Glow Ball Warming 2

Time is flying.  I guess because I'm old.  Today is one of the prettiest days I've ever seen.  How pretty a day is would be relative of course.  It's been below 20 degrees for about 72 hours.  That's wacko here on the Delmarva.  Our average high is 46 degrees for this time.  We have this three inch layer of powder snow on everything.  It looks great.  It couldn't melt at twenty degrees.  I've shoveled a few paths just for exercise and fun.  The snow isn't in our way at all, as you can walk or drive a car right over it.  I must be missing something about the snow disaster in Atlanta.  That was two inches of snow.  I don't see how it could cripple a city.  But today and yesterday are so clear blue it just aches.  It's so bright one is snowblinded  by looking in the direction of the sun.  I would like to get my little plane out and fly in this pretty weather.  But I'm not going to.  I don't want to start the engine,  even with a pre heat,  for fear of damaging it.  There will be many days for flying in the near future.  And I am way too lazy to do the work of getting that plane out and ready.
 I secretly like winter and being snowed in.  I catch up on reading.  And notching back stress.  I think and worry in the early morning before I get up.  I stress over things that I can do little about.  Only sometimes am I able to force myself to simply not worry.  It is possible to do,  but it takes practice and will,  and a few tricks.  Sometimes problems can go away with time if one only lets them.  The key is not worrying while one is waiting for the problem to take care of itself.  Most problems are better solved head on.  I'm a weeny coward about this head on stuff.  I want everyone to like me and think I am a nice guy.  I tend to be non confrontational.  Then I get fed up with something or somebody,  and I  over react. 
  I have a couple of friends who comment about climate change or global warming whenever it is bitterly cold.  They like to joke about Global Warming.  And make fun of Al Gore and scientists.  I laugh along with them.  It is funny.  But they are serious too when they joke. They feel they are "right" about global warming being some sort of "fake" or liberal agenda.  Their minds are made up.  They are not really curious to find out much more about it,  unless it is info. about the "hoax".  I like truth,  even if it doesn't line up well with our culture and our moneymakers.  I'm convinced by the facts of global warming.  And I "know" it's a true situation.  But I agree with the deniers too about certain things.  I don't deny the statistics and the evidence that gets stronger every day.  But I think that the man made part of all this,  while true,  doesn't make it a hill for some political group to die on.  Here's a couple things,  FACTS, to show we're all on the same side of this:
1.  Let's all agree that the climate changes all the time,  day to day,  year to year, decade to decade,  century to century, millennium to millennium,  etc. and let's also all agree that we can dig plugs out and continue to learn our earth's history.  Let's all agree we can go back a long time and use computers and technology etc.  We've just begun to learn.
2.  Let's never debate this topic of climate change without first deciding whether we are talking about the results of a natural temperature cycle OR  the results of man made warming overlaid on the natural cycle.  Any man made change can not be separated from  the natural change.  So it's easy to fog that issue.  Let's not fog that issue.
3.  Let's all agree to stop saying that the earth will be destroyed because of man.  Man could damage the earth to a point that man would become extinct.  Yes.  99%  of all species that have ever lived are extinct.  But if man is wiped out in an ice age, or a warming, or a nuclear war,  the earth will go on and on.  (In the future it might be possible for man to use a big enough nuke or something worse, to decay the earths orbit, and send it into the sun, so at that level,  yes, man could destroy the planet).  I'm glad it's almost impossible for us men to kill our planet.  The planet will survive.  If we destroy ourselves,  well,  we deserve it.  Of course lots of innocent animals and plants will die with us men,  and they don't deserve it.
 4.  Here is one the deniers should like.   You can say that we are in a warming cycle (and you'd be right).  You can say it is man made to some point.  But in the big picture,  overall analysis,  the earth is cooling and always has been and always will be because the core of the earth is molten.  That molten magma is cooling.   The deniers of global warming will not use this amazing argument in the debate though.  Do you know why?  Because then the argument would be defined science on both sides and there would be scientific discussions debating the geography,  climatology,  astrophysics etc.  and we would all be learning.  The conservatives don't want that argument because they want to believe, not learn and think.  Stick with the status quo,  which we already "know".
5.  We've all heard the term "Follow the Money" or "who benefits?"  Since about 2006 some big investors and the country of Canada/UK have been quietly studying global warming and within especially the last two years investing heavily.  The Northwest Passage is almost open above Canada.
The ice has been breaking up in the artic and when that big seaway opens,  Canada wants to be sure it has it locked up. (or unlocked by icebreakers)   Have you heard about this?  I heard it on MPR,  from the BBC.  They like the deniers because it will keep interest in the Artic seaway low and these investors in Canada will win big.  The Russians and the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal don't like it either. Of course.
I'm not saying the planet is warming because man cut down the rain forest or has too many cars. It doesn't matter why the planet is warming.  Some big shots (besides the Polar bears) know it's warming.  And they are putting their money on it.  I wouldn't bet against them.

