Author Topic: Winter hacks  (Read 9713 times)

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Winter hacks
« on: December 01, 2014, 03:14:57 PM »
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline ApolloGnomon

  • Venus
  • **
  • Posts: 39
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2014, 03:37:20 PM »
The first one, foil behind the radiator, and one further down the list, wooly shoe inserts, can be combined. One day in the National Guard I decided to fix an ongoing problem with cold feet and cut up a pop-tart wrapper to fit under my basic foam insoles in my combat boots. I tried one foot only for the morning just to see if I could tell the difference. Worked so well I did the other one at lunch (yes, I ate another pop tart) and that night I made a pair for my battle buddy's boots. I made him eat his own pop tarts as I'd had my recommended monthly tolerance for the disgusting things. Any aluminized plastic food wrapper would work for this.

The screws in the shoes for studs idea: my wife worked with a guy who rode a bike to work all year round and had a set of bike tires he had studded with short screws. Apparently it worked great.

Offline BazBear

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 396
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2014, 08:14:19 PM »
It's that time of year when I consider employing the ultimate winter hack - moving south - south as in southern hemisphere - so I can skip winter entirely. ;)
"It's true you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl." - Mark Watney, protagonist of The Martian by Andy Weir

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2014, 03:25:07 AM »
The first one, foil behind the radiator, and one further down the list, wooly shoe inserts, can be combined. One day in the National Guard I decided to fix an ongoing problem with cold feet and cut up a pop-tart wrapper to fit under my basic foam insoles in my combat boots. I tried one foot only for the morning just to see if I could tell the difference. Worked so well I did the other one at lunch (yes, I ate another pop tart) and that night I made a pair for my battle buddy's boots. I made him eat his own pop tarts as I'd had my recommended monthly tolerance for the disgusting things. Any aluminized plastic food wrapper would work for this.

The screws in the shoes for studs idea: my wife worked with a guy who rode a bike to work all year round and had a set of bike tires he had studded with short screws. Apparently it worked great.

Thanks. It is time a should think of such a combination when I go to the village for Christmass vacation.
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2014, 03:26:12 AM »
It's that time of year when I consider employing the ultimate winter hack - moving south - south as in southern hemisphere - so I can skip winter entirely. ;)

entirely meanng to rain at all? or just no cold? I actualyl start to miss the rain after the summer
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2014, 03:42:29 AM »
by the way, speaking about winter, these are stunning pics of frost http://www.boredpanda.com/natural-winter-snow-ice-art/
I just don't know how #21 is formed
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline Zakalwe

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1590
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2014, 04:48:47 AM »
by the way, speaking about winter, these are stunning pics of frost http://www.boredpanda.com/natural-winter-snow-ice-art/
I just don't know how #21 is formed

They are formed when the water content of the plant starts to freeze. It expands and ruptures the stem. As the water freezes it pushes the ice outwards.
http://bit.ly/1tyAA8V
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2014, 04:53:21 AM »
by the way, speaking about winter, these are stunning pics of frost http://www.boredpanda.com/natural-winter-snow-ice-art/
I just don't know how #21 is formed

They are formed when the water content of the plant starts to freeze. It expands and ruptures the stem. As the water freezes it pushes the ice outwards.
http://bit.ly/1tyAA8V
interesting..thnx
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline BazBear

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 396
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2014, 05:01:52 AM »
It's that time of year when I consider employing the ultimate winter hack - moving south - south as in southern hemisphere - so I can skip winter entirely. ;)

entirely meanng to rain at all? or just no cold? I actualyl start to miss the rain after the summer
Where I live, in Vermont USA, winter precipitation tends to be snow. The snow I don't mind too much, but it can get very cold here. Right now it is -8.8 degrees Celsius, and most winters will have several nights where the temperature dips to -30 C or lower.
"It's true you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl." - Mark Watney, protagonist of The Martian by Andy Weir

Offline Peter B

  • Saturn
  • ****
  • Posts: 1274
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2014, 05:57:37 AM »
It's that time of year when I consider employing the ultimate winter hack - moving south - south as in southern hemisphere - so I can skip winter entirely. ;)

entirely meanng to rain at all? or just no cold? I actualyl start to miss the rain after the summer
Where I live, in Vermont USA, winter precipitation tends to be snow. The snow I don't mind too much, but it can get very cold here. Right now it is -8.8 degrees Celsius, and most winters will have several nights where the temperature dips to -30 C or lower.

