Fast Moving Front, and Hi There, 63-9792!

 Had a really fast-moving front go through shortly after 0900, and it brought about 30 minutes of the "little snowballs", which I'm sure there's a meteorological term for.

Look at the timeline of the graphs, and you can see the humidity spike, the temperature drop, and the wind shift from SW to NW. The little step up in the barometer is the front coming through.

 

 Almost all the snow we got earlier this week has gone, and it was very windy. My winds speeds don't record as high as officially reported because of where and how high my anemometer is mounted. It's in the clearest spot I could use, but it's not 10 Meters high, and is shielded by the trees and houses here. As a result, my "Gust Speeds" are closer to the NWS sustained speeds, and the gusts here would most likely be 40~50% higher than indicated. So, we had gusts of up to 60 MPH or so. It was howling pretty good last night! And the new double gate came through unscathed, although it did pop open. I didn't have a lock or anything through the holes in the hasps, and from the battering it got, the hasps turned, and the gate opened. BUT....the Big Wheels out handyman put on the front kept it from rolling all the way open and beating itself itself to death like the original one did. I closed it, and put a 3/8" x 2" bolt through the hasps, and using two nuts to keep them from loosening. Should be good for the rest of the year, I hope.

And our old friend 63-9792 from Offut swing by for about 6 hours. Didn't screenshot the flight track, but this is what she looks like all cleaned up. Hard to believe the airframe was built in 1963! Wonder how may times she's been rebuilt/reengined?

They also made several touch-and-goes on their return to Offut, so most likely another training flight.

Hope y'all have a safe and Blessed Sunday!

3~4" Of Snow Last Night

 

And from garage door open, to snowblower parked was only about 25 minutes. That 24" Ariens just laughs at 4" of snow......

Supra Mission 28NOV22 Scrubbed

 The weather didn't cooperate very well, in that it was overcast and cooler than expected. 

With road surface temps cold enough to make the "High Performance Summer Only" tires get greasy, no heater, and no wipers,  it was a NOGO for today.

These tires (Toyo Proxes T1R) are astounding when it's >50* outside, and then they start losing their grip. Tires designed for "Summer Use" are very, very good when the road surface is warm-to-hot, and not so good when it gets cold. I've only had the car "loose" once, and it gave me plenty of warning, and recovered beautifully. But it was 80something degrees outside in SoCal, and that's a bit different than 40something in NoCo.

It's still sitting on the ground, and this coming week doesn't look too promising. so I'm still debating whether to put her up on stands.

So, I spent today cutting and splitting some more firewood, and helping SLW with the Christmas decorations, and the seasonal rearrangement of furniture.

Better safe than sorry!

Ritual Change Of Tires Completed

 And we're supposed to get 1~2" of snow tonight with more coming Monday through Tuesday night.

Had the usual fun hanging out in the garage with my son while working on SLW's car, and Pebbles was quite happy to see him again. He's pretty much settled in to his own little place now, and got out his Charley Brown Christmas tree for the coming holidays.

Didn't get out in the Supra on Friday due to post-Thanksgiving bloat and some chores, so now it's decision time.....Do I wait another week or so for one of those brilliant early Winter days, or put her up on jacks for the season? I'll take her out if it's dry outside, but since the heater is disconnected, it can be a bit uncomfortable when it's less than 50* or so outside.

Just another First World Problem of no consequence to no one....

Hope you all have a Blessed Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving To All....

 

We'll be up in Cheyenne for the day, giving thanks with family and friends.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wonder What Boeing Is Shipping Today?

 In an Antonov 124?

Flow Snurries and COLD!

 It's 20* at 1640 local, and we have about 2" on the snow table. The NWS is predicting another 2~4" overnight, with temps going down to low single digits.

Be a real good night for a mug of hot coffee, and some work in the basement. The big SX-980 receiver is back on the bench, and I'm doing the basic checks again, as it's been like six months since I last touched it, except to move it. So far, so good. I'm aware of some of the issues, but a new one cropped up in that the FM Stereo drops out, but comes back when things are gently tapped. I know, another intermittent to track down!

