COLD!

[Rick W]

It’s hard to believe the politicians and legislators wouldn’t do routine maintenance before all the opportunity to watch riots and defund the police, etc....

Worst we had in my 40 in Georgia was eleven days. Solid ice. Ga Power trucks had trouble getting around til it warmed up, but actually did a great job. 2nd worse was 3 days, that’s a vacation. I was almost arrested a few years ago when I replaced the fuse on my neighbors’ and my pole transformer with my own fire stick. I also buried the squirrel....

I joke a lot, but all you folks stuck in this are in my, our prayers. The stories of helping daughters and mothers are expected, but are still inspiring. & you don’t think He is watching, approving, when you DO find gas in that last 40 miles? I’ll bet you’d jump in a second to help a stranger with that last 5 gallons.

A couple days ago we had torrential rain. I ran errands in the F250. I stopped at Goodwill for luck of the draw, scored a small stained glass cluster of grapes for $1.79 that matches my dining room. When I was leaving, a giant black man, gentle giant, who worked there was leaving. He was asking directions how to get to a certain bus stop. It was a mile away, so I said hop in the truck. As I’m taking him to the bus stop, he told me he had to get to the church before it closed to pick up a free MARTA pass he needed to get around for work. It was the last thing I had time for, but I drove him the 20 minutes down to the church. Still pouring rain. When we got there, it wasn’t a church, it was a “ministry,” and it was closed. Well, long story short, I believe the ministry probably is a real ministry, but I also believe this guy played me to get a ride or a donation. I still gave him 40 bucks and dropped him off at the MARTA station.

There are two ways to think about it. You could say the guy played me, and be mad, and never help anyone again. I prefer to think that I like live theater, I realized after the fact that this guy had a great act, I can probably afford the $40 like he can afford $.50, and I did help him out.

30 years ago I would’ve been pretty pissed off, it would have ruined my day, and I’d have probably ruined everyone else’s day. Now I realize, it’s about me and how I conduct myself and how I treat other people, not about why or how they accept it. The only thing I asked this guy, made him promise, was to stop and help someone who might need his help.

OK, shut up Rick, remember the keyboard use rule....

One last thought. I knew it was raining, but when I stepped out the back door and realized it was raining so hard, I almost canceled my errands. That little bit of gas that Jim got in the last 40 miles? That was Him. And He pushed me out the door because this man needed a ride more than I needed to stay dry, although I could have never foreseen that heading out.

It’s not about great works, showcasing at church, grand donations, although that’s always nice. It’s about little things that snowball.

(like how I worked “snow“ back in )

 

[Roert42]

27 outside, but sunny and low wind. Ate my lunch on the bench outside the pizza place.

 

[Rick W]

View attachment 55691


All this Texas talk is bringing me back to the ice storm of '98. Everywhere in maine was coated with 3" of ice

Hold up on @Blmpkn ’s Junior Ranger hat. GMC in that picture....

 

[Shran]

Kerosene heaters were literally a lifesaver... but back then people were more used to not having power too. Now you can't hardly find kerosene on a good day...

Last week we had diesel tractors dropping like flies gelling up, it is a 60mi round trip to get kerosene.

Up till about a year ago we had ONE place you could get kerosene out of a pump... and it was dyed... who wants to use dyed kero in a heater? Ruins the wick. Pissed me off, might as well just by offroad diesel at 1/4 the price. If we wanted clear kerosene, it came in 1 or 5 gallon containers at several stores and when those were gone, they were gone for months.

Our new Fleet Farm store has a clear kerosene pump at their gas station. Very handy and it's usually a lot cheaper than buying a bucket from Menards.

 

[RonD]

Its Biden
Returning America to what it once was, cold barren region covered in ice


Sorry, not really a joking matter, people have lost their lives from this cold event, and possibly more will

On a more practical note if your heat is off and you are leaving the house for warmer place turn off the water at the toilet and flush it to drain the water out of the tank
If water freezes in the tank it will crack the tank and then flood the area when water flows from insulated pipes

 

[Jim Oaks]

A woman and child died because she was somehow trying to use the car to heat the house. Sad.

Texas dug out their snow plows and attached them to their trucks, but they have a lot to learn about plowing snow. I've discovered a lot of communities don't plow their streets or only plow a path on the main road. Texas DOT plowed the two main roads through our town, and now there's a good foot of snow piled up at the ends of streets that intersect with main roads.

