BS: Hunkered Down

Subject: BS: Hunkered Down Day
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:27 PM

Last night, the nasty ice and snow storm that's moved across the country finally arrived here in New England. I've shoveled the driveway and the sidewalk and got the doors of the car unfrozen, and now I'm hunkered down for the day. I love hunkered down days. I have everything I need to keep me happy... the house is warm, there's plenty of foor in the fridge, and if it gets too cold outside, I've got my love to keep me warm.

Today, I'm burning CDs of jazz for family members and a couple of Catters (who are family too, for that matter.) Later on, the wifey and me will throw a movie in the DVD... probably the orignal Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, or Sunset Boulevard (both of which I picked up a couple of days ago,) or maybe just turn on the fireplace. Yeah, turn on. We have a gas fireplace that looks like the real thing, and I don't have to wade out into the back yard to try to unfreeze some logs from the snow.

I know that at some point today, I'll get out my guitar and start running through some songs that I'll be doing next week at a couple of nursing homes.

Where is the "bad" in bad weather?

Like everything else, a hunkered down day is as beautiful as the person you spend it with.

I got mine.

How are my Catter friends dealing with this kind of day? And what do you call a hunkered down day where you live?

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:40 PM

Snow just started falling here. I will get Seamus out for a walk before it gets too bad and then snuggle up with a book for the duration. Safe and warm in my own home, I can't help but think of all the thousands who have lost theirs in Indonesia. I will light a candle, say a prayer and get a donation off. The agencies handling the disaster are asking people to make a commitment now to give monthly or quarterly as this need will go on for years to come. It is too easy to forget when another disaster or the Super Bowl takes over the headlines.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:56 PM

You got that right, Sinsull... being thankful is at the center of hunkering down..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 01:31 PM

We've got food, wood (a little) for the fireplace if we need it, 104 gallons of water in the water heaters if we need it, a gas furnace, cell phones, a snow blower, and places to snuggle.

Starting tomorrow, we could get up to 20 inches of snow.

And yes, we have an emergency closing plan all set up in case it gets so bad that I have to close the Library. If the cops ask that travel be restricted to emergency vehicles and snowplows, I don't want people endangering themselves to return a library book!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: LilyFestre
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 01:34 PM

Snowed in here in Northern Pennsylvania for the second day in a row! I love these kinds of days too. There is a fire in the woodstove, all the cats are sleeping around the perimeter and I have been sitting at the kitchen table working on some artwork for my priest's 25th anniversary celebration for his ordination at as a priest. I made some brownies and soon will begin a pot of stew to simmer on the stove. My Love is snowed in with me as well. He has been playing his guitar and tying flies. The dogs are sacked out all over the house and the wind is howling outside. I am most grateful that we don't HAVE to go anywhere. I think that it's a great snuggle day too.......

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 01:36 PM

I see that my old home town, Wichita, Kans., is right in the middle of the big ice storm that hit a couple days ago....similar to what hit Canada a few years back...They will be hunkered down for days yet!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: mack/misophist
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 03:15 PM

"Hunker down" is something we have little need for here on the west coast. Too bad. It sounds nice.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 03:24 PM

I miss my fireplace!

What a joy to turn the lights off while sitting, good drink in hand, with the wife and kids watching the snow fall. The crackle and pop, the warm light, the scent of the wood, the warmth that brought us all together!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: GUEST,Charmion at work
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 03:56 PM

When I look out the window here at Fort Fumble, I see mostly white stuff, with a few dim shapes moving out on Colonel By Drive and a ghostly arch where the Mackenzie King Bridge should be. Ottawa expects 15 to 20 cm of snow before tomorrow morning, but that just makes getting to work a little more awkward than normal for January, and that's mighty awkward. Most (employed) people here do not consider themselves entitled to hunker down unless the garage door is completely snowed in and the bus isn't running.

Bill D mentions the ice storm of '98 in his post above; I remember giving a writing workshop at Health Canada that morning for 15 people who bathed in cold water, dressed in the dark (one lady regaled us with the challenge of putting on mascara by candlelight) and made the trip to work by way of detours around crashed trees and downed hydro wires. I remember leaving the house in gumboots to protect myself from electrocution because I could see a live wire sparking in a puddle of water in the gutter less than six feet from my front door.

Mind you, the only reason I have for leaving the house on a day like that (or like today) is that they don't pay me unless I do!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 04:05 PM

Here in sub-tropical, summer, Auckland it is wet and warmish, so I wish I had your excuses to blob out.
I'm sick of working, even at a job I love. And the computer is playing up.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 04:14 PM

We may get 4 or 5 incles of the white stuff where I'm at, some 30 miles up the Kennebec River in Maine. It's a good day to stay inside and work on music. Take a break now and then to shovel out the driveway and the walks. But it really doesn't seem like we'll get a whole lot of snow here. Too cold and dry!

