Thursday, January 5, 2017

Snowpocalpse

That's what they are calling it down in Boise--record setting snowfall.

My wife's TrailBlazer slid off the driveway yesterday; today I tried to back it out of the ditch.  Some roof shingles under the wheels provided traction, but the first try was hard, so our neighbor with tractor was ready to pull us out but then the TrailBlazer stopped, and the battery went dead.  An hour of rest, and it came back to life and we backed it down into our neighbor's lot.  Tractor guy is going to clear our driveway tomorrow enough to drive the TrailBlazer back home for a date with the snowplow.

What else can go wrong?  Walked back to the house, cold and exhausted, smelled LP gas.  Suburban Propane on their way.  They say there's a leak in the gas line under the house that feeds our appliances so gas turned off, until our HVAC guy can inspect and repair.  He'll be here today.  In the meantime our only heat is from the primarily decorative space heaters pretending to be fireplaces, the electric oven, and the remaining incandescent heat bulbs.  It is 51 degrees in here this morning because the house is very well insulated.  No hot water, of course.  Faucet running slowly to prevent pipes freezing.  This is going to be miserable until we get this fixed.  If we can get the driveway cleared, perhaps we'll play heat vampires with our daughter.

Two layers of thermal underwear.  I may roll the Jaguar out of the garage and spend the day in there with the heater and heated seats running.  I have WiFi from the house.

4 comments:

  1. Don't know the grade & length of the driveway, but since it seems getting up it is a months-long issue every winter, maybe a 120 volt winch with an anchor point at the front of the garage and a long cable?

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  2. Nosmo: Driveway is 600 feet long with two S curves. Not practical.

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  3. These days the regulations may not allow it, but for years & years I depended on a pot belly stove. They can burn wood and/or coal, keep a pretty large area toasty & warm, and of course need no electicity or gas (though if you have smelled a gas leak, then it wouldn't be a good idea to start up one of these either.)

    Some designs allow you to cook on them too, or at least boil a kettle!

    Here's the kind of thing I mean:

    https://www.amazon.com/US-Stove-1269E-Certified-Logwood/dp/B019XJ7E7K/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1483730999&sr=8-5&keywords=pot+belly+stove

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