Winter

Winter Wonderland

Last Friday during the day it was doing the usual northwest winter weather thing, i.e. cool and misting. That cool was the last time it was above freeing for 5 days. Saturday the rain shifted to snow and it kept falling until late Sunday afternoon leaving behind an inch or so on the ground. On Monday I made a quick run to the grocery store to get some essentials because now there was freezing rain headed our way.

The freezing rain came down Monday night through Thursday morning leaving everything coated in a sheath of ice. The city came to a standstill. Trees came down knocking out power to thousands. We were very lucky in that ours never really went out. But believe me there were at least ten times from Wednesday evening until Friday morning that it flickered or blipped off momentarily making us hold our breath. Our cable stayed on the whole time except for one brief outage on Friday evening.

The weather folks say it got it 35 degrees on Thursday, but you couldn’t tell it if you poked your head outside. It really wasn’t until Friday that the temps peeked above freezing and moist rain fell. Friday afternoon I went outside and found some ice melt stuff in the shed that the previous owner left behind. When I looked at Portland’s usual winter weather before we moved I opted to leave behind the melt stuff I had in Klamath Falls along with the snow shovels. I poked around inside the shed and did find an 8 x 24 piece of floor tile that became my impromptu shove that I used to clean the driveway until it broke in half.

Because we are the first house as you come into the subdivision off the main drag and it is all slightly uphill after us, our driveway was kind of ice locked and I figured I could get out if needed but getting back in was probably not going to happen, so we skipped the usual Friday grocery shopping trip. Fortunately once it got above freezing on Friday it has stayed that way since. Then the rain that fell that night and on Saturday was now helping get rid of all that ice. Probably by Monday morning there will be very little evidence left of any of the snow and ice.

Shortest Day Of The Year

This morning on a quick run to Fred Meyer the Mini beeped to let me know that the outside temperature was 37 degrees (so as to let me know to be careful as ice may form on overpasses.) Even though the winter solstice hadn’t actually happen yet, still had about 12 hours, it was now winter here in Fairview because this was the first time the temperature has been that low since last winter.

Every Husband’s Dream II

Recently my wife has been randomly demanding I pull her pants down!

Okay, get your mind out of the gutter. Now that it is winter she is back to wearing her calf high boots and every time we leave the house to go out she asks that. She doesn’t like tucking the pant in and it is a lot easier for me to reach down and yank the pant legs over the boots and down.

If your mind is still in the gutter, you’ll enjoy an earlier post from 2005 – Every Husband’s Dream.

New Wheels for the Miata?

They are only temporary though. The Mini’s new winter tires arrived fashionably late, Saturday instead of Thursday, so I spend that afternoon mounting them on the car. Instead of storing them for the winter I had the idea to mount the all-seasons on the Miata so we could take the car out for a spin at least once a week or so, even if the top is up1, to keep it fresh and and not ruin those ultra-high performance summer tires which really shouldn’t be driven in temps much below 40 degrees.

I had done the research ahead of time and they would go on the car, the offfset was only 10mm different and the Mini wheels had a larger center bore diameter, but would the taller tires work on the slightly lowered car? After I installed them they seemed to fit OK. They didn’t hit the brake calipers and turning the steering wheel lock to lock didn’t induce any rubbing that I could tell. But a test drive was needed because the springs still needed to settle from the being jacked up.

I took a quick spin around the neighborhood and all seemed fine under cruise conditions. It wasn’t until I took a quick turn into a parking lot that I heard a scraping sound. Turns out at near full lock, in both directions, the tires do hit the plastics fender well liners. The problem wasn’t with differences in the offset the rim width difference, but with the taller Mini tire. They are 195/60 as compared to the 195/50 of the Miata, so the Mini tires are a whole 1-1/2″ taller or 3/4 inches a side. I have opted to leave them on because any “winter driving” we do in the Miata will be of a cruise around town variety anyway.

It is Winter Time

While still technically a couple weeks away, it is winter here in Klamath Falls. It has been highs of 40s and lows of 20s for a while now and we even had freezing fog Thanksgiving weekend that covered everything in our neighborhood with a thin blanket of white that lasted most of the day. Starting today, for the next 5 days, there is a chance of snow. We even got a brief glimpse of the flaky white stuff on the end of our afternoon walk today, zero accumulation, but still…

Last year when we first got here, both in the AirBnB and our house, we treated the winter as an exciting, fun event. We would go for a walk or drive in it only if we had to. This year we have come to the realization that we really do have to prepare for living in the here and now of the season called winter.

Last year when driving around in the Mini we did OK on it’s all-season tires, but we were locked into staying pretty close to home because going in any direction, within 30 miles, we were greeted with elevation gains and the requirement of chains or some Severe Snow and Winter Traction tires. Yesterday we ordered a winter tire/wheel package from Tire Rack. Any day now the Mini will be rockin’ some 195/60 Bridgestone Blizzak WS90s on 15X6 MSW Type 22T wheels in Silver.

Last year when walking about we just made do with our hiking boots, mine were water resistant and Donna’s had no protection from wet. This year we have decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and buy some dedicated winter boots. So, yesterday we ordered some and any day now our feet will be rockin’ in waterproof style. For him, the Men’s Firecamp Boot in Madder Brown/Red Jasper, and for her, Women’s Ice Maiden II Boot in Cordovan/Siberia.