We should send some snow to Brett (Naemanson), in Guam to remind him of what he's missing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Metchosin
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 05:18 PM

We're even getting it here on southern Vancouver Island. We finally got the wood in, the fire's blasting out heat, coffee and soup's on and the dogs are curled up.

Even if we do get a repeat of '96 and snow to fence tops and no power, we're prepared to savour it this time. I love it when we can tell customers we're snowed in and can't deal with their "emergencies" and truly relax for a change.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 05:37 PM

mercy! story and pictures from Wichita! That seems to have been about the worst hit spot.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: ranger1
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:27 PM

I'll admit to indulging in my one true vice today, I've been snuggled up to my PS2 most of the day. However, I did emerge a couple of times to walk Clancy Dog, shovel out my neighbor and check the mail. That led to turning off the PS2 and firing up the CD player and writing a mudcatter a thank you for the CDs received in the mail. Thanks, Jerry!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Gypsy
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 10:01 PM

Well, on this part of the West Coast, it has been wet, wet, wet. Twixt rains, we bring in wood. During rains, we work on recording, playing music, and laughing. Studying a new book on hammered dulcimer arrangments. Take a break and throw the ball down the hallway to get the dogs worked up. Look at the drowned garden that i am chained to in the summertime, and figure that strawberry paddies are nice! I LOVE winter! my sloth time!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 10:05 PM

Kitties are pissed at me for once again burying the back yard in snow. Seamus meantime is running outside, burying his nose in the snow, and coming back looking for a biscuit. He has it down to a science.

Kendall and Jacqui made it back and landed safely at the Jetport. They too are huddled in at home for the duration.

So good to be at home safe and warm.

Lucretius: "How good it is to look out at a stormy sea and see a boat tossed in the storm..."

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 10:21 PM

I have been listening to some CDs and tapes a very good friend sent to me. He started this thread. Thank you, Jerry and Ruth. And here?

We tend to get a bit blase about snow. Part of life here. We gear up for more MVCs because people tend to forget from snowfall to snowfall--or season to season--that it is slippery and when it forms an ice layer on the roads, their vehicles don't grip the road as well as they should. People also forget to clean their chimneys, and we have had four flue/chimney fires in the past month. The temperature is expected to drop from a balmy 8 below to 32 below tonight (That's about -26 F for my American friends). However, as a rule we are geared up for this kind of weather, and many places just aren't.

About the gum boots: they won't do much if it's an 8000 volt line, and some wires will 'seek' a means to ground. Keep far far away from them. It's a better world with you in it, Charmion.

If you end up boiling water from snow, remember to add the snow slowly. If you simply put a pile of snow in the pot on the stove, it will form a hollow pocket in the center and the bottom of the pan will burn.

Sleep tight, all. Keep warm and be safe.

BM

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 11:55 PM

And don't boil the yellow snow. But keep in mind, the white snow can be filled with twigs and tree debris too.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: GUEST,Charmion at work
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:24 PM

Thanks for the info on hydro wires, brucie -- and I'm so glad I didn't know it then!

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:30 PM

Keep your eye on the mail, brucie: I mailed another package of CDs today.. If you don't enjoy them, I hear they give off wonderful rainbow colors if you burn them in a fireplace..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Metchosin
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:40 PM

Wow! Its beautiful! Unlike brucie, rain is more common here, so usually the locals live in a state of denial of winter's existance, but not today. It is blowing and snowing and about -8C (17F) with the wind chill.

I hauled water and feed to Sailor, the pony, this morning and it should last him 'til lunch. Despite the fact that his shed is open on all sides, he's pretty content, even with a dusting of snow on his back and a few snowballs hanging. He's got a good heavy winter coat this year, and although he no longer has his old girfriend to snuggle with, unless it gets really extreme, I don't think I'll bother blanketing him.

So far the power's still on, but I'm going to fill the bathtub to the brim, for backup. All in all, we're as snug as a bug in a rug in the    snowy hills of Metchosin.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Metchosin
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:56 PM

Oh shit! the power just flicked. Just might not be around for a few days.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 02:03 PM

We've had odd weather, and since I am from a northern place, (north of Seattle) I mentally want to hunker down for cold weather. Here in Texas that doesn't happen the way I like. We had a week into the 70s last week, so warm that I see today some blooms on the quince and several daffodills pushing up in one bed. But this week we had a couple of days of very cold (for us) down into the 20s, so those quince and narcissus are bound to die back again. It's warming this weekend, but the weather guy warned us today that mid-week we're gonna get a whallop that comes in from Metchosin's direction. Maybe then we'll get a snow day. The kids love them. The trick is to read the predictions well enough so schools and employers don't have to decide at mid-day to send folks home or not. Then it's a mess.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: dianavan
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 08:29 PM

Snow here in B.C. Three friends going south are stranded at my house, plus one going north. Add to that a friend with a friend from Montreal and all of a sudden I had a house full of people stuck in the snow!