Deep Freeze

Greetings from Delmarva.  I won't even try to complain to anyone about the weather these first two weeks of January.  How could I when Minneapolis had fifty below!  Week before last the big deep freeze was coming.  Wife and I had gone to Salisbury to get something "checked" on her Altima at the dealership.  All was fine,  except they found $600.  worth of other stuff to do on the car.  While they worked we looked at new Subarus and new mowers at other dealerships.  However we can not afford a new Subaru or a new mower.  This killed most of the day.  When we got home and I rechecked the weather it looked like single digits over night.  I had two hours of daylight to try a last ditch tighten up of our leaky old farmhouse.  To keep the pipes from freezing. My energy level is usually pretty low for a lot of reasons.  But I had gotten myself caffeinated to a high degree and I was buzzing like a cheap TV. What could I do in two hours.  The wind was blowing hard and it was already below freezing.  I took the pickup out to my shed I call a "hangar".  I threw a dozen bales of straw I had into the truck.  And some insulation sheets called "fan-fold".  And some sheet plastic and a stapler.  I squeezed the truck into the side yard next to the north wall of the house.  I stapled about 200 sq. feet of the thin fan-fold against the wall.  Every time I picked up a sheet the wind blew it out of my hand.  I stacked the straw against the house over the insulation.  Now it was dark.  And colder.  I worked some more under the lights of the running pickup. Next I went into the house and started pulling out  window unit air conditioners.  Those window units,  if you leave them in over the winter, leak horribly.  When I took them out,  I just set them aside on the floor and closed the storm window and the big sash window.  Instant tight seal.  Sort of. I did four of them. Then wife and I taped up the leaks in a few other windows with packing tape.  I set up some portable heaters near the pipes.  And when we went to bed we left the water dripping.  That night saw 7 degrees with a wind chill from a twenty mile an hour wind at about 5 below.  The next night 13 degrees,  but little wind.  No frozen pipes.  As I type this ten days later,  the temperature here is matching the average at 46.  Partly sunny.  Dogs cats and horse are happy and wanting me to come out and play.  I would take the airplane out and go for a ride except:  Our airstrip is pretty soggy.  No standing water but really soggy.  The deep chill from the "solar vortex" is over for now.  As for the rest of the winter,  I don't think it will be any worse.  But it is just too early in the season to start thinking about spring.  I can't do that until Groundhog Day 18 days away.  But the days are getting longer.  And I'm back on a rigid low carb diet and exercise program.  And I pulled myself through a period of transitioning to "ketosis" which took a bit of will power.  The odd thing about all this is:  I actually like being stuck in the house and doing nothing and accomplishing nothing.  If I do that for more than a week though,  cabin fever sets in.  As I get older,  I need to move around all day, every day, or I will continually slow down and die.  If I have to go under our house into the crawl space for some reason,  I would rather die.
Happy New Year my friends.  And enjoy the promise of Spring and I am pullin' for you.