Looks ok, but don’t try sitting on it!
I had such plans for my long weekend.
It started off fine. Knowing a major snowstorm was predicted for the weekend, I did all my normal errands on Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were pretty much non-days, spent sitting around waiting for that major snowstorm.
Which never came.
Yes, we got snow, but not the high winds that were predicted. The snow, at least in my area, only accumulated a foot or so. Definitely not enough to keep most Buffalonians in.
The cold was another story, however. Sub-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures caused pre-emptive closings, and judging from the lack of traffic, most people hunkered down in nice warm homes.
Which brings me to today.
I was so looking forward to the extra day all by myself, as my office was closed for Martin Luther King Day, but my husband had to work. Or so I thought.
Hubby was under the weather and called off. So much for any plans I might have had.
Which was just as well, though, because when I tried to turn on the kitchen faucet at 7:30 am, there was no hot water. The line was frozen. At 7:30 am, the outside temperature was 8 below zero (Fahrenheit), which means it had warmed up from whatever ungodly temperature it was overnight. This was the line to the new sink we had installed just this year, and it’s one of those plastic lines, so we called the plumber.
Who, of course, had an inordinate amount of emergency calls due to the weather. It would be mid-afternoon before the plumber could get to us. Fortunately, all the other water lines in the house were ok so waiting wasn’t too terrible.
Still, it was frustrating. In a pique of annoyance, I plopped myself into my desk chair to surf the web and perhaps do a little blogging.
Apparently, I plopped too dramatically. The chair broke. The little thingy that controls the chair’s tilt apparently fractured. Hubby and I futzed around with it for some time and determined it was unfixable.
Well, we had to wait for the plumber anyway, so I dragged my sorry butt to Office Depot and bought a new chair. Which won’t be available until the end of the week because I opted to have it assembled at the store (I asked the store personnel how much assembly was needed, and it seemed a little more complicated than I cared to deal with).
Fortunately, I had some Home Depot coupons which came in the mail, so I was able to save 35% off the purchase price. That brightened my day a little.
For now, I’m making do with a 50-year-old non-adjustable wooden chair that originally came from my mom’s house. Still, better than standing, right?
As cold as it was, even Puppy Cody refused to stay out any longer than absolutely necessary to do her business. I’m still trying (and failing) to take decent winter photos with the new camera, so the best I could do is edit the pictures into black-and-white:
Can you see the snow on the poor pup’s face? Brrrr.
The good news is, the plumber finally arrived, fixed the line, and didn’t charge anything since the sink is under warranty and the fix only took a few minutes.
I hope your day was better than mine. Tomorrow it’s back to work. This week, I have a whole two days to get through! Hopefully, I can handle that.
Keep on keeping on, folks. See you in a few.
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by Cordelia’s Mom
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
I think we got your wind! Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday here, so many folk were expecting to have a nice 3-day weekend enjoying the sun and surf. Unfortunately the wind over the three days seemed to have averaged somewhere in the 50 Km/hr (30 mph) range. I tried doing some gardening yesterday, but spent more time bracing myself from the wind than actually doing any work.
At least it wasn’t too hot – Between 26°C (77°F and 29°C (84°F), whereas my brother who lives in Australia recently experienced a day when it reached 49°C (120°F). Now that’s hot!
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Ugh. I’d rather have minus 8 F than 120 F. I can always put on more close or turn up the heat when it’s really cold, but there’s not a lot you can do about heat. AC doesn’t even work well when it’s that hot.
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Yikes! Sounds like you should have stayed in bed…
Here’s hoping tomorrow is a better day.
😊
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Ha! I’m tempted to stay in bed all week. But, alas, I do need to pay for the new chair, among other things.
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Cute! Our neighborhood’s black lab looks freakin precious with snows on his snout.
There are plumbers in my yard right now. We’ll see. The area they’re in is covered under a lifetime warranty, so we’ll see if there’s a story there later.
Pity about your chair, but it’s nice to get new things that can handle a good literal plopping 🙂
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Oh no. Plumbers in the yard can’t be good. Here’s hoping you can still afford the mortgage when they’re done doing whatever it is they need to do. As for the chair, I never really liked the old one anyway. I only bought it to match the desk/credenza, and I paid way too much for it (and just made the final payment on all that furniture within the last two weeks, wouldn’t you know). The new one should be much more comfy.
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Re: Plumbers
SPECTACULAR!
Re: Chair
Great! I would pay for assembly too. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
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Looks to me like the good news is, that old chair is made of wood. Gotta fireplace?
I like the snow pix. I miss snow like that sometimes. For about 10 seconds, but still, I sometimes miss it.
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Thanks for liking the snow pictures. I’m a little disappointed with the way the Nikon handles winter lighting, and I haven’t quite figured out all those lighting and aperture settings. As for the old chair, I’ll put it out on the berm on trash day and let someone else have it if they want. I never was really happy with that chair.
