, the city collects all the snow we push onto the streets from our driveways, walkways and stairs but in the suburbs it looks like a warzone on some streets. Massive mounds of snow on someones front lawn 20ft high.
Today has been the first realy mild day and it has rained a little. 10 degrees celcius.

[mbouse]

well, the stoopid weather guy was way off again. he said 36-38 F as a low by 8 pm.

at lunch time it was already down to 34 F.

No snow yet. I have an hour before i can get home; i may get the cars back in the garage before the squall hits!!

[kristoj]

They are predicting a low of 28 here in Cleveland tonight! I invested in a garage heater a while back (already had the insulated doors). I keep it set at 55 unless I am working out there, which I often do on weekends, then I set it at 65. It has been one of the best investments I have ever made. Surprisingly cheap to operate as well as I haven't seen any material change in my gas bills since installing.

[rlux4]

Man I had a nice ride down to Mark's today. Around 80 deg. The sky was a particularly pretty shade of blue. Just very pleasant.
Oh! I'm sorry, I guess this could be construed as mean spirited.

There. How's that?

Ron

[kristoj]

Here in Ohio I bought a 3500 square foot house with a three car attached garage on a beuatifully wooded 1/2 acre lot for $275,000. What could I get for that kind of money in your neck of the woods???

The point is that you are paying handsomely for that weather of yours:)

[rlux4]

au contraire John, I live about 50 miles north of LA, but a world apart as far as property value goes. I commuted 70 miles to work at UCLA for 10 years because it's not as crowded or expensive up here in the "high desert". Yeah, the total cost of living is bad (sales tax and income tax, both at rates that match states that have one or the other), but I'm on 1-1/4 acres, 2500 sqare foot house, 4 car garage, and it cost $250.000. OK, I'm a builder, so it was cheaper than buying a house on the market.
Truth be told, there are several parts of the country my wife and I would much rather move to, but I always figured I'd not be able to make as much in construction as they do here. So we're stuck here until I retire.
But, it is fun in the winter to raz the snow bunnies.
Ron

[kristoj]

You are killing me. There has to be SOME reason I continue to put up with this crappy weather for half the year! The cost of living is ridiculously cheap here though. Oh, and I almost forgot -- we get to choose the president of the United States here in Ohio too! Guess we haven't done a real good job of that the last couple of elections... So why the heck do I still live here!!! Maybe you can build me a house like yours out there for $250,000???

[pope]

The reason Mike and I are in Michigan is that we are going to dig a ditch along the border of Ohio and let it fill with water. We will then trade fresh water, which Michigan has the worlds largest supply and trade it for oil. Then you will all come beggin to us.
LOL

[rlux4]

pope! You've come up with yet another brilliant money-making scheme. Uh, I mean idea.
Ron

[Gunsmith]

It is fun razing those of you that live in the lands covered in that horrible white stuff but there trade offs as you say. Even though our realestate market is supposedly in the dumper a four bedroom house with garage on a sliver of property is still well into the $400's. Although with all of the foreclosures you may be able to buy one on the court house steps for less. Not to mention that there are few million more people here crammed in a small area. But we are usually scuba diving on Christmas day though so I guess that's worth something..

[mbouse]

i don't wanna scuba dive on christmas day. i just wanna drive with the top down on April 15th.

the weather man should be fired. it not only hit 36-38 yesterday.......i dropped all the way to 25 F.....no snow, which was good, cuz the salt trucks did not go back out.

but, the weather man, again was way wrong.

wish i could get paid to make as many mistakes as he.

[kristoj]

The evil weather man says 58 and sunny on Sunday (at least in Cleveland which should be similar for you). So there is still hope.

[mbouse]

BTW - my economic stimulus package was well spent. i think i raised and lowered that new garage door 20-25 times while shivering in the 25 F weather as i moved my cars back into the garage for the rest of the winter.

nice door, nice opener.

now, i challenge you to do as i did and actually stimulate OUR economy....not china's....by spending your check that Mr. Bush sends in America for American produced goods and services. Don't go to Wally World with your check. The Chinese are getting too much of our help now.