Thawing outside and inside

The beautiful blanket of snow that covered our fair city for most of the last ten days has lost about 99% of its charm.  Temperatures in the mid-30s and intermittent rain have turned light, dry snow into heavy, wet slop.  It’s no longer good for sledding, snowballs, or even walking.  We’re ready for it to go away.  To that end, as Susan and I walked to the neighborhood bakery this morning we cleared snow from every storm drain we knew of along the way.

On Christmas Eve an awful lot of people seemed to have last-minute errands.  Unfortunately, that brought out the cars.

I was just starting to make Swedish Toast when neighbor Maureen called for help.  She was assisting an older gentleman whose car was stuck across part of the road at the bottom of our hill.  We ended up putting chains on his older Mercedes.  I got behind the wheel but made no progress going up the street.  He left us with his car and walked up the hill to get more help.  By the time he came back with his grandson and a bottle of wine, we’d managed to get his car off the street.

As I walked back up the hill, neighbor Lisa was standing by her car at the top of her steep driveway.  She hadn’t driven for eight days and missed the last five days of work.  Afflicted with cabin fever, she thought conditions might be good enough to try to get her car out.  I shoveled two tracks down the driveway so she’d have bare pavement to drive down.  That worked okay, but the slush at the bottom of the driveway convinced her to ‘quit while she was behind.’  I drove her about three miles to work in our trusty all-wheel drive Toyota van.  On our way we passed Mr Mercedes putting on chains again, with faithful neighbor Maureen standing guard to make sure he didn’t get run over by passing cars.

* * * * * * * * * *

An article in today’s paper included a picture of a man dressed like Jesus to “show people what Christmas is all about.”  Apparently about 400 people from a church in Kansas are doing something similar.  The man in the picture wore a beard, a white robe, and a crown of thorns, and was reading a newspaper over a cappuccino.

How am I going to explain this to my neighbors?

As I read the scriptures, it seems more likely we’d find Jesus in a Tent City or a soup kitchen or a hospital than sipping a cappuccino at Starbucks.

“When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink?  And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?”  Then the King will say, “I’m telling the solemn truth:  Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.’  (Matthew 25)

Jesus might be seen in the face of one serving a hot meal, offering shelter, or visiting a prisoner.  Or he might be seen in the face of one being fed or housed or visited; or maybe even the guy needing help chaining up his car.  A good reminder to me – and perhaps to you – during this Christmas season.

Cabin fever

During these snowy days we’ve taken some nice walks, played games, watched movies, checked in with neighbors, done some reading, cleaned up and put stuff away.  Susan and a neighbor walked to the library and back.  I shoveled snow off of an older neighbor’s skylights so they don’t leak or collapse under the weight of wet snow.

I like the snow.  Like being out in it, then being cozy and warm in the house.  Like the fact that we didn’t drive anywhere for three days.  But Susan’s been feeling a little ‘cooped up’ with a mild case of cabin fever.

When I think of cabin fever, I think of two scenarios involving lots of snow:  1) Kathy Bates ‘taking care of’ James Caan after his car goes off the road in a blizzard in Misery;  and 2) Jack Nicholson chopping his way through hotel room doors (“Heeeere’s JOHNNY!”) in The Shining.

So when Susan complains of cabin fever, I get nervous.

Fortunately, so far she’s done things like clean the inside of our medicine cabinet (it’s beautiful), go after grout stains with a bleach pen (dazzling), organize the sewing cupboard (much more useful now), and wipe down the windows that still have aluminum frames (they need it).  But the other night the knitting needles came out and she started “working on a hat.”  Susan doesn’t do much knitting, and this seemed a little ominous.

I’d better get going on some spackling and sanding that needs to be finished.  In the meantime, the axes and sledgehammers will stay hidden until after the snow melts.  And I’m keeping an eye on those knitting needles.

Around the ‘hood

Cars in the driveway on Sunday:

Car in the driveway on Monday:

Wind + snow:

Wind + snow + roof:

For skiing on the beach:

For taking it all in at Lincoln Park:

Snow flakes

Beautiful snow brings out the dark side when people get behind the wheel.  Consider these snow flakes:

My Way or the Highway Flakes. Even after several days of snow and sub-freezing temperatures, these charter buses weren’t chained up.  Denny Way, a main arterial, was closed because of ice, so the first bus opted for a steep, icy side street instead.  Unable to stop on the ice, it slid into a guardrail.  Bus #2 followed, crashing into the first and pushing it through the guardrail.  Both buses hung 20 feet above I-5 in the middle of downtown as 80 screaming kids scrambled to get out.

Definition of Insanity Flake. As soon as the tires started to slip, a driver trying to go up our street would hit the gas, get his wheels really spinning, and lose control of his car.  Backing into driveways or all the way to the bottom of the hill, he repeated one unsuccessful run after another.  After his tenth attempt, I went out to the driver and offered to try it for him.  “I think I’m doing fine,” came the reply.  “I’ve almost got it.”  Alrighty then.

Clueless in Seattle Flake. Coming up from a walk in Lincoln Park, I joined several others pushing a car that was stuck in the parking lot.  Turned out that the driver had no idea of what he was doing.  Slipping a little to the left, he’d crank his wheels all the way to the right.  We pushed from behind, he’d put the car in reverse.  Eventually he fishtailed out of the parking lot, leaving the other good samaritans and me to wonder if we had actually helped anyone.

Knowing that drivers like these are out on the roads is one of the best reasons to stay home.  If you have to go out, please be extra, extra careful!

Beauty break

Take a look at some photos of spectacular cloud formations around Mt Rainier earlier in December:

http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html

Lords a-leaping!

