The “Inversional Flu”

Once again folks, an inversion has set in over the valley and I’m feeling the effects of it.  Mild flu-like symptoms; headache, joint ache and, well, aches all over the body.

It’s supposed to break up early next week, as the temperatures head up to the high 20’s.  Yeah.  Until then I just need to drink a lot of water and bring my Advil everywhere.  But on the good side, inversions do make for spectacular sunsets.

Talking about headaches, I’m glad no one was in the left turn lane when this signal light fell down.  I got this picture on the way home from school today, there was a police officer in the middle of the intersection directing traffic just like in the old days.

And finally, confirmed: The Jeep definitely has positraction.

For those of you who don’t know what positraction is, I will defer to Marisa Tomei in the movie “My Cousin Vinnie”

Mona Lisa Vito: The car that made these two, equal-length tire marks had positraction. You can't make those marks without positraction, which was not available on the '64 Buick Skylark!
Vinny Gambini: And why not? What is positraction?
Mona Lisa Vito: It's a limited slip differential which distributes power equally to both the right and left tires. The '64 Skylark had a regular differential, which, anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing.
[the jury members nod, with murmurs of "yes," "that's right," etc]

So I tried it out on a snowy parking lot.  All I had to do was spin my tires as I backed out of a parking spot, and then get out and see if I made one or two spin tracks in the snow.

As you can see, the Jeep made two slick tracks where both tires spun as I backed out.

2012 in Review

Here are some of my favorites from 2012.

Holding back the cold.

I shrink-wrapped my front door.

Yes, you read that right.

My house is 100 years old, with front doors that are very likely 100 years old also.  Energy efficient they are not.  Single pane of glass, door frame as tight as my size 13 shoes on size 7 feet.  Yes, I’ve put weather stripping on.  Nothing seems to work.

But I don’t want to get rid of these doors, they were made back in the day when doors were ornamental, not just a pre-fab rectangle made to keep the heat in.  They’re classics.

But I’m really tired of my living room always being cold, no matter how high the heat is set.  So with the leftover piece of window plastic I used to insulate the back porch, a couple of days ago I wrapped my front door.  Tight as a drum.

Yeah, that means it is useless for the winter, but that’s ok.  I have a second front door in the spare room that I can use to get the newspaper and mail.

And now my living room stays toasty warm.

Welcome to 2013.

For the New Year