Post Race!

[Shaggy Hiker]

There isn't too much to do for THIS week, but too much to do for another week.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Back to work.

[dday9]

I’m visiting my sister-in-law this week in Colorado Springs. It’s going to be cold.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yes, it will be. Been a bit of a cold snap.

[dday9]

I feel like I need to bathe in moisturizer. My skin is so incredibly dry.

They don't even sell alcohol in gas stations or grocery stores. No wonder they legalized weed.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Alcohol sales are such a weird, state by state, patchwork arrangement.

[Shaggy Hiker]

You're right next door to Utah, so you could stop over there and try to buy some booze.

[homer13j]

I’m visiting my sister-in-law this week in Colorado Springs. It’s going to be cold.

Enjoy!

Thursday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny and cold, with a high near -3. Blustery, with a north wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

[homer13j]

"Lord, have mercy on the people in England, For the terrible food these people must eat."
-Frank Zappa "Strictly Genteel"

Brits Can Finally Enjoy Frozen Baked Bean Pizza Again

[dday9]

"Lord, have mercy on the people in England, For the terrible food these people must eat."
-Frank Zappa "Strictly Genteel"

Brits Can Finally Enjoy Frozen Baked Bean Pizza Again

I'm sorry, but what?!

[dday9]

If they didn't have bricks of tea to throw off the boats, they sure as heck would have thrown that crap in the Boston Harbor.

[Shaggy Hiker]

If they didn't have bricks of tea to throw off the boats, they sure as heck would have thrown that crap in the Boston Harbor.

Probably not. Boston is kind of known for baked beans. For all I know, perhaps they were the source.

[Shaggy Hiker]

In the preceding post, I wasn't sure who 'they' referred to, either. I decided to leave it, because either way works about as well.

[dilettante]

Cars are scary these days.

Between being retired and riding to events with neighbors lately I haven't used the car very much. Add persistent temps below 25°F for a week... went out and oops, dead battery.

I have a supercapacitor "joule thief" jumping pack that can suck the dregs for jump starting but I took it inside and charged it via USB charger. Car started right away, but then the fun began.

The primary display and computer warned that systems were initializing and no keyless remote could be recognized. Lots of rebooting displays, beeps, and a new message saying to hold the power button 5 seconds to start the infotainment computer system. Etc, etc.

Left it idling to build a little battery charge and went inside to peruse the owner's manual. Not much detail, so this needs more study.

Drove about 2 blocks, turned off the ignition and then had a scare when it wouldn't start again. User error, back on my way.

Finally got the secondary computer up and playing local radio, rebooted and it reloaded the newest update from flash.

Went for a nice long highway drive hoping to get some charge built up. Got home, parked, antitheft system reported it was happy once again.

We'll see in the morning. Might end up calling a mechanic for advice to make sure I have everything running right again.

Whew. Could be worse, could be an EV and totally bricked right now.

[wes4dbt]

Sounds like a suck day. Hope it's all good tomorrow.

I don't even bother to set the clock when the time changes. I can do the math. lol

[szlamany]

Could be your alternator, or just a dead battery. Either way, that symptom you describe is caused by poorly regulated voltage being supplied by a taxed system. Getting that battery to hold a charge would be my first step, but then again, I'm software, not hardware, lol!

[dilettante]

We'll see what happens when I go out again in a few hours. The battery has been in use only 4 years, however between retiring and COVID-era habits it doesn't see regular use or a lot of miles most of the year.

So a new 12V battery may well be needed already even though in the past I used to get 5 to 6 years from them.

One of the reset steps after jump-starting was to acquire 3 GPS satellites, so there is no need to set the time manually. I didn't pay for sat-nav service but of course you do pay for all of the necessary hardware now with no choice.

When I range beyond known territory I download Google maps to my phone and plug that in to navigate via Android Auto. I also do this now and then on shorter trips just for grins, to stay up on updates and changes so I know how to use it when I need it. At some point you get the "time to buy more" as bloatware expands beyond support for your current hardware too.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Your computer will have a minor drain so long as it has power. Your car has numerous computers. I wonder what 'off' really means on a modern car?

[Shaggy Hiker]

If we assume that there is a tiny, constant, drain on the battery of a parked car, then an EV might run out of charge in a few years of no use, but there might also be a separate battery dedicated to the purpose of maintaining standby power, kind of like the motherboard batteries, only more so.

[dday9]

I can't wait until we can stand on a mothership.

[Shaggy Hiker]

So, to get there we would mother-board?

[dilettante]

I'm pretty sure that most (if not all) hybrid and fully electric vehicles still have a 12 volt battery and wiring system for the growing list of computers and "accessory" systems such as lighting. Things could get chaotic fast otherwise, since the drive battery packs barely provide the same voltage two model years in a row and that part of those cars is an ongoing broken-field running race.

