Back to KC

I'm back in KC.  I left the lake at about noon, with overcast skies and wind in the thirties.  It had snowed the inch or more that was forecast.

I was really glad I had left the truck up in the street the night before, as the rain had frozen into a bunch of big blotches of black ice.  The drive is inclined at least 45 degrees, so with snow on top of the ice, even 4x4 would have been useless.

It is such a pain to carry all your stuff up the steep rock landscaping, since the drive is beyond standing on in any slick condition.  But I managed to get loaded after several trips.

The trip home was uneventful and I did begin to see the sun once I was most of the way here.  The high temperature registered on the truck was 14 F.  Not good for December.  As I write this the weather station says 7 degrees.  The furnace is running non stop.  The forecast is for 3 tonight.  -16 C!

We had more snow here in KC than at the lake, so I needed to shovel once I arrived.

I hauled my stuff in and have been sitting next to the electric heater all night.  Lets hope tomorrow warms up some.  Forecast is for 23, but they could be wrong couldn't they?

Retired Rod

P.S.  Will someone shut the freezer door up there in Canada!

Nothing doing here!

What do you write about when you have spent the day looking out the sliding door at complete overcast and visibility under a mile?  I could barely see the opposite side of the cove, let alone see the dam three miles away.

Rain and more cold rain.  All day long.  And when it was raining that hard, the TV signal faded to pixelations that resembled storm radar.  Then the infamous no signal information box.  I gave up on it anyway since it was daytime soaps.  I buried my head in the computer screen and browsed and browsed.  Come on, someone post something!  For once my blog reading is completely up to date.

I read blogs that were listed as favorites on all the other folks sidebars.  I usually don't do that because I follow too many blogs the way it is, and there are soo many good RV blogs, I could read forever.

In the afternoon, I went into Wal Mart for some interaction with other people.  It is really quiet and desolate here in the winter.  I didn't buy anything important, but at least I got to talk to some folks.  It was Wendy's for a late sandwich, and then back home!

Tonight the TV came back on for a while, so I watched the News and Entertainment tonight, before becoming bored with all the Tiger Woods coverage.  Who cares?

It has been above freezing here all day with a high of about 43 degrees late in the afternoon.  So we got rain instead of the many feet of snow that folks were getting to our North.  We are lucky in that respect, but tonight it is to get a lot colder, and snow 1 to 3 inches.  By morning they are talking strong winds with gusts in the 37 mile per hour range.

I parked the truck up on top of the hill, just in case it should get worse than predicted.  I hope to leave in the morning.

Retired Rod

Lake Ozark and a TV Converter Box

Greetings from warm and balmy Lake Ozark!  I wish!  Loyce had Doctors appointments this week and needed to stay back in KC so I am a bachelor for the duration of my stay here at the lake.

This morning, I looked outside, and it was gray and cloudy.  The temperature was about 26 F and the wind was clam.  Checking the computer maps showed no rain or snow between KC and the lake, so the trip was on!

Loyce had left for one of her appointments, so I packed up alone.  I took a few groceries, but decided to stop at a Wal Mart for the rest of what I needed, and left about 11 AM.

I drove the truck East, and the indicated temperature began to become warmer, but only ever so slightly.  There was no rain and no snow. At about the halfway point, the temperature was above freezing, I knew that I would make it without the freezing stuff on the road.  Relief.

As I approached the lake from the West, I stopped at the Wal Mart in Versaillles, Mo.  I loaded up on some groceries, but failed to get a digital to analog converter for the TV.  They didn't stock it!  What?

I arrived at the lake, and the temperature in the cabin was 45, just where the thermostat was set.  It was exactly 32 outside and a steamy fog was over the lake.  The heat was running, and all was well.

I don't like leaving the house for such long periods in the winter, but we have no reliable friends or neighbors that live here in the winter, so it is, as it is.

The water was turned off at the entrance to the house, so plumbing and leaks were not a problem.  When I turned it back on everything worked correctly.  So we have heat and we have water.  On to the Wal Mart in Osage Beach.  A much bigger one!

They too didn't have a TV converter, but the salesman explained that we are too far from the stations for them to work reliably, so they were all sent back.  People buy them and then return them when they can't get a signal.  They think the converter is bad!  Really, we are just too far away.  Then he told me under his breath that Target had them!

A quick trip to Target sourced one made by RCA, and I installed it here rapidly.  I have an outside TV antenna, on the top of a pole mounted on the back deck.  The short version is, that I only got one channel, and then I had to adjust the antenna for the best signal, which was only 10 percent.  It sort of works.  As long as you like CBS.  Normally I use the Direct TV satellite dish, but the receiver is in the motorhome back in Arizona.  We were too stuffed with craft items to bring it back with us.

With the new converter, I got to listen to the local Weather, and we are to get the South edge of the storm and 1 to 3 inches of snow.  That will come as the day progresses tomorrow.  We don't even have a snow shovel here, so wish me luck.  The back driveway is about a 45 degree incline!  That's why I drove the 4x4 pickup truck.

Retired Rod