Chitter Chatter: Winter Edition (2020)

[LilyElizabeth]

It's so hard to lose a beloved pet suddenly and so young! My heart goes out to you. 

[LadyWordsmith]

Thank you, Lily! As you might recall, this past year (May, and November) we lost two other cats in-house (due to the medical issues that come with advanced old age), our pair of 18 year old sisters (their brother who lives with a friend and we raised also passed). I was not prepared to lose another furry family member anytime soon. 

I am now planning an ambitious art project in honor of all of our pets who are gone on. There is a series of panels above our kitchen on a wall that scream 'divided canvas' and are about the perfect size for a long illuminated mural (Being about a foot wide, and the total area about 9 feet long). So I am plotting to fill them with scenes in the style of the Hunting Book of Gaston Phebus (medieval illumination FULL of animals), with small portrait representation of all of our cats and dogs (and my husband's childhood guinea pig). The plan is to paint it on appropriate paper, then in-set them and protect it with non-reflective glass or plastic (like they use in museums to protect against glare). 

[LilyElizabeth]

That sounds like a wonderful way to remember them!

[LadyWordsmith]

Thanks! I hope it will turn out as well on paper as it's forming up in my head, though I expect it will take quite a while to complete. Especially since we are still unpacking from the move (and doing many house projects. More bookshelves getting painted and put up this weekend in the library!). 

[LadyWordsmith]

Thought I would check in since I don't know how many of us are affected by the crazy weather (but it's most of the country so I assume a few of us ? Soo... how is everyone?

So far we've gotten about 10 inches of snow over both storms (no ice thankfully), and other than one planned rolling blackout (OK and TX do NOT have infrastructure designed for multiple days of sub-zero, and nothing is built for it because this is not weather that normally shows up down here) to keep the grid from having major 'real' outtages, we've had power and water remain on at our house so far. Though the city has had several watermains break and I know a lot of people without water, power, or both. 

Today is pleasantly magical... the temperature 'and' the wind chill are above 0 Fahrenheit! We won't get above freezing until the weekend, but I'll take above 0 for the moment. 

[LilyElizabeth]

I hope everyone stays safe. We're unaffected here in southern Arizona. 

[LadyWordsmith]

Glad to hear someone isn't dealing with this mess! Southern Arizona sounds lovely right now. 

[Ryrin]

We are unaffected here in California. James is effected pretty severely. Hope he checks in here too.

[LadyWordsmith]

Well, in good news, everything finally melted (we got above Freezing starting last Friday), and now we're expecting it to be in the 70s and Sunny today! Took a nice long walk with my son yesterday afternoon in the lovely low-60s weather. It felt so warm after all the 0 to -14 we had during the storms. Hopefully things can dry out a bit now. 

We also managed to get through with our power and water intact and no pipes broken on our property.  

Thought I would share with you our latest 'getting moved into the new house' project. The first set of library shelves! Naturally this is the scifi/fantasy collection. With room for growth!

[JamesBrown]

Yes, we were definitely impacted here in Texas. As you said, Lady, we're not prepared for temperatures this cold for this long. Perhaps you've seen in the news all the finger-pointing that's been going on, as one group or another tries to fix the blame on someone else.

 

I had rolling blackouts for four days. We'd get power for fifteen minutes or so, then no power for twenty to thirty minutes at a time. I work from home, so I got work done in short spurts. Our kitchen pipes froze, and we didn't have hot water, but we had cold running water in our bathrooms. We have a gas stove, so my wife would heat up large pots of water for bathing and cooking. 

 

After the rolling blackouts were ended, it took another day or so for the hot water pipes to thaw, so that by the weekend we were back to normal, no worse for the wear. Temperatures this week are back in the sixties and seventies (Fahrenheit). But many Texans are still without power, and a lot are dealing with the aftermaths of burst pipes and water damage, etc. 

 

It could have been a lot worse, and now I'll be thinking of ways to deal with something like this the next time it happens, since I suspect we'll be experiencing periods like this more often.

[Ryrin]

On 2/23/2021 at 7:05 AM, LadyWordsmith said:

Well, in good news, everything finally melted (we got above Freezing starting last Friday), and now we're expecting it to be in the 70s and Sunny today! Took a nice long walk with my son yesterday afternoon in the lovely low-60s weather. It felt so warm after all the 0 to -14 we had during the storms. Hopefully things can dry out a bit now. 

We also managed to get through with our power and water intact and no pipes broken on our property.  

Thought I would share with you our latest 'getting moved into the new house' project. The first set of library shelves! Naturally this is the scifi/fantasy collection. With room for growth!

 

Low 60’s is cold!!!

 

I love your library! What other sections are you going to have?

 

On 2/24/2021 at 5:40 AM, JamesBrown said:

Yes, we were definitely impacted here in Texas. As you said, Lady, we're not prepared for temperatures this cold for this long. Perhaps you've seen in the news all the finger-pointing that's been going on, as one group or another tries to fix the blame on someone else.

 

I had rolling blackouts for four days. We'd get power for fifteen minutes or so, then no power for twenty to thirty minutes at a time. I work from home, so I got work done in short spurts. Our kitchen pipes froze, and we didn't have hot water, but we had cold running water in our bathrooms. We have a gas stove, so my wife would heat up large pots of water for bathing and cooking. 

 

After the rolling blackouts were ended, it took another day or so for the hot water pipes to thaw, so that by the weekend we were back to normal, no worse for the wear. Temperatures this week are back in the sixties and seventies (Fahrenheit). But many Texans are still without power, and a lot are dealing with the aftermaths of burst pipes and water damage, etc. 

 

It could have been a lot worse, and now I'll be thinking of ways to deal with something like this the next time it happens, since I suspect we'll be experiencing periods like this more often.

I think it’s a great idea to be prepared. I’ve heard of go-bags and I’m thinking of getting one together. We usually have gallons of drinking water. We have a dehydrator and are making jerky. We usually eat it too fast! 
 

[Ryrin]

My youngest son, at age 23, has been hired as a full time Fire Lt. It’s believed he’s the youngest Lt. in California. He was working for EMS and had planned to move in with friends. He did and I had dinner at his house on Wed!

[LadyWordsmith]

18 hours ago, Ryrin said:

My youngest son, at age 23, has been hired as a full time Fire Lt. It’s believed he’s the youngest Lt. in California. He was working for EMS and had planned to move in with friends. He did and I had dinner at his house on Wed!

 

Congratulations to him! 

60s is only cold here in the fall, when it's no longer summer and 90-110. ?

In the spring it's warm. 

The historical fiction/history books are on the built-ins that came with the house. We are building more shelving this weekend to hold the rest of the collection: my professional books, old textbooks, modern literature, mystery novels, Manga and Comics, and all of my children's and YA novels (I still have books I was given as a child and while I don't mind loaning them out, I just love them too much to let them go).