Good morning!!!!

[wngsprd]

22 going to 43, then cold rain tonight.

RNG, good luck with your Prius search. My sister had one from the second generation and loved it. Now she drives a Suburban, though . Read that the CEO of Toyota NA said they only have 4 days of inventory on dealer lots...usually have 30 days worth at this time of year. Last time I was at our dealer, they had a handful of new vehicles, mostly hybrid RAV4s and Tacomas.

Happy Birthday, Sodamo. (11/24, right?)

Decided I'd better get one good hike in before the rain and then holiday rush. Went back to Northern Virginia and did a nice long section of the AT...love driving through the small rural roads in that area. Brought home a box of fresh Apple Caramel crumble cake for my wife from a bakery/Bar-B-Q/tourist trap place.

 

[daugen]

Helo, those are boat owners, not tractor owners. guy on right clearly has large powerboat...

 

[wngsprd]

I've seen some nice A/T shelters/huts for thru- hikers, but this one was like a resort...

 

[wngsprd]

It had a separate picnic shelter, horseshoes pit, deck with triple Adirondack chair, and shower, among other amenities. A lot of hard work by this volunteer AT club.

 

[wngsprd]

Stream fed, gravity powered shower.

 

[Helogabals]

good morning all
cold winter morning 24 going up to 41 today in sun and clouds
other than getting a haircut at lunch time, not much planned.

slept well, feel good, good start to day

for those of you that tip the workers, how much to give mailman and garbage man for Christmas?
I used to do 20, with inflation, that might not be as appreciated as before. But then I think if the mailman got 20 bucks
from 200 people, well...

garbage men left little mailing envelope last week, which I promptly lost.
I wonder how many thieves come around before Christmas checking trash cans for money.

Helo, is tipping like this normal in Europe?
Alien and Wagtail, how about where you are?

Here we tip waiters (in fancy restaurants only). And that's it.
Actually I am fresh out from barber shop. On reception desk there are small money-boxes with staff names. Openings are rather big, of course I haven't inspected them very closely but to me all those boxes seemed dry. I mean those boxes are only because they want to keep that American style in interior. I am going there because that shop is closest to my home my scissor master Laura has nice (****) tattoo
And I dont tip her.
My brother-in-law owns car workshop in small city. He says there is only one customer, retired guy from UK who is tipping mechanic who have worked with his car. That is only one customer.

Actually it is first time I have heard mailman and garbage man has been tipped. IMHO that's silly, even for US standards But who I am to judge.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning.
It’s 26 with a high of 38 for today under clear skies.

Yesterday started with nice breakfast with wife and professor.
Next was to get counterweight and blade on tractor, and parked inside. It was snug, but fits. Ended up putting a 4x4 across a pair of jack stands to support weight, as it’s over the dolly for the hydraulic auger, and if it drifts down, (or if grandson drops it while moving tings in the cab) I don’t want to crush it.

Hopefully it won’t snow, now that I’m all ready, and have the driveway markers in as well.

I did make the current measurements on the heat pumps with surprising results.

The 24,000 btu 21 seer mini split in “powerful” mode.

In “Normal” mode-

The 42,000 btu 16 seer heat pump with coil over the propane furnace.
The condenser-

And the furnace (air handler)-

For further comparison, the water source heat pump in the house draws just under 7 amps, all of the units are 240v.

The mini split always operates in normal mode, powerful mode is just to quickly warm or cool a space, and is limited to 30 minutes. So if you factor the capacity difference, the mini split draws a bit more than half what the standard heat pump does, and slightly less than the geothermal. A pretty strong case for the higher seer mini splits.

Things that are a,ready on todays agenda will be loading grain and wood shavings into the barn, doing a bit of plumbing work for a friend, and airport authority meeting this evening.
We shall see what else works it’s way into it.

 

[m7040]

good morning all, 24 this morning low was 22 going to 39 today ice and sleet on tap for tomorrow. Cancelled wife's dr appointment for tomorrow to avoid driving on icy roads.

Going for the podiatrist appt today otherwise not much going on today

Need to check further in to the oil cooler leak on the sprinter. It involves a lot of disassembly to get to the leak. Nothing very complicated but 9 to 10 hours of shop labor. Will try to shop it around. Really not excited about doing it myself but may resort to that. But on a 15 year old van with close to 200k miles it is expected repairs will crop up. Hate to get rid of it because it drives like new otherwise
On the MAC operating system I think I will check into a way to go back to the prior operating system to restore the functions for mirroring screens.

 

[wngsprd]

We talk about Mission BBQ sometimes on this thread...might go there today...just saw them present a donation of $1,440,000 to the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation this morning.

 

[Bird]

51° this morning for a low and going for a high of 56°. How's that for a spread? Yesterday morning the TV weather guys were busy all morning, NWS kept breaking in with tornado warmings, our city tornado warning sirens went off for quite a while twice. And then we had an incredible downpour. It only lasted a very brief time, but dumped .76" of rain in my gauge. A new neighbor across the street came out taking pictures of his yard and the water. That rain fell so fast that it looked like this whole area was flooded, but it settled down and ran off pretty fast.

And then the sun came out and I went to Buc-ee's, filled up with gas and used their car wash.

And the TV news this morning is saying there were 5 tornados and shows a lot of damage, including one school that's closed today and some severe damage not far from us, but I don't think my neighborhood has any damage at all.