2018 Done, 2019 Getting Started


 
Yah, I was just telling my wife two weeks ago how mild this winter had been so far and how we hadn't even gotten below zero yet. OOOOPS!

We got a good 8 inches or so and it is still snowing hard right now. Schools are closed and I am guessing they won't open until Thursday.
 
Yeah my guess is my grandson will be off all week. Seems the newer generation are wimps. Look up the famous Chicago blizzard of 1967. We began that day with very mild temps. My dad went to work in shirt sleeves. He somehow managed to get home in a 1960 Olds 98 with bald Vogue tires. If you remember those donuts the rubber was hard as nails, and it was the earliest rendition of a run flat tire ever made. They had an inner "tire" that you inflated with the valve stem and the "outer" tire was inflated much like a football with a special "needle" inflator. If you suffered a flat the inner tire would support the car until you could slowly drive the car to a service station but of course ONLY a Vogue tire dealer could repair them LOL.
Anyway by the time he left work on the near north side of the city (Augusta Blvd and Cicero Ave) in the afternoon temps had dropped to mid 20's wind was coming off the lake (The "hawk" was "talking" as we say in Chicago). and by then there was close to 20" on the ground. Funny thing he got that car all the way from far in the city out to the very far NW side and got it jammed completely in the intersection right by our house. So he came from 1000 N and 4800 W all the way out to 8900 N and 7800 W before finally becoming fully mired in it.
It snowed through the night and we ended up with IIRC 27 or 28" total and the next day temps plummeted into -15. So cold of course the oil in his crankcase became a brick. Our neighbor had his car in heated garage and he was able to pull dad's car to just in front of our garage. The neighbor then hooked up a torpedo heater and began blowing it under dad's car to finally start it. That heater was so hot the radiator boiled over. Crazy times.
Well it was the ONLY snow/weather day I ever experienced in all my school years.
67 was a pretty wild year. It was also the year of this https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...ado-vintage-photos-20170418-photogallery.html
I remember reading about this in high school and we just looked at each other wondering what the heck is Belvidere. Now it's my next town to the east and I also know some of the people in that photo. Weird stuff............
Oh well pretty far off topic. Sorry Chris LOL
 
Bruce said:
Larry, it is -30 here on Wednesday.....NOT INCLUDING WINDCHILL.

Stefan, that grill is totally worth $20. If you got room, grab it.

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YOWWWW!!!! This Florida boy definitely couldn't handle that. I did experience -27 (-80 windchill) one winter in Chicago, but that was a long time ago. I do get very tired of unending weeks of 90+ July-Sept, but at least I CAN do outside work (and grill restores). Just have to keep drinking and find shade:D. No place to go but inside with your weather! Hang in there, Bruce (and Larry, too!).
 
Yah, schools today were shut down due to snow (A good foot of fluffy white stuff now). But, I am guessing they are already planning to shut them down the next two days for the extreme cold. Like Larry said, I grew up in Minnesota and it would take way more than a foot of light snow to cancel schools. I just hope this is it for Old Man Winter and thing moderate next week and then we begin that slow but steady upward trend towards Spring.
 
When we moved my family back to Florida my sons, who had only been in school in North Carolina, were very disappointed that there would be no snow days and no two-hour delays for ice. Little did they know that before we were back for a year we would experience back-to-back hurricanes that knocked out power - and school - for almost two weeks!:eek: I told them they got a way better deal here!:coolkettle:
 
Yah, they will probably call off schools the next two days here after a foot of snow today and excessively cold the next two days. However, I doubt you will see any kids outside the next two days.
 
Well surprisingly they did not call off school today for my grand son But than it's a balmy -2 and no wind
 
I think temps will dropping as the day progresses and we won't hit those massive lows until late night/early morning. When you wake up tomorrow, I think your thermometer will look different. And your grand son will get another day on the Xbox
 
LM, Bruce, and to everyone in the Midwest...stay warm! That cold snap sounds like a pretty nasty one.
 
Weather folks say 50's here for the weekend. I hope so. Tough to get anything done when it
is zero out. But I did get a kick out a guy that showed up last night to pick up a WSM. It was
12 degrees out at that time. He was wearing a hoodie and shorts.
 