Well, that was easy. Went down to take the pic, turned it on (no FM...) and then punched the select button between AM and FM, and the FM came back! OK....another dirty switch to clean....le sigh... I should have cleaned them all when I had the panel off, but it's moot now because I have to take the panel off again to clean the dial properly. 

And an update on the Great Rye Bread Experiment of two weeks ago. I made two mistakes, one major, one minor. The major mistake was not giving it a full second raise. As a result, it came out a bit denser than it should. The flavor was wonderful, but a bit too dense. The minor mistake was not dividing the dough into two loaves before the second raise. It made HUGE (2 pound) loaf of bread:

Sure was tasty, though. This weekend I'm going to make it again, and correct the two mistakes I made. And I've collected enough bacon grease to make two batches of Skillet Cornbread, one test batch, and one batch for Thanksgiving dinner if the test article doesn't self destruct....

Jay Leno Suffers Serious Burns In Car Fire

 Jay is a good guy to the car community. He supports many educational programs, and gives freely of his time and money.

Full details on the Hagerty website.

 

Please say a prayer for Mr. Leno.

Wonder Who's Lurking In The Gulf.....

 Interesting ground track of a Boeing E6,  tail number 16-4404.

 

Thank You To All Veterans

 Thank you all for your service and sacrifice.

Hang In There...It'll Be TGIF Before You Know It...

 And I've been keeping busy doing some yard work some wood cutting/splitting/stacking, cleaning the house for SLW, and just enjoying a nice, quiet, mundane life.  BTW...the new Hammer Drill splits small logs quite well, once they're dried. And it drove the ground rods in quite well, too.

Took the Supra out the other day for a couple of hours, and came back all invigorated. It's not a powerful car, with only 165HP in a 3,000 pound car it can't be, be it's very rewarding to drive it quickly. It's an "Analog Car" without Traction Control, ABS, Air Bags, or any of the other electronic nannies today's cars have. With the suspension work I did it corners extremely flat and predictably, and the larger, wider wheels with modern low profile tires give it an astounding amount of grip. The upgraded brakes are so good I constantly worry about getting rear-ended in traffic, as almost happened a couple of times back in Long Beach. Still have a bunch of cosmetic and interior work to do, along with some well overdue maintenance items (cam drive belt & tensioner, for one), but I don't want it off the road again as long as it was last time, so I'll portion out the remaining mechanical work into "weekend sized" chunks, and get the tasks crossed off as I do them.

The Pioneer cassette deck is on hold for now, pending some discussion with Those Who Know About These Things. I have a few things to try based on suggestions, but for now it's off the bench, as I really, really, really want to get my SX-980 receiver finished and back in service. I was almost finished with it, and then I found some scratchy, noisy switches that (still) need cleaning, and as I was doing the dial alignment, I noticed I hadn't properly cleaned all the dial behind the glass. Since that requires pulling the front panel (again), which is also required to get at the dirty switches, I put the project on hold while I did the Great Heathkit Audio Analyzer Rebuilds, which wound up taking months longer than I anticipated. I learned a tremendous amount in rebuilding the two analyzers, both honing my tech skills and i understanding how the measurements are made, which leads to a better understanding of what the measurement is all about. Worthwhile, but very time consuming.

And then I decided to get a cassette deck.......what was I thinking?

Anywhoo, just been hanging out with Pebbles while SLW is out, and using the fireplace a lot. I spent a couple of hours figuring out how the pull-screens in it work, and why they were so awkward to use. Turns out a couple of places had come unraveled, and were dangling about getting snagged on each other. I double twisted a few inches of stainless picture hanging wire, strung it through the floppy parts, and secured it off by twisting the ends together. Works fine, and now I can easily slide the screens back-and-forth.

And it beats paying $300+ for a whole new glass door/screen assembly, as I can't seem to find just the replacement sliding screens.