Good Bye winter cold...

OK....... Now that's more like it!!!!!

After Christmas I had began making piles of stuff that needed to go back to the desert...  On Thursday, I loaded all that stuff out into the garage... It was below freezing out there, so I put it into one of the cars...

Friday morning I loaded the final stuff and the stuff in the garage into the Wrangler and locked the place up for the rest of the winter...  It was 11 AM before I was on the road, but the sun was shining and it warmed up quickly as I headed West from KC..

It was 54 degrees when I crossed into Oklahoma South of Liberal, Ks....  But the wind was blowing over 30 mph...   The little Jeep was all over the road... As the sun went down, the wind subsided and I pressed on to Tucumcari...

We spent the night at our usual Rodeway Inn...  This turned out to be a bad deal, as somehow I contacted a bunch of germs and awoke with a runny nose and a sore throat.... I found 2 zinc tabs in my medicine bag.

Since you gain an hour, I was up with the sun but the clock had an earlier time on it...  I was on the road by 7:45..  Stopping only for gas and bathrooms, we were in Gallup around 1:30..  I went to the Wal Mart there for more zinc..

So by 6 PM, we arrived here in Mesa, and began the unload process....   So much work when you are by yourself...  I had driven thru a car wash up in Payson, to remove layers of road salt and grime from the Jeep..  But as I look at the vehicle this morning, it isn't anywhere near clean...  At least I didn't get filthy as I loaded stuff out of it...

So I will miss the terrible cold covering the midwest and northeast... That's OK by me and Biscuit is much happier going outside to do her duty as well...

Retired Rod

I gota get outa here!

Look at this weather forecast....!

It was so cold last night that the heat ran all night....  I'm not sure it ever turned off....  And that wasn't good because.....

When I got home last night, I could smell natural gas out in front of our house...  Right in front of the garage...  I've thought I smelled it before but only whiffs.. But last night it was almost overwhelming...

I walked all over inside the house and didn't smell it, so I decided it was outside and the wind was blowing...  And since it was late, we'll deal with it tomorrow...

So I called the gas company this morning and declared an emergency...  It took about two and a half hours for them to come over on that emergency...  !  Evidently lots of other folks smell gas all over the place when everyone is heating and it just takes that long for them to look in on it all....

The guy with the white pickup arrived and I was out shoveling that snow from last night....  He pulled up along my driveway and asked if I was the guy with the leak....   And then in the next breath before I could answer, he says "I can smell it from here."  Must have a trained nose...

He grabs and ordinary plant sprayer and walks to my gas meter and begins to soak everything with soap suds...  Two of the joints begin to bubble instantly... Going back to the truck, he gets out a really big pipe wrench..  What some folks would call a monkey wrench...

He tells me these unions in the line always leak when its cold and then gives it a mighty heave..   It turns about half way around like it was really loose...  Then he tightened the top of the meter as well....   Finally he douses the entire pipe with suds again finding no more bubbles...

Walking back to the truck, he thanks me and starts talking on his cell phone to the dispatcher...  His time must have been really valuable on such a cold day...

Again tonight we are to have one degree outside before morning, and a friend up in Iowa just told me he had minus three already...  Burrrrr....

At least I'm not smelling gas any more.....

Retired Rod

Romeos and Losing the Bowl Game

I was up this morning at 7 AM and left the house before 9....   It was over to Al's house to collect him for another Romeo New Years morning luncheon....  We drove about 60 miles to Vasar, Kansas...

Notice I said DROVE..... as in inside the Jeep!!  It was about 18 degrees when we left his house and 23 when we arrived at the restaurant..  Some hearty fellows had ridden their Goldwings out there, but they all had electric heated riding gear...

But even with that kind of gear, its awfully cold inside that helmet...  No heat in there, other than your breath...  I didn't ask Al if he wanted to take the truck, I told him I was taking the truck and he could ride his bike in front of me if he wanted....  Or he could ride in the nice warm passenger seat beside me...  His choice...  He chose the seat inside...

We were back here in KC by 2 PM, when I dropped Al off back at his home...

For the rest of the day we spent it with both son's and the grand kids...  Watching the Hawkeyes struggle with LSU, and loosing our first string quarter back...  That cooked our goose for any chance at winning...

Now tonight, it has begun to snow, and I had to use 4 wheel drive to return back to the house...  They said we should have 4 to 6 inches before morning, but it is about 3 inches now and falling steadily.....

I hope tomorrow it will get this out of its system, but we will still be shoveling in the morning....

Retired Rod

I made it until midnight...

As I type this, some of my neighbors are out blowing off all kinds of Fireworks and it is officially 2014......

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Younger folks are having a party on the TV singing about the world and their girl friends....  They still do that show in the name of Dick Clark, but I wonder if they even know who he was....  He passed in April of 2012..

Since it is midnight here in the Central time zone, they just showed the time square area, and not a soul is left.... Only the tons of confetti on the street...

But the party goes on.....  But for me, I am heading off to bed as we have a big day planned for tomorrow.....  or today now...


Happy New Year....

Retired Rod