Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Someone unexpectedly (I didn't see it in the weather forecast), we got a tiny bit of snow overnight.

( Light Dusting )

The forecast for today is to stay pretty cold, although it should eventually get above freezing for a while. The chance of snow is <5% for today and tomorrow.

It got just barely cold enough last night for the rain to turn into a little bit of snow.

( Still )

Yesterday afternoon, Lisa and I went to Lowe's price what a ladder long enough to reach the upper roof would cost. It's not cheap. Lisa will also need to dig out the safety harness and the rope we used on the house in Mehama, and will need to figure a way to get a line over the roof so that we can tie it to a tree on the opposite side of the house. Only then will Lisa feel secure in going up there and fixing the join and probably making other corrections to that gutter.

It's certainly no big deal compared to people who get serious snowfall, but we finally got a snowfall that wasn't just a few minutes of pebbly ice.

( Hint of Things to Come? )

I got outside and swept the porch and sidewalks because this was dry, powdery snow (thus easy to sweep) and because the porch in particular is susceptible to freezing in spots where it doesn't get direct sunlight. Much of our sidewalks get no direct sunlight during winter, so if we want to keep them free of ice we have to clear them quickly if possible.

Yes, I know those of you who get real snowfall, measured in meters instead of millimeters, are scoffing, and I don't blame you.

As I mentioned earlier, Fernley's 4th of July parade forms up in front of our house on Front Street. I was up early enough to pop down to the Wigwam to get a take-out breakfast. The first of the floats had arrived as I got back home, but my hands were full, so I didn't get a picture of Sparky the Lion from the Sparks Lions Club, and as I was going into the house, one of the organizers came by and moved them farther down the street.

By the time I finished breakfast, staging was well under way.

( Ringside Seat )

I took many pictures, some of which are posted to Flickr and some of which are still stuck in the phone. I'll write more when they are all posted.

I spent most of today working on a side project for Pemmi-Con for an area not in my decision but that needed to be done and that I could do, so I did it.

The temporary fence kept most people out of the East Lot except for three people who came from the south, where we had erected no fences or barriers. This afternoon, we took down the signs and wires, but left most of the posts (one had worked its way out of the ground already) for use in the future if necessary.

There are fireworks scheduled for later today, but tomorrow is a "second Monday" this week, so we'll give them a pass.

This evening after dinner, as we often do when the weather permits, Lisa and I went out onto the porch to sit and watch birds and such. When Lisa sat in one of our plastic deck chairs, there was a loud crack.

( Chair Failure )

Lisa took no harm (although she was obviously frightened) by the old deck chair falling apart under her.

We decided to go to Lowe's and buy new chairs. Unfortunately, Lowe's no longer carries that same style of chair. We found something close and bought two of them.

The front porch needs repainting again. The sun and snow has worn it out. Sherwin-Williams was running a 30% off sale on paint (15% of supplies like brushes), so this afternoon, Lisa and I went to the store in south Reno where we've bought paint from them in the past. We bought three gallons of "fireweed red," the color that is the closest match to our metal siding. We have one other leftover can (never opened) from the last repaint three years ago. It may still be good. We'll know when we start painting. However, before we can do that, we need to sand off most of the old paint and apply several coats of sanding sealer. This was in our plans for last weekend, but thunderstorms got in the way. We'll need to have enough days of clear weather before we can get to work on sanding and painting.

Repainting every few years is a pain, but it's cheaper than having to replace the boards. We have, however, considering redoing everything with composite decking, specifically Trex brand, partially because the factory that make the product is here in Fernley.

A couple of evenings ago, we had a return of a regular visitor to our bird feeding area.

( Hello, Bunny )

Lisa has seen as many as three rabbits out this spring. With the West Lot being cleared, we've been concerned that all of the rabbits had lost their homes, but there seems to be a few of them around.

The rabbits seem to be somewhat less skitterish than the birds. They keep an eye on us, but seem to understand that we are on the opposite side of a fence from them and are therefore less likely to get at them. Therefore, they don't go running away at our slightest move, such as adjusting our chairs as we sit on the porch.

I knew the forecast was for some more snow, but I didn't expect even as much as we did have overnight.

( But It Doesn't Stick Around )

With the roads cleared once again, I went out to complete the errands I'd planned to do yesterday but postponed: refueling the Astro and going to Grocery Outlet for milk and other perishables.

Plans we had to start cutting up the pile of pallets that accumulated over the winter will need to wait until after the pallets have dried back out from last night's snow. Once the wood is cut down to size I can put it into the large wood box to keep it dry and to supplement the Press-to-Logs.

Yesterday was time to clear snow around the house.

( Pretty But Heavy )

The forecast is for another 1-2 cm of snow overnight, after which we should have a run of clear but cold days. It was very clear last night and the temperature went down to around -10°C. I know that's nothing for some of my friends, but it's cold enough for me.

Last night we got fairly serious (by our standards) snow dropped on us. While we were having dinner, the snow started falling heavily.

( Snow Pictures )

A bit later in the day, the sun worked its way back out and the sidewalks melted somewhat. I put down ice-melt to try and keep them from re-freezing.

This afternoon I could bring in more firewood. Tomorrow is supposed to be the next storm, but while the overall weather forecast calls for it to be a bigger one, the actual local forecast for our area predicts more rain than snow, and not much of the latter, which is too bad. Snow is somewhat easier to deal with than lots of rain.

We are not endangered at all here. We're on slightly higher ground and any flooding we get is more in the form of large puddles that usually soak away in a few hours. We've had no interruptions in our electricity or internet, and we have lots of supplies, so we don't have to go anywhere. I concentrated on the first day of the return to work at my Day Jobbe and keeping the sidewalks clear.