It isn't just computers that stay powered either, there are multiple radios from the keyless remote control system to cell phone radios in more "managed" platforms with perpetual subscription crap like OnStar. These may also contain small heating elements active at low temperatures to keep them functioning. So yeah, plenty of small parasitic power drains.

[Shaggy Hiker]

We had a high probability of snow last night. We got nothing. The mountains had an even higher probability of significant snow. They got nothing.

Living in a desert can be weird.

[homer13j]

Ohio's snow forecast for this weekend:

[dilettante]

We're looking at 6 to 10 inches. I'm betting on 4 but won't be shocked to get more.

Warming Thursday morning, so I can prepare for high winds and take the car for another battery-charge run then. Not sure I can expect my kid to make the trip from Wisconsin this weekend though, it's a long loop through Chicago and the teeth of this storm.

[dilettante]

People are nuts.

I can remember when thrift stores tended to have a pile of bags and buckets and open tables of Lego bricks almost sold by the pound. Flash forward to today and there are specialty shops selling wacked-out "kits" that can only make one thing, one size of new buckets'o'parts, and used raw bricks and plates individually marked with shocking prices.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've long wondered about the trends in Lego. When I was a kid, I wasn't involved with buying them directly. They showed up as presents, and I barely remember anything about what kinds of containers they came in. What I do remember is that there was some hierarchy about which of us had more (between houses, as my sister and I shared), and it was largely by pounds of Lego. These days, it seems like ALL Lego is sold as kits. If you just want to get a load of various sized, rectangular, bricks...can you even get that? When everything is specialty pieces, it doesn't seem like it would enhance creativity but rather suppress it. When A only fits with B, then where's the creativity?

[Shaggy Hiker]

The last storm we were supposed to get, delivered nothing at all down here. It remained well north. A better chance will get to us tomorrow.

And then, after Christmas, it's supposed to warm up enough that some might melt away. Perhaps I'll finally be able to finish raking my leaves? I was away when I should have been raking them, and they've been covered in snow since then.

[dilettante]

We got up near 38F and I should have raked leaves too. Got caught up in a family holiday meet that got moved up though.

In the last hour we got a few drops of rain but not anywhere near a mist. Once the Low passes things will wrap around and then we'll drop to about 8F with wind and snow. How much snow is still anyone's guess. 3 to 5 inches predicted yet tonight with another 2 to 4 on Friday.

[dday9]

It was freezing in Colorado Springs today. I’ve never experienced anything like it and there was a ton of snow.

It actually makes it hard to breath with this elevation and cold air.

[dday9]

The high today was 3 and the low is -14. Right now it is -3 with a “feels like” of -16.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I remember being at a hatchery when they were working up fish at -10 F. I wasn't in the water, that time. I've been in the water when it was mighty cold, but not THAT cold. Had to wear thin cotton gloves, too, as the fish were too hard to hold onto otherwise.

[dilettante]

Great weather to experience John Carpenter's "The Thing" for the first time.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well, we got snow. Not much snow, as yet, but there's snow on the ground.

[dilettante]

So far we've had it easy where I am, at least for snow and winds. Snowfall is at about 5 inches so far, without sustained nasty winds to blow it into deep drifts. Cold though, around 5F tonight.

Saturday will brings us more snow and probably the bitter taste of high winds though slightly warmer. Prognosticators are saying that a week from now we may be pushing 50F after steady rises from Wednesday onward.

[Shaggy Hiker]

We're going to get that even earlier. It's looking like Tuesday could see temperatures up near 50, with an atmospheric river pushing in large amounts of rain. That could make life interesting. We're well above normal for snowpack. Getting a warm..ish rain in the mountains could cause some impressive flooding.

[FunkyDexter]

Hope you guys are all OK. Thought we had a cold snap over here last week but, from the news, what you're being hit with is extreme. Stay safe y'all.

[dilettante]

I got about 1/3 of what I intended cleared of snow Friday night, but the cold and high winds made me settle for that. Right now we're close to 0F.

Once we rise to 10F or more I'll get the rest unless winds are even higher then. It might take two more passes since the blowing tends to fill snow back in even if nothing new falls. We aren't really expecting more than maybe another inch between today and Sunday.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I got about 1/3 of what I hoped for on the ground. Didn't clear a thing, as it will be warm and raining in a couple days. Heck, it might be warm and raining tomorrow, though it sounds like a cold air pocket will remain in the valley....which means that we might end up with a sheet of ice over everything.

[homer13j]

A fatal 50-car pile-up closed down the Ohio Turnpike yesterday and today Cleveland police had to close Brookpark Road by the airport because of blowing snow and stuck vehicles everywhere. So here I sit nice and toasty watching the Browns-Saints game in front of a roughly half-full stadium even though it is officially a sellout. 4th coldest game in Browns' history.

Nothing like January, 1994, though.