 

[Roert42]

The gas station down the road from me has a kerosene pump, but last time I bough some from there I had some problems. Ruined my wick and smoked the place up, I think there was water in it.

 

[Curious Hound]

Hold up on @Blmpkn ’s Junior Ranger hat. GMC in that picture....

No problem. I was waiting for a cold day when I would have to stay indoors to do the embroidery on it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then share some! You don't need all 7!

Up to 15* now. Lightly snowing but the ice on my mudflaps is finally getting slushy.

It is headed your way... eventually.

 

[bilbo]

Our new Fleet Farm store has a clear kerosene pump at their gas station. Very handy and it's usually a lot cheaper than buying a bucket from Menards.

Fleet Farm is the only place I've seen Kerosene at a pump. Though I have seen #1 diesel all over, and I believe they are the same thing, but it's possible #1 diesel being a road fuel has other additives that make it nasty for heaters.

 

[Shran]

I imagine propane heaters are far more popular now than they were 20+ years ago. I use mostly propane in my shop, they work well but I don't like the moisture they add to the air. Kerosene radiant heaters work pretty well but they're just so expensive to run...unless you buy a bunch of kerosene in the summer when it's cheaper.

I talked to a couple friends in Texas today, both said there are a lot of frozen pipes. One of them said he got called out to at least 150 calls for broken pipes and his fire station is running off a generator. I feel for y'all that have frozen pipes... I helped my dad re-plumb an entire trailer house that froze up a couple years ago, it was NOT good... cracket toilets, pipes split everywhere inside walls, etc. Dealt with that enough over the years and hope to never have to again.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Fleet Farm is the only place I've seen Kerosene at a pump. Though I have seen #1 diesel all over, and I believe they are the same thing, but it's possible #1 diesel being a road fuel has other additives that make it nasty for heaters.

I think they are pretty similar but #1 just has road tax on it.

Kero seems to bring around a gelled diesel faster although some places on the interweb say #1 is the same thing.

 

[Rick W]

On a more practical note if your heat is off and you are leaving the house for warmer place turn off the water at the toilet and flush it to drain the water out of the tank
If water freezes in the tank it will crack the tank and then flood the area when water flows from insulated pipes

A cold weather/real estate-saving trick I’ve learned: Keep and use plenty of alcohol!! No, not Jack Daniels, that’s a temporary fix at best.

To @RonD ’s point, if power is off, Yes cut the valves, but you can also splash some rubbing alcohol in the tank and bowl. Best is methanol, but iso-propyl and denatured ethanol work fine too. Alcohol is a polar molecule and mixes “chemically” with water, lowering the freezing point. It’s like antifreeze (which you can also use) but no hazardous confined-space vapors. You can also simply add table salt, but best to mix it up with a little water and pour it in. A couple shot glasses in the full tank does the trick.

I learned the methanol trick a few years ago when they cut it in window washer fluid for air quality reasons. If you can only get the above-freezing stuff, just add 5-10% rubbing alcohol. Until Covid, the pharmacy methanol was dirt cheap. I keep a dozen quarts around, but remember it’s as flammable as gasoline.

& in Covid, don’t tell anybody, but when all the disinfectants and alcohol disappeared, we bought some denatured alcohol at Home Depot and put a shot glass of it in baby wipes (not for use on babies). Worked fine. But it’s more expensive than the dime store stuff.

One last thought on power-out heating. Your furnace probably works on low amperage 110v. It’s an easy job to wire up a change over switch/circuit and run the furnace off an inverter in the car or truck. I’ve done it and tested it and even run it for 8-hours to check I out, but fortunately haven’t lost power since I did it. I think the f250 powerstoke can run at idle for a month with both tanks full and I generally keep 30 gallons around for projects, and of course top everything off if weather is coming.

Hope it helps!!

 

[Dirtman]

You guys see the news about the Texas mayor who quit and basically told everyone to stop complaining because they have no power or water and go eff themselves because it's not his job or the governments to help them out... really awesome dude...

Basically in Texas you fix your own damn power lines!!! I'm looking at you Jim!!!!

 

[Roert42]

I thought Texans were supposed to be strong and independant? What happened to "pull your self up by your bootstraps"?