i’m supposed to be in portland, oregon already. instead making the best of it at the minneapolis-st paul airport.
All posts by snowdeal
318/365. the conundrum of packing for four days of business travel in the pacific northwest in november as a runner.
i don’t want to check a bag so i have to fit everything in a carry-on. but packing layers for cold/rainy running weather crowds out the space for street clothes. hi. ho. i have my priorities and am thankful that i work for a company where i can wear the same outfit for four days and nobody will think less of me 🙂
day 4152 – 317/365. the first hockey game of the 2015-2016 season!
and odin’s first game as a pee wee skating with 11 and 12 year olds. viroqua played sparta at home. holy cow, right from the start it was apparent this season is going to be something new. with bigger kids on the ice it seemed like they were playing double time!
i wasn’t sure what to expect, since odin’s team has a new goalie with no experience. but he did a great job and the defense, odin included, did a tremendous job helping him out. the offense kept the pressure on with 24 shots on goal ( twice that of the opposing team ).
whooohooo – viroqua won 8 to 5!
( in this shot odin is in the foreground chasing down the puck. )
skinny legs and all.
60°F temps on november 15th(?!) means i get one more run in wearing shorts!
( i can’t be the only one who gets the tom robbins reference in the title, right? )
forecasting the future with our friend the wooly bear caterpillar?
what does our friend the wooly bear caterpillar ( larval stage of the Pyrrharctia isabella ) tell us about the upcoming winter? according to the farmer’s almanac the caterpillar’s relatively narrow brown band ( it’s hard to tell from this angle that’s narrow ) means we’ll get heavier than normal snow and its not particularly fat or fuzzy which means we’ll have a relatively mild winter in terms of temperature. so, snowy but not too cold. sounds perfect!
we’ll check back in the spring and see how accurate a forecaster our wooly bear caterpillar friend was.
how the heck did a crazy windstorm do this to the treehouse movie theater screen?
first, some detail might be in helpful. the 11’x5’ treehouse movie theater screen hangs off the 2nd floor of the house and is attached at the top to the house soffit. there’s a 10 pound piece of metal conduit in a hem on the bottom of the screen to keep it even and flat. support ropes are linked to clamps that are attached to the bar to keep the bar from banging against the house when it gets windy.
recently, we had a couple days and nights with crazy winds and on one of those nights we could hear the treehouse movie theater screen banging against the side of the house. great. the winds were so strong they snapped the support lines on the bottom of the screen. but there was nothing to be done in the dark during 40mph gusts so we settled in for a night of listening to the banging.
but then it stopped. “huh.” i thought. “i guess the screen must have ripped apart and fallen down entirely.”
not exactly. somehow a gust of wind got in the foot of so space between the screen and house and whipped it onto the roof and over the drain waste vent?! you can sort of see the metal conduit that runs along the bottom of the screen in this photo and how it had to make it up and over the vent.
it might be hard to visualize but if hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, i wouldn’t have thought it was possible.
i have to admit, lacking a 30 foot ladder, it took some time to figure out how to get myself perched on what is probably the most inaccessible section of our roof to try to get the bar back over the vent. i’m looking down on the treehouse movie theater deck which itself is 15 feet off the ground.
316/365. YALM – Yet Another Local Mural.
for a small town in southwest wisconsin we have no shortage of murals! this one is on the forgotten works warehouse. i run by this newish mural almost every day and it always gets me to thinking what might be going on in the scene. i haven’t come up with any answers yet.