Came home from work and cooked dinner for seven. I panicked for a minute wondering how I would feed them all with that old turnip but I managed a dinner of fried potatoes and onions with chorizo, green beans from the freezer (last years garden) squash, coleslaw and pickled beets. For desert it was rice pudding and rhubarb sauce (again from last years garden). What a feast! The friends provided the wine.

We started a fire in the fireplace and luckily my friends brought their instruments.

Amazing how the simplest of home-cooked meals can taste so good.

Considering it was all impromptu and temporary, I think I would call it hunkering up.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 08:45 PM

Lucky you, dianavan. If you have to be homebound in a storm, be homebound with friends and their music.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: bbc
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 10:03 PM

We're s'posed to get another 5 inches tomorrow on top the the snow & ice we got 2 days ago. I've got food in & plan on taking it easy. I'm glad it's falling on a Saturday!

bbc in the corner of NY, MA, CT

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Miken
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 12:55 AM

Hey Dianavan, that snow held up north of here in Skagit County, so we only got rain here in Edmonds.....I'd sooner have been up there with you folks having food and music!! Tomorrow they say we may pick up 1-3 inches. "They" usually exagerate. Enjoy!
Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: LadyJean
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:00 AM

Here in Pittsburgh it's raining, and raining, and raining. Point Park is under water, and the stretch of the parkway called The Bathtub is full of water.
I'm on the high ground. My basement smells interesting, but, so far, nothing is floating down there.

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: jacqui.c
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 07:07 PM

Here in South Portland we've now got about five inches of snow in total and that is a real novelty for me. In the south of England snow has become increasingly rare over the last few years.

We don't have to go out unless we want to and there are books and music, the pc and a big yellow dog to hunker down to, as well as a fairly new husband. What more could I want?

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: bbc
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 12:36 AM

Got a few more inches of snow & ice today. No worries; it's the weekend.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 08:19 AM

I did a bit of hunkering down here recently.

Most citizens (& visitors) love Sydney's famous hot summer, but I hate it - humidity knocks me about & I get migraines on hot sunny days. So I hide - I close my blinds & curtains to cut down the glare cos it affects my eyes, turn my fan on & listen to music/radio & read & do crafty things. I also doze at times as the heat & humidity are still around, as is some glare as my curtains are not heavy enough to exclude all light. Later in the day I open every thing up when the sun has gone down. At night I sleep with the fan on.

As much as I dislike sun & heat, I'm sure I would dislike trying to keep warm in snowy climates!! The Wichita conditions definitely would not be to my liking.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: JennyO
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 09:32 AM

I hate to tell you this, Sandra, but you might have to hunker down again on Wednesday for a few days. Hot temperatures well into the 30's are predicted for Wed-Sun.

I don't like it that hot either. If I stay in the house and keep it all closed up during the day, I can keep it cooler for quite a few hours, then, like you, later in the day when it has hopefully cooled down, I open up all the windows. Trouble is, sometimes it doesn't cool down at night, then I have a hard time sleeping - a fan doesn't help much because I find the humming and the movement of the air rather unsettling.

Jenny (making the most of the current mild weather)

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 09:32 AM

Well we had 70/80 mph winds, hailstones, snow, thunder, and lightning yesterday, the snow plough standby crews were all out ploughing and gritting. Today most of it's gone and the wind's a gentle zephyr, albeit a cold zephyr, it's almost like yesterday was a figment of my imagination. Our weather's been odd of late, we had snow fell Christmas day, gone by Boxing day, we had torrential rain and windy weather 1st January, snow on the 2nd, and all gone by the 3rd, still it keeps things interesting. I'm just looking forward to Loughstock in Ulster in 4 weeks, and the Mudcat Eurogathering in Niort France on 1st May weekend. Then it's hitch the fishing boat to the motorhome, and head to the west coast to look for Cod and Haddock.
Work is definitely a four letter word.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 01:54 PM

Hunkering down is definitely a summer pastime, too. Or, in really rainy weather. Any excuse works for me.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Hunkered Down
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 02:41 PM

if you have a newish PC, live in N. America, and want to have weather up-to-date on your desktop, try Weather Pulse It will allow you to enter zip codes and keep track of conditions in multiple locations...with radar and maps and animated images. Really clever program.

(It 'will' show satellite images from all over the world, it is just US/N. America focused)