first shovel

Usually the first use of a shovel is the breaking of ground for some special building or structure of some kind.  In this case, the first shovel of the season involved snow.

We had an extended summer until a week ago when things started getting chilly.  It is the official start of winter (that is, astronomical winter here in the northern hemisphere) on December 21, 2020.  But things certainly do look like winter now.

F has filled the bird feeder with sunflower seeds and put out the suet.  I shovelled the driveway this morning.  I have two tutoring sessions this weekend, a rare event these days, but everything is online, so I won’t be driving through the driving snow.

It apparently will get down to -20°C tomorrow (Sunday) night.  Then, in true southern Alberta fashion, it will get up to +3°C a couple of days later.  Welcome to Chinook country.

first snow, painting, recycled clothes, COVID-19

I’m almost done painting the entrance of the house.  It’s turned cold.  The first snow of the 2020-21 winter happened a few days ago.  I was expecting a warm day that never came.  Instead, I put a couple of space heaters in the entrance way and brought it up to 12°C since the paint can said minimum 10°C.  I still have a bit of trim to paint.

The garage is cold, too, of course, which will make working on any projects with the new CNC a bit slower.  It’s so much nicer working in warm weather.  I’ve got a ton of firewood cut up and more to be cut but no wood burning stove in the garage – only propane and electric.  I have a few projects on the go but no new teardrops yet (teardrop trailers, that is).

Mom bought me a new shirt from Mark’s yesterday, but it was 60% polyester.  I hate polyester.  It’s like wearing plastic clothes.  I smell like a race horse at the end of the day.  I took it back and got another.  As it turns out, the second one, which is 100% cotton, is actually 70% recycled cotton.  This is my first time buying recycled textiles.  I wonder how well it will wear.

The COVD-19 count in the city is as high as it’s ever been.  I think this is partly due to the Thanksgiving weekend of October 12, 2020, with people insisting that they’re immune to it.  “Can’t happen to me.”  The latest act of carelessness is at a church in Coaldale, one of seven hot-spots in Alberta.  “Not too pretty good,” as Glenn would say.

N95 explanation

In working with wood, I bought N95 masks several years ago.  They were, after all, the best ones one could buy.  So shopping at Rona a week ago, they only had regular dust masks.  I asked why they didn’t have N95 masks on the shelves yet.  It’s been a year since the newest coronavirus had been discovered.  Couldn’t the supply chain have ramped up supply for the demand by now?

Read moreN95 explanation

Fujitsu P7120 parts

How hard is it to get parts for older PCs?  Hard.

I’ve been in need of a power button & LED board for my Fujitsu P7120.  I’ve been searching for the past year and haven’t found one until now.  PCHub.com says they have one for US$36.  I’ve ordered from them before, and they seem to sell reliable stuff.  I wonder how long it would take to deliver.  Then again, I’ve been needing one for a year and a half, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

morning calm

Sitting outside on the multi-coloured bench with a cup of coffee and a tablet reading the news, I find a calm and peaceful serenity that replaces the morning fog before the caffeine hits.  I watched the moon and the sun trade places and fawns hop around like they’ve just eaten a pile of oats.  A cacophonous raucous of birds broke the silence of the morning with their ritual meeting-in-the-trees.  I watered my flowerbed and a bit of the grass and picked up some trash that blew in on the last chinook.  I watched at 7:41am the water pressure dip a bit, signifying that the folks are up (toilet flushing).  Eventually hunger will set in, and I’ll go inside for a bagel with peanut butter.  But, for now, I’m enjoying the calm.

  

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