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We didn’t get a lot of snow, but we DID get half and inch of solid ice. But not to worry. Even though the temperature didn’t break zero today, it’s going to up around 50 by Thursday with tons of rain, so we can flood as all the ice and snow melts.
You know it was the condition of my office chair that got me to buy a laptop and give up the office? It was more than 20 years old and it was only a matter of when I would plop into it and it would cave. I couldn’t afford a decent chair. But now, I don’t need one. I just plop the computer on my lapdesk and voila!
What’s really weird? I don’t miss my office at all and it makes a terrific closet.
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I have a personal hatred of laptops. And I have that really nice desk/credenza in which the desktop computer fits so nicely! The most annoying part was that I just made the final payment on that furniture within the last couple of weeks. How did the chair know?
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We survived snowapocalypse. We got the snow and the cold. But the reaction of everyone before was so stupid. The big joke here is “got to get the milk and bread.” The stores were literally emptied of bread on Sat morning. Danny had a great week. French toast anyone?
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In my case it was, gotta get the wine and chips. But to each his/her own, right?
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Cody looks a lot like Ellie out in the snow. Quick with the business and back in! I’m glad the plumber did the quick fix for free, CM.
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Poor Cody’s feet have been freezing up within minutes of going out. It’s pitiful watching her try to pee or poop while holding up one leg and then the other. I tried doggy boots, but they wouldn’t stay on.
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Soon the warmer temps will solve this, I hope, CM.
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We had a snow flurry last week but it didn’t amount to anything. It’s bitter when the wind picks up, but at the moment, it’s still quite mild. We have a cold spell coming apparently.
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Our snow wasn’t anything unusual for this area. For that matter, the sub-zero temps are par for January. I think the new plastic piping that’s mandated here freezes up easier than the old galvanized and copper pipes did. Now I know.
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Woolly vests for pipes? We put a polystyrene cup over our outside tap which seems to help (looks a bit like a medieval codpiece!)
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Actually, the plumber said the pipe was insulated. But even that didn’t prevent the freezing due to the extreme cold.
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Wow. Hope it doesn;t get that cold here then. It was bad last year, though locals said it was extreme and not the norm.
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Well, if it should get that cold, you can always just leave the water drip a wee bit to keep the pipe open. The plumber said it also helps to leave the cabinet door open so the heat from the house can get to the pipe and the cold from outside doesn’t get trapped around the pipe. We took all the cleaning supplies out temporarily so Cody wouldn’t be tempted.
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Scratching my head as to why your pipe froze. It’s evidently not down deep enough or so I would think. Wait. I just read one of your comments and the “new” plastic would explain things. Darn it. NO QUALITY TODAY! Unbelievable! Sorry to hear your dilemma both about your frozen pipes and your broken chair. When it “rains” it pours. Have a good day despite your woes, CM! 😁
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PS Keep practicing with your camera and you will get the hang of it. Don’t give up!! XO
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I’m not giving up. I’m just annoyed that I’m not perfect from the get-go. There are light and aperture settings, I just need to become more skilled with them.
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CM! I could just shake! LOL I’ve been at this for over 25 years and I’m still learning. Ya just cannot be perfect when you just start. Oh my goodness! I’m laughing as I write this. You are just too much!
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It’s only when the temp drops under 5-below. On those days, we’ll just leave the water dripping a little, like my mom did when I was a kid.
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Let’s see if I can help you, CM. Aperture used to confuse the heck out of me. OK!
The lower the f-stop, the BIGGER the opening, or aperture. That means more LIGHT will be able to come into the lens. The bigger the aperture or opening, where your AF point is will be clearly seen yet around it will be slightly out of focus.
The higher the f-stop, the SMALLER the opening is, or aperture. That means less LIGHT will be able to come into the lens. That also means you will achieve more clarity in the entire picture compared to if you had used a bigger aperture with a lower f/stop.
This made NO sense to me and for years I struggled with these concepts. Also ….
When you use a low f/stop (larger aperture) the faster your shutter speed will be. As you increase your f/stop to higher numbers, which means the opening is getting smaller allowing less light in, the slower your shutter speed will be. It boils down to balance and how you wish your photograph to turn out. It just comes with practice and fooling around with your camera. I shoot mainly on Manual Mode to control the f/stop, and EV (where you take your light reading from), which in turn controls the shutter speed.
I’ll stop here. I gave you a lot of information to chew on. I’m gonna reread just to make sure I got everything right because even today I do make mistakes.
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Aw, Amy, thanks so much for taking the time to write all that. I’ve actually been reviewing the owner’s manual, and I even got a couple of photography-for-dummies type books from the library. All I really need is the time to sit down and learn everything, which is easier said than done what with being back to work and all.
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It was 84 degrees in Puerto Vallarta. Just sayin’…
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I’m ok with snow and cold. I don’t like airplanes.
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