Hey, why not move to Canberra, where I live? We're about 100km from the coast so we have a large annual temperature variation, so in winter we can get minimums as low as -10 C (rarely), with summer maximums up to 40 C. That way you get a winter that you'll think is pleasantly mild, and a nice warm summer to thaw you out... :-)
Ecosia - the greenest way to search. You find what you need, Ecosia plants trees where they're needed. www.ecosia.org

Offline LionKing

  • Mars
  • ***
  • Posts: 426
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2014, 06:11:06 AM »
It's that time of year when I consider employing the ultimate winter hack - moving south - south as in southern hemisphere - so I can skip winter entirely. ;)

entirely meanng to rain at all? or just no cold? I actualyl start to miss the rain after the summer
Where I live, in Vermont USA, winter precipitation tends to be snow. The snow I don't mind too much, but it can get very cold here. Right now it is -8.8 degrees Celsius, and most winters will have several nights where the temperature dips to -30 C or lower.

waw..that's too much..
Although I like the village, but I think Beirut's best characteristic is more electricity adn more warmth. In the village I can't get my face over the cover of the bed if I want to sleep unless the room is heated. I msut say that cold weather is a big no no for me
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”
 Rumi

Offline Echnaton

  • Saturn
  • ****
  • Posts: 1490
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2014, 10:55:31 AM »
My ultimate winter hack is to live in Houston, where we close down the town if there is the least bit of snow. 

That said, I do have homemade traction helpers.  Three foot long open rubber mats and five foot long boards with slits and studded with hex head screws.  You never know when you will get stuck in the mud on backwoods roads. 

I like the idea of the Pop Tart wrapper boot liners.  Those might come in handy this weekend if the weather doesn't turn up as is predicted.  And I will come out as a lover of the tasty toaster pastries.  At least the non-frosted blueberry flavored variety.  Still I know them for what they are and, in the past few decades, only ate them with my kids while on camping trips.
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. —Samuel Beckett

Offline Andromeda

  • Jupiter
  • ***
  • Posts: 746
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2014, 04:00:19 PM »
My ultimate winter hack is to live in Houston, where we close down the town if there is the least bit of snow.

In England we shut down the whole country if there is the least bit of snow...
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov.

Offline theteacher

  • Venus
  • **
  • Posts: 33
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2014, 04:41:11 PM »
My ultimate winter hack is to live in Houston, where we close down the town if there is the least bit of snow.

In England we shut down the whole country if there is the least bit of snow...

Like in Denmark: Almost any amount of snow is labelled "Chaos" on the front pages.

Offline PetersCreek

  • Venus
  • **
  • Posts: 43
Re: Winter hacks
« Reply #14 on: December 02, 2014, 05:29:47 PM »
We are far, far behind our snowfall average-to-date in the Anchorage area but have received a paltry few inches in the last couple of days.  Sadly...but not unexpectedly...everyone (except me and my wife, of course) have forgotten how to drive in winter weather.  Idiots, the lot of them.  My daily work commute (31 miles, one way) involves the sole highway leading north out of town.  To my unbridled joy, a construction project is underway at a key choke point.  It took me well over an hour to get home last night and about that long to get to work this morning.

My ultimate winter hack is the remote start system I had installed in my truck after I bought it last year.  After that, I guess it would be filling paper lunch bags with salt and setting them on the roof where ice dams are prone to forming.  I'm hoping we can put a new roof on next summer which should obviate that the need for that precaution.