Zero out??????????? I wish. It was -27 when I got up at 6:30 this morning and that was real temps....not with windchill. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be worse (-31). FUnny thing is, we are supposed to hit the low 40's on Saturday and Sunday with rain.

Yah, you see people out in shorts here all the time in anything above about zero. People going into Walmart like that all the time. It seems strange, especially when they are wearing a winter jacket and gloves, but really it is common up here. Today, no, not so much though.
 
Bruce said:
Zero out??????????? I wish. It was -27 when I got up at 6:30 this morning and that was real temps....not with windchill. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be worse (-31). FUnny thing is, we are supposed to hit the low 40's on Saturday and Sunday with rain.

Yah, you see people out in shorts here all the time in anything above about zero. People going into Walmart like that all the time. It seems strange, especially when they are wearing a winter jacket and gloves, but really it is common up here. Today, no, not so much though.
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It's a little like when teenagers here wear hoodies even though it is 90 degrees.:rolleyes:
 
Sam Bee said:
LM, Bruce, and to everyone in the Midwest...stay warm! That cold snap sounds like a pretty nasty one.
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Yes sir here is what my HVAC system was showing this AM

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Pleasantly surprised that the highest output my new system had to run at was only 67%. The cool thing is I replaced a 120k BTU furnace with an 80K 98% efficient one with modulating output and fan speed. So it shows that even though it's 40k smaller I still have "headroom" if it gets even colder out. Which I guess it will as last night the system showed -26 which matched what local weather people said we were at. Tonight prediction is for -33 locally!
Oh and Dave your's truly was out in shorts and T-Shirt this AM :D when I walked out to get the paper. Yes it was uhhh..................brisk :D
The system I had installed is pretty cool. It has temp and humidity sensors outside that link into the system and also connect to the internet and feed the predicted weather to the computer inside the HVAC system so winter/summer the system knows how to adjust and anticipate everything. Honestly it's pretty cool watching how effectively it works. Cost me $10k but I thing it's well worth it. I have never felt this house this comfortable. I am really pleased. Combine that with getting rid of that drafty fireplace that made our family room like an ice box. We had to put rugs and stuff in front of it and they'd freeze solid the last time we had this polar vortex back in 2014 and our than furnace at the time could barely keep up. So bottom line I invested about $13K between the HVAC and fireplace and I think it's WELL worth it. I'm just kicking myself I didn't do it sooner
And I forgot to mention the noises the house is making are REALLY startling. Originally I thought I had been hearing gunfire somewhere but no it's the house
 
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Having been subjected to freezing Chicago winters I am used to the pops and cracks the house emits during a deep freeze. But this morning my wife and I both sat up when we heard a pretty significant boom. I later learned during a weather report that we most likely were awakened by a cryoseism, also known as an ice quake or a frost quake! A cryoseism is a seismic event that may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice. Lol. Can’t wait to get 2019 started! Ground hog day on Saturday!!!!
 
I know I have mentioned it before, but it is really strange how things seem to go in cycles.
I have seen only a few Q's posted in the last 6 months. I have not come close to seeing
one worth buying since July or August. Meanwhile, I picked up 3 yesterday. 100, 2200,
and a 300. From 3 different people. Have only seen one Genesis 300 series since the
first of the year though. Weird how these things go.

EDIT - I have been really wanting to pickup a Q and try to reproduce the red one that Bruce made.
If this works well, I will be doing the same with all 3.
 
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Dave in KC said:
I know I have mentioned it before, but it is really strange how things seem to go in cycles.
I have seen only a few Q's posted in the last 6 months. I have not come close to seeing
one worth buying since July or August. Meanwhile, I picked up 3 yesterday. 100, 2200,
and a 300. From 3 different people. Have only seen one Genesis 300 series since the
first of the year though. Weird how these things go.

EDIT - I have been really wanting to pickup a Q and try to reproduce the red one that Bruce made.
If this works well, I will be doing the same with all 3.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of 100s and 1000s and also a fair number of the 300s. My favorite is the 2200, but they don’t come up very often. I agree that they look extra sharp in red. Blue would be nice, too:D!
 
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