In and out of hot water, part 2

I understand the concept of a straight line, but I have yet to meet one.  Sure, a reasonably straight line can be painted on a highway, but the notion that one’s life moves from Point A to Point B in a straight line…  come on!

Any do-it-yourselfer knows what I’m talking about.  I’m a fairly handy guy, and figured that replacing our dishwasher a while back would take about two hours.  I allowed four.  Our house was built in the 1950s, so of course there would be a couple of trips to the hardware store.  But funky supply and drain lines and a hard-to-access corner installation required five trips to McLendon (the hardware store) and fourteen hours of DIY labor.  I was foolish enough to declare that my third trip to McLendon would be the last, setting myself up to be the “butt” of some plumbing department “cracks.”  Didn’t see a single straight line on that project.

Which brings me back to the current hot water heater installation.  We’re on Day 4 without running hot water, which is a little bit like camping in the house – heating water in the tea kettle for sponge baths and washing hair in the sink.

I got the pretty new water heater installed and plumbed and filled with water all by myself and with no leaks.  Sometimes I amaze myself.  However, the junction box that I ass-u-me’d had the wiring to connect it to power turned out to be something else.  It’s all very complicated – switching from electric to gas when we first moved in, circuits dedicated to other purposes when we added on to the house, having to rearrange the circuit breaker panel.

Before discovering we’d need an electrician, I called McLendon’s electrical department to ask how to determine if the wiring in the boiler room was live.  After explaining how to do it, the guy told me, “Be very careful.  It only takes two amps to kill ya, and you’ve got 30.”  That had a chilling effect on my DIY ardor.

The electrician should be here soon.

In and out of hot water, part 1

Where was that dripping sound coming from, anyway?  And why was the boiler cycling on and off so frequently?

As soon as I stepped into the boiler room in my socks, I knew I was in hot water – about a half-inch of it on the floor.  More was gurgling from a couple of the pipes criss-crossing the space.  Not knowing which valve did what, I just shut off the water to the whole house and did what any thinking man would do:  I called my wife.

Of course Susan was sympathetic and empathetic and ready to be helpful.  I mostly needed to let somebody know what was going on and hear some reassurance to smooth my ruffled feathers.  Mission accomplished.

By the time I got out some old towels, the carpeting in the rooms on either side of the boiler room had already soaked up a surprising amount of water.  Wet, squishy carpet is one of my least favorite things; can’t think of a single instance in which it means something good.

Okay – now I’ll call someone who can figure out what caused this mess.  No need to call Rossoe Energy Systems, original installers of the boiler and indirect hot water tank.  Every other company that’s subsequently serviced or repaired our system has shown us evidence that Rossoe really didn’t know what they were doing.  Color me ‘dissatisfied customer.’

A guy from Evan Conklin Plumbing & Heating was here less than 90 minutes after I called, and boy, was he great.  Friendly and knowledgeable, he diagnosed the problem quickly, explained what had happened, and left me with several helpful suggestions.

The boiler heats our baseboard radiators as well as our domestic hot water.  I was worried that we’d lost both heat and hot water just as a cold front may keep us below freezing for the next few days.  Thankfully heat for the house was not affected.

So I’m off to do some Christmas shopping – for a new hot water heater.  It wasn’t on my list, and I was laid off November 30, so the timing’s not great.  But as a neighbor who serves at a local food bank just reminded me, we have everything we need and more.  Time for us to get our butts over to that food bank and help out.

Out with the old, in with the old

The day after Thanksgiving was quiet, rainy and cool.  The kids were doing their own things, so Susan and I decided to go through filing cabinets and see what we could get rid of.

We dug out bank statements, maintenance records for cars we no longer own, outdated insurance policies, old Daytimers (saving occasional pages), twenty year-old paystubs, lecture notes from college courses that we haven’t looked at for 30 years, old travel brochures, purchase and sale documents from our first house, newspaper and magazine articles on long-dead topics, receipts, prospecti, letters from old girlfriends, certificates of recognition, and yada yada yada.

Most of this crap could be recycled, and we filled our giant recycling tote so full I could barely roll it out to the street.  We completely emptied one four-drawer filing cabinet and made more room in the remaining two.  The cool, damp weather was perfect for burning stacks of old financial records in the woodstove.  Though I felt like a fireman shoveling coal into a locomotive’s boiler, it was great getting rid of unnecessary stuff and heating the house for two days.

When I get on an organizing roll, it can be hard to stop.  Since the juices were flowing, I undertook the transformation of the downstairs [w]rec[k] room into a space for the kids (15 and 13) to use with their friends.  Moved remaining filing cabinets from middle of wall to far end.  Removed two six-foot tables.  Cleared out more boxes of paperwork.  Admitted that I’m never going to reupholster the orange naugahyde chair that’s ripped open and losing half of its stuffing.  Gave away games and stuffed animals the kids no longer want.  Brought in a basket chair scavenged from some friends.  Moved in the blue hide-a-bed that happens to match the basket chair.  Moved the writing desk to a more useful spot.  Brought down the TV and got the Wii out of our bedroom.  Relocated some lamps so the room is more softly lit.  Vacuumed up dead spiders.

We didn’t have to buy a thing to make the rec room so much more comfortable and inviting.  It’s a great place to hang out.  Zack told us that now he could invite his friends over more often.  We’re less likely to be banned from the living room or have our bedroom taken over when kids watch a movie or play Wii.  Clearing out paperwork and better organizing our living space made us all feel just a little more grown up.  I’d have to call that a win-win.