Embracing the Cold Embrace of Winter

 Minneapolis, MN

6 Degree, Feels Like -12 Degree Selfie

Living The Cold Life

Our Minnesota winter is going well.  Temperatures have gotten cold but it has mostly been dry so we have only had 2 real snows.  We do get surprise dustings of snow and a Factory Created Snow (read about that here). For the past 20 years or so, I have wanted to experience cold in a place that makes cold livable.  I often talked about spending a winter in Montreal so part of the appeal of living in Minneapolis was to experience The Cold.  I feel like we are doing a pretty good job and we have gotten to experience some pretty low temperatures.  We also really appreciate being connected to The Skyway so we don't have to experience the cold when we don't want to.  We can get to bars, restaurants, and go grocery shopping at Target without ever having to go outside.  Historically, January 17th is the peak of cold here so, if history repeats itself this year, temps are on the upward trend.  Days are already starting to get noticeably longer as well.

Kind people knit warm wear for our unhoused population that somehow manages during these harsh winters.

Our busses and transit run reliably in the snow.

There was a tattoo convention in the hotel behind our apartment and someone took their best attempt at spelling Tattoo.

There was also an attempt at the use of you're.

People are required to keep the sidewalks clear and some fail at it spectacularly, while others do a great job.

The Minneapolis skyline is really pretty at night, especially when it is foggy.

Donna made us a Minnesota Hot Dish to keep us fueled up for winter.

We also purchased stylish balaclavas.

Francis keeps warm in is fluffy blanket

Both my eyebrows and my glasses frosted up walking to play pinball at LITT the other night.

We try to stay in when it gets this cold.  We don't want to mess around with frostbite.

We even have a saying here that may or may not be borrowed from some Scandinavian country, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing".  

That's it for today.  If you missed, Pinball Tournament Winner Winner #1, check it out.  I won a local pinball tournament.

Unexpected Factory Snow

 Minneapolis, MN

Snow!

A Walk in Unexpected Snow

It's Thanksgiving and Donna and I (mostly Donna) made all of the turkey and fixings on Tuesday.  We have been eating turkey for 2 days so we decided to do what any pinball fan would do, go to LITT Pinball Bar on Thanksgiving.  Our walk there takes us through Loring Park.  We arrived at LITT around noon and had a snack and a beer to support them for being open on Thanksgiving and then played pinball in a somewhat empty bar.  I had made a list of my high scores and decided my goal today would be to beat as many of them as I could.  Having pinball tables at home is starting to make me a better player.  

11/28/2024	Elvira's House of Horrors (Blood Red Kiss)	33,731,680
11/28/2024	Godzilla (LE)	493,936,770
11/28/2024	Metallica Remastered (LE)	58,395,830
11/28/2024	Pirates of the Caribbean (Jersey Jack) (LE)	228,563
11/28/2024	The Uncanny X-Men (LE)	142,875,950

I ended up overachieving.  My Godzilla score blew my high score out of the water.  I was also happy with my X-Men score and my Pirates score (it's a pretty low scoring game unless you know exactly what to do).  My Elvira score was a top score but I still need to figure out ball control on that table.  I will continue to track my high scores when it makes sense.  It is a lot easier now that I am only playing 50 or so tables.  When I was traveling the country we were playing on new tables every day and I ended up tracking every play which became a chore.

LITT was running 2 for 1 Tang Shots for Tangsgiving so we had intended on getting one each but we found out it has Red Bull in it and that isn't really our jam so we stuck with beer.

It was fantastically empty.  Don't worry, it is packed most every other day.  LITT is becoming like Cheers for us.  When we showed up a couple people we knew said hello to us.  We can't go there without seeing people we know now.

Tesla Strike Champion!

Normally that would be the story, We Played Pinball on Thanksgiving, but the real story is the unexpected snow.

When we exited LITT the city was covered in a light dusting of snow.  Since early November it has always been cold enough to snow but we just haven't gotten much moisture coming through.  There was no snow predicted as far as we knew so it was quite a surprise.  We walked home enjoying making fresh footprints and smiling to others out walking.  We stopped and took photos along the way.  Snow is still fun for us.  I grew up in SoCal so I never saw it without a twisty mountain drive.  When we moved to Seattle we saw snow a few times a season and it was a pain in the butt because we usually had to go to work.  Now when it snows we can just enjoy it.  The next day we found out the snow was actually created by a Glass Factory just across the border in Wisconsin. The conditions where just right for water in the air to adhere to particles coming from their chimney creating snow reaching about 100 miles.  

"Factory-enhanced snow" causes crashes and spinouts in Wisconsin, National Weather Service says

This morning, as I write this, we are getting a bit of snow again.  I will probably go for a walk, but I am happy I don't need to drive.

Yesterday ,on my walk, I noticed the ice on the lake at Loring Park is getting thicker.

Here is a fire hydrant with some sort of leaker installed to prevent freezing.

This is this mornings snow taken from the elevator lobby on our floor.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Record Listening at Our Local Library, check it out.  We listened to our records at the library.

Looking Back - 4/13/2022 Silver Falls SP to Humbug Mt SP Oregon

 Road Trip Silver Falls State Park OR to Humbug Mt. State Park OR

Buried but alive!

This morning we woke up to 3 whopping inches of snow (which is a lot for April in the area, a record in fact).  I wasn't surprised because I knew it was going to precipitate all night and I didn't hear rain so it must have been snow.  We were pretty warm in the van with our down sleeping bags.  We have done below zero temperatures before.

