14 posts tagged “weather”

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The Oklahoma sky is never so blue as the day after a major storm system has blown through.  Today is no exception.  Sure the temps are only in the low 50's, but there is hardly any wind at all (a rarity around here!) and not a cloud to be seen!  Since I had to go vote today (city sales tax issue) it was no problem giving myself permission to leave my quilting machine for a walk outside.  It was a little over 10 minutes each way.  Not nearly long enough, but I do have lots of work to get back to.  Maybe....

You gotta love Oklahoma weather in March.  Today it's 70's and thunderstorms, tomorrow it's 30's and snow!

This Afternoon Chance Tstms Hi 71°F

Tonight Rain/Snow Lo 34°F

Monday Chance Snow Hi 37°F

Monday Night Chance Snow Lo 26°F

Happy Groundhog Day!  Hope yours is going well.  Ours dawned with nary a cloud in the sky.  Six more weeks of winter in store for us.  Gee, who would have guessed?  The first official day of spring is just about that far away.

No, we still don't have electricity.  But we did buy and hook up a generator and the cable still works (obviously) in spite of the fact the box has been ripped from the side of the house.  The thermometer in here says 45 degrees, but tomorrow morning I'll fire up the heaters in the shop and once my machine warms up I'll be back in business.  I've got 5 customers quilts left to get done before Christmas.  As they still need time to get the bindings on them I really should have them done no later than the 20th.  We'll see how it goes.

Tonight we're sleeping in our oh so cold house as it's supposed to snow overnight and I figured it would be pointless to buy the generator and then be stuck at my mom's house half the weekend.  Now it can snow all it wants.

Today is my day to watch Jonah and since it's cold and dark at my house I came to his house today.  Thank goodness he has high speed internet!  I've been able to read all my email and do some catching up with my friends here. 

Still no sign of when our power will be back on, but I think I've almost convinced my husband to go buy a generator.  He was looking at one earlier today at Sam's that was nearly $1000. 

Me: Will it run everything in the workshop?  You know, lights, heat, and long arm machine all at the same time.
Him: Yes, and more besides.
Me: Well, I can't work at the moment.  If we bought it I could have it paid for in about 3 days.
Him: Call the accountant to see if it's a tax deductible business expense first.
Me: Who cares.  I can have it paid for in just a few days.  I'm not making any money this way.

I've got Christmas deadlines to meet.  This purchase strikes me a no brainer.  We can find out later if it's deductible.

Today was supposed to be clear and warmer.  It's been cloudy and cold all day.  Tomorrow evening and into Saturday morning we're expecting 2-4 inches of snow (possibly more). 

Well, as of 7:45 Tuesday morning we have no power at our house.[1]  It went out with quite a show.  The freezing rain had stopped and things were beginning to warm up.  When the ice fell from one of the power lines it bounced up into the line above it.  For about 45 seconds we had an incredible light show as the lines kept bouncing and shorting.  There were big loud booms accompanied by big showers of sparks.  Really a beautiful show.  Sadly, when the show stopped the house went dark. [2]

Since my car was still encased in over an inch of ice I quickly made up my mind to stay home and rough it.  Not completely a bad thing.  I put on some warm clothes, grabbed some extra quilts (it's good to be a quilter!) and a flash light, closed the doors to all the upstairs rooms except our bedroom [3], and crawled back into bed.  I'm now up to the December issues of all my magazines. 

My biggest complaint about being without power is the lack of hot water.  When my husband got home from work yesterday we discussed that issue.  It quickly dawned on us that our 50 gallon hot water tank is very well insulated and was most likely still hot.  We both got one really good hot shower.  I felt much better.  After that we excavated my car, went to vote [4], and then looked for a restaurant that was open so we could have a hot meal.

After we got back home it was straight back to bed [5] and reading until it was late enough to go to sleep.  Staying warm was not a problem with all those quilts.  In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night and took my clothes off because I got hot.

This morning the thermometer in the kitchen still registered 53 degrees.  Not bad considering it was about 30 outside. [6]  Today I spent the morning at my favorite quilt store (where I have a regular Wednesday date to sew) and took my mother to the doctor this afternoon. [7]  I think we'll spend the night here [8] tonight even though we know we can stay plenty warm at home.

Tomorrow is my day to babysit Jonah and clearly I will be doing it at his house instead of mine.  Now that I've worked out the hot shower problem my only real complaint is that I can't get any quilting done.  I'm really gonna have to hustle to get all those customers' quilts done in time for Christmas.  Thank God quilters are an understanding lot.

[1]  As our house is total electric this means we have nothing.

[2]  Because of the nature of the outage it has only thrown about 14 houses in the dark.  This means we are way down the priority list and most likely won't see power again for about a week.

[3] Thanks to my degree in physics I did remember that hot air rises and the upstairs will stay a bit warmer than the downstairs.  Had I been really serious about conserving household heat I would have closed my bedroom door as well and camped out in the landing.

[4] You can't ignore your civic duty just because of the weather!

[5] The top floor of the house was still much warmer than the bottom floor.

[6] I'd say all of our home improvements (upgraded windows, insulated siding, and new roof) have paid off.

[7] The pulmonologist says her latest CT scan shows no new growth of her nodules and she can wait a whole 6 months before her next scan.

[8] My mother only has dial up internet so this is most likely the last you will hear from me until I get back home with my own computer.

We're about halfway through our current ice storm.  Half an inch of ice on everything and another half inch expected to fall before morning. We've barely had any wind up to now, but tomorrow that's expected to change.  So far we're very lucky in our neighborhood.  Large sections of the city are without power and we still have ours.  Since all of our power lines are up on poles it's really just a matter of time until it goes. 

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In between taking the following two pictures I heard the distinct sound of a "gunshot."  Sure glad it wasn't my house!

Before the gunshot

1 comment

After the gunshot

For weather geeks like me it's a banner day in weather history.  On this date in 1911 Oklahoma City recorded both a record high and record low (the only time this has happened in our history).  Our high that afternoon was 83.  An arctic cold front came through late in the afternoon and by midnight the temperature was a record setting 17.  We bottomed out the following morning with another record at 14.  This remarkable record has stood for 96 years now.