In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 138 of 1154
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As part of the "new normal" of stuck weather patterns, the storm track (which follows the jet stream) seems to have been stuck multi-month over So Cal. (This is like the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge being stuck off So Cal for years, but to opposite effect: Instead of bringing drought, this pattern is bringing rain)
Another rainstorm is sweeping thru the So Cal area, my informal rain gage indicates an inch of accumulation since last night, and another inch or so is predicted over the coming week. That will put us at about three inches over normal, which will really help the groundwater situation and, of course, the farms and wildlife.
Yay for us!!!
Now, if only Oregon and Four Corners would get some rain, we'd be all set!
*******
But I see that warm air has invaded Alaska, again, and pushed the cold air down into central US - AGAIN- which then moves northeast (It's that storm track, again) so weather-wise, sorry to say that it looks like y'all gonna get a late-season cold snap/ wind/ snow.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Keeps wanting to snow where I am. Weather site I use is saying snow mixed with rain for next weekend. But we shall see. Right now it is dry and clear which means I can get some chores done.
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Weather news: It's going to be 2 degrees tomorrow night while I'm out on a smoke break. Because... why not. First of 3 more nights in the single digits here in the great midwest. Two week forecast shows that toward the middle of the month we're supposed to see a few days of average temperatures for this time a year. Maybe then winter will finally be over for us here... maybe.
I don't think I mentioned my last power bill. It was WAY under what I was expecting, based off of the previous month and how absolutely frigid it had gotten for this billing cycle. I told myself I'd be happy if it were under $250, but I was expecting it to be as much as $270.
$185! It was $10 cheaper than the previous month!
To be fair, it was a short billing cycle. Only 29 days, compared to 34 the previous month. But still, I did the math and figured that if it had been 34 days, it still would have only been roughly $215.
Here's the rub though... My gas usage was WAY up from the previous month, which was totally expected, but my electricity use was WAY down. There's two reasons for this. The first is that I wasn't good about making my computer go into sleep mode (bad habit), and since I had finally hooked up my brother's XBox 360 so I could watch some Netflix when my other brother came in to visit me, I spent an inordinate amount of my days off playing an RPG on the projection screen TV.
Those 3 devices being on all the time caused most of the previous month's bill... not the gas for the heat!!!
I really need to get a flat screen TV, and replace my old beast of a desktop computer with a new laptop that would be much faster. The computer was really good for the time, but the PSU in it is rated at 1000 watts. I've always gotten a powerful PSU to handle the loads of whatever I put in my computer to minimize any voltage drops or spikes that could damage the equipment. But it's a full kilowatt hour every hour that I leave it on and forget to make it sleep.
The days of needing to build your own desktop to save money are really over now anyhow. Midrange laptops are pretty decently priced, and the last computer I built is so old now that it would be out performed by one of them. Especially since I don't own any devices with a solid state drive that makes things MUCH quicker. Laptops also have a much lower power rating while maintaining a safe environment for the electronics inside (as long as you do your research and don't buy one that borked that, like a lot of the cheaper HP laptops are guilty of).
I think at this point it's starting to cost me more not to upgrade this stuff, just due to the unnecessary energy bills.
Car News:
I'm 99.9% confident that my transmission isn't the car issue now. 
It ain't perfect, and I still have strange behavior when shifting gears or down shifting, but tightening up that acceleration cable did improve things. I've been driving to work and back all week and I feel so much more comfortable in it now that I don't think in the back of my mind that my tranny might give out any minute.
Those cables look really bad though. Along with re-seating all of the mounting brackets and the alternator that I had to take out to fix the oil leak, I'm going to buy new cables (can't remember exactly what they're called).
To do list:
Re-mount everything.
New accelerator/down-shift cables.
Change transmission fluid and filter.
Change alternator belt.
If I do that and it fixes the problem, I will put more money and work into the car...
Secondary to do list:
Fix exhaust system.
I'm not sure if it's just a single segment that needs replacing, or if I'd have to replace the whole damn thing, but it leaks from the front of the car and my exhaust billows out around the front of the car from under the hood. Sounds like a damn jet engine too, it's so loud.
Replace window motors for the driver and passenger side front windows. I can't even put
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That exhaust description sounds like Headers. The bolts may have fallen out, or the gasket blew and needs replacement. If so, those would be things you can do.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
That exhaust description sounds like Headers. The bolts may have fallen out, or the gasket blew and needs replacement. If so, those would be things you can do.
There's definitely a hole in it. Not only have I seen it, but I temporarily closed it up before an emissions test last spring by wrapping some aluminum tape over it. I knew it wouldn't last long, but it gave me a few hours of quiet driving, and I passed the test. (I wasn't sure if that was necessary or not, but I didn't want to take any chances. I was already hemorrhaging oil all over the place...)
The part that has a hole is ribbed. I'm assuming that's for some sort of flexibility. I looked up exhaust systems for my make and model and it popped up with some ebay results, but they don't have any ribbed sections on them to show you.
I have no experience welding, and I don't even have a welder. If it would require welding to put that part in, I'll probably just buy a new exhaust system. They look to be under $175 on ebay.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Ok, I know I must sound likea miser obssessively counting gold, but the last storm that blew thru was predicted to drop about a third of an inch of rain, but my informal rain gage collected 1.8", or more than 5X predicted. The OFFICIAL rain gage in dtown LA has us at 2" over normal (at my house, more like 3+") and there are two more storms in the 10-day. This has been a banner year for rain for CA, since the storm track ran right thru CA the whole winter.
So, since the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge and RRR Redux had a 3.5 year lifespan, does THIS weather pattern have a prayer of being a multi-year event?? I'm not a modeller or climatologist, but I DO see that weather patterns are definitely stagnating. If so - bad news for Oregon and Alaska, but good news for us. Time will tell, but it will be something to watch for. In the meantime ... the water managers here in SoCalhave been busy stuffing all of that rainfall into the groundwater. except for the storm previous to this one, they've managed to capture all of the rainwater that made it to the San Gabriel River, which mostly never makes it to the ocean. They (CA water managers) really SHOULD invest in more groundwater recharge ... it can hold far more water and is far safer than dams. I wonder when they're going to get to it, instead of those giant aqueducts they keep thinking about.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Still wants to snow here. *sigh* Come on Spring get with the program.
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Yeah... Spring didn't get the memo here either. It's not even attempting to start until next weekend.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Climbed to double digits today. Supposed to get above freezing on Saturday. No sign of getting up to average.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... Spring didn't get the memo here either. It's not even attempting to start until next weekend.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I hear ya Jack. Rain tomorrow here and then on Thursday snow mixed with rain. Will just have to wait and see.
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