I put on my boots and took care of restroom stuff for me and then helped Francis.  

Snow!

More Snow!

My next task was to assess the bins.  We stack and cover the bins because they don't fit in the van with the bed made up.  They looked fine but there was a peanut bag under the picnic table.  Upon further review, there were multiple things under the picnic table.  It turns out, in my haste to set up in the snow, I neglected to sort the bins according to food vs non-food.  The plan was to always keep the bins containing food in the van and put the bins containing clothing and household items under the tarps.  Some creature had gotten into one of our bins and helped themselves to a few peanuts and a giant bag of granola that Donna had made for us.  The bag of granola was completely gone.  I wish we had footage of the squirrel or racoon dragging the 1.5lb bag of granola away but we don't.  This bin will need to be sanitized when we get to LA.  

I used my need to get the coffee making stuff out of one of the bins as an excuse to put all of the bins in the Gazelle Gazebo and tidy up the violated bin.  I removed handfuls of peanuts and a few other shredded paper goods.  While the water for the coffee heated up.

Coffee, coffee, coffeeee! (our coffee song sung to
the tune of the conga, conga, congaaa song)

While I was finishing up the coffee making Donna picked up the litter that ended up under the picnic table.   We sat in the gazebo and drank our coffee and discussed how we were going to get out of there and contingency plans if we couldn't (keep in mind we don't deal with snow very often so it wasn't obvious to us at the time that escape was going to be fairly straight forward).

After coffee we packed up and chained up.  It was my first time putting on the new fangled cables.  Donna and I both read the instructions and after a half hearted "doing it my way" failed attempt, I followed the instructions and things went smoothly and we were off!

Off we go!

The roads really weren't that bad but it was good practice.

Soon we were out of the park and on a freshy plowed road.  We pulled over and I set out a tarp and attempted to take off the cables.  I didn't follow the instructions, instead I unhooked the front of the cables and attempted to back off.  20/20 hindsight reveals that my plan was not going to work 100% of the time.  For some reason my foggy survival brain thought I could back out of the chains with the back of the chains still hooked.  Luckily the right cable unhooked itself and came off but as I should have expected, if I had thought about it for half a second, the left cable wrapped around the drive shaft.  I only went about a half a rotation but that was enough to make me dig around and unhook everything and do a bit of tugging.  It could have been way worse but my plan all along was to only back off a tiny bit and if it wasn't working to reassess.  I did reassess, and figured it out without hurting anything on the car, or the cables, or even myself.  (while typing this I was reminded that I should pull the cables out of the roof rack and let them dry out).

While I as trying to unhook the right cable I went through all of the worst case scenarios and told myself, "When we get through this I am going to get something good for lunch" to keep me going.  Since the unhooking went quickly and there was no disaster, that need faded but I figured I would mention buying lunch to Donna.  She thought it was a good idea so she rerouted us through Keizer OR to, what I believe to be, the northern most In-N-Out.  

There are no In-N-Outs in New Jersey or New York
or even east of Texas

Here is our recorded drive for you highway and map nerds.

We arrived in Humbug State Park OR and it was raining lightly.  We set up camp quickly happy it wasn't snowing.  

The Dodge Grand Caravan that is making it all happen

The rubber boots we bought in Costa Rica worked fantastic!

We kept it simple for dinner.  We had Raisin Bran and Beer.  It was a good evening!

Local Hopwater is essential

Looking Back - 4/12/2022 Kirkland WA -> Silver Falls State Park OR

Silver Falls State Park, OR

Road Trip Kirkland WA to Silver Falls State Park OR

Today we look back on our first drive.  Since we retired early, we do what we can to save money so we don't have a ton of data on our phone plans.  The goal is to post little updates on the road and then look back when I have an unlimited connection.  

The day started with us waking up in our empty (well we left a couch and a bed) apartment.  We heated up coffee that we had made the day before (the coffee maker was packed and went into storage the day before) and looked forward to the adventure that was going to unfold over the next year or so.  After coffee, we packed the van and got Francis settled.  We didn't have an incentive to get to our destination early because we couldn't check in until 3pm.  

The drive was about 4 hours and we took a few stops to let Francis do his thing.  

One of the many beautiful Washington State Rest Stops

One of the things I like to do is track which highways I have driven on.  I am experimenting with recording all of our drives in the My Tracks App.  It seems to be going pretty well.

Our drive for the day

We arrived at Silver Falls State Park just in time for check in.  There was a lot more snow on the ground than we had expected. We had been getting weather from Sublimity OR and it turns out the comparison is Apples to Oranges.  

Francis can sense the snow on the ground

The snow continued to fall lightly as we set up camp.  It was our first time setting up camp with as many crates as we have.  The plan is to put the crates without food and without valuables under tarps overnight.  They fit in the van when driving, but when we set up the bed we have to move them out.

Setting up camp in the "snow"

Once camp was set up we took a short walk.  It was very wet snow so we decided to just stick close.  Silver Falls State Park is known for its 4 mile 10 waterfall hike but we decided to skip it this time.

Clear walkways were nice

Snow capped logs on the river

Oregon State Parks have heated bathrooms!

Miles of Smiles

The beer we shared stayed cold

We whipped up dinner as the snow continued to fall and then hit the sack just before the sun went down.  Before bed Donna usually reads and I type up my trip notes for the day.

Here are some photos we took last year during real spring when it wasn't snowing.  It's really an incredible place and you should totally go when it isn't snowing.

Mind your head

The trails lead behind the falls

You can see The Backside of Water

Last year outdoor masks were the norm