What are you doing today?

Stayed in bed a bit longer in the morning, minding my own business and browsing the web on my iPad when what sounded like faraway beeping started somewhere. And continued. And continued. Thought one of the neighbors had left and forgotten to turn off their alarm clock or something. Then my phone buzzed — I had just received a text message from the power company informing me about an ongoing outage. Oopsie, realized it was my UPS that had been beeping for a while, just as the beeping stopped and I lost Internet access…

Pretty good situation over here anyway when power outages are so rare that I forget what my UPS sounds like, and good to know that it can still run things for a little while before shutting things down gracefully. Also promising that there is some kind of backup power for the network infrastructure in the building; Optical fiber usually won‘t spontaneously convert into twisted copper and back.

Less happy about the phone situation, the iPhone reception went all the way down to 1 tiny bar and mobile data did not work, only text messages (and, presumably, voice calls).
 
theSeb said:
Aren't you quite a bit more south and closer to the equator than I am though? Like @ericwn mentions, with darkness at 4:30pm and soon to be earlier it is nearly impossible to do anything after work like go for a bike ride or a paddleboard session. It would not be so bad, if we didn't change the clocks and just stayed in British Summer time all year round. The reasons for changing the clock are archaic and pointless. Loads of talking about abolishing the idea, but nothing done so far.

As much as I love the long summer days, I do prefer when I lived around 2000 miles from the equator. This meant warm weather, ranging from stupid humid hot to nice and mild, all year round. Sunsets at around 7 in the summers and around 5 in the winter.
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My idea of plenty hot enough maxes out at just under or at 70ºF and I move into whine territory when it hits 80. So I just have to put up with early darkness in the evenings in the Northeast, because I do like the cooler weather, just not the greyness of late autumn. Once we're past the solistice and into January, then I become much more of an enthusiast for the new season.

What I'm doing today so far is wondering what the regional weather forecasters are smoking. It's been saying current conditions are "Clear" since about 7:30am. In fact it's been so foggy since sunrise I can barely see there's a road out there.

It's very warm for this time of year too, so I guess the valley fog that can show up after a chilly night is just really slow to burn off today. Anyway the weather guys didn't even suggest "patchy fog" today but we're still carpeted by it at mid-morning.

I do like getting the earlier sunrise now, Only good thing about Standard Time in early November.
 
lizkat said:
My idea of plenty hot enough maxes out at just under or at 70ºF and I move into whine territory when it hits 80. So I just have to put up with early darkness in the evenings in the Northeast, because I do like the cooler weather, just not the greyness of late autumn. Once we're past the solistice and into January, then I become much more of an enthusiast for the new season.
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Are you saying that you don't get to keep the gray all winter long? If so, not fair. Sun will go away here in a couple of weeks only to make half day appearances every week or so until early March.
 
To be perfect candid, if I could crawl under a duvet, (two duvets? three duvets?) and sleep soundly, solidly, satisfyingly and deeply from now, until, say, early or mid March, I would cheerfully do so.

When working in countries further south - Georgia in the Caucasus comes to mind, as do both Afghanistan and Somalia - winter didn't bother me (climate is not the problem in those places) as the weather stayed warm (for the most part) while the latitude meant that the quality of light throughout winter remained excellent, or rather, one didn't suffer from light deprivation.

Yes, one sacrificed long twilights, but that is something best appreciated in summer.

Now, I'm with @lizkat: Once past the solstice, I do feel somewhat better about such things, and am an enthusiast (a passionate enthusiast) for the new season.
 
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Herdfan said:
Are you saying that you don't get to keep the gray all winter long? If so, not fair. Sun will go away here in a couple of weeks only to make half day appearances every week or so until early March.
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The quality of the light on a mid-January morning compared to now though is spectacular. It's really cold then, but January has clear and dry weather a lot of the time save for the occasional big snowfall, so it's my favorite time for picking fabrics for new projects or complements and contrasts for ones in progress.
 
lizkat said:
The quality of the light on a mid-January morning compared to now though is spectacular. It's really cold then, but January has clear and dry weather a lot of the time save for the occasional big snowfall, so it's my favorite time for picking fabrics for new projects or complements and contrasts for ones in progress.
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Just realizing you quilt. My mom was a quilter before her macular degeneration got too bad. She did wonderful work, but very few people got to see it. After she passed, we made a point to give her quilts to her friends and those who cared about her vs just selling them at an estate sale.
 
Herdfan said:
Just realizing you quilt. My mom was a quilter before her macular degeneration got too bad. She did wonderful work, but very few people got to see it. After she passed, we made a point to give her quilts to her friends and those who cared about her vs just selling them at an estate sale.
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It's a great way to get things to people who will appreciate them (or finish them, in the case of donated collections of quilt blocks, whole quilt tops or wall hangings that only lack a backing and border). My sister's quilt guild sometimes has been invited also to adopt and distribute amongst themselves (or as desired to a prison, vocational school or group home etc) the reserve of fabrics that had been owned by one of their members who has passed away.,
 
lizkat said:
It's a great way to get things to people who will appreciate them (or finish them, in the case of donated collections of quilt blocks, whole quilt tops or wall hangings that only lack a backing and border). My sister's quilt guild sometimes has been invited also to adopt and distribute amongst themselves (or as desired to a prison, vocational school or group home etc) the reserve of fabrics that had been owned by one of their members who has passed away.,
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Our best couple friend quilts and so does her mom. She has a longarm quilter and has finished up a couple of almost finished projects. She had first dibs on the material mom had and it was a lot. Some ladies from her quilt guild are coming over soon to "shop".

You don't happen to need parts for a 20-year old Bernina do you? The local store sold it to my mom and she was never able to use it to its full capacity as she was not tech savvy and now the machine is discontinued and basically only good for parts.
 
Herdfan said:
Our best couple friend quilts and so does her mom. She has a longarm quilter and has finished up a couple of almost finished projects. She had first dibs on the material mom had and it was a lot. Some ladies from her quilt guild are coming over soon to "shop".

You don't happen to need parts for a 20-year old Bernina do you? The local store sold it to my mom and shewwas never able to use it to its full capacity as she was not tech savvy and now the machine is discontinued and basically only good for parts.
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I too use services of a longarm quilter or for sure I'd never get any of my larger projects done! I quilt a few smaller things by hand and machine quilt some wall hangings, once in awhile have hand-tied some comforter-type quilts because they don't take as much time or stitching.

On the machine - That's a no (but thanks for offer) on the Bernina, since I've been an admirer of those but have been a Pfaff machine user and buyer of their models since the '80s, so pretty set in my gear preferences.

As far as fabrics go, my sister and I have long since fallen for the line that "whoever dies with the most fabric wins". I don't think we're in the all star pantheon of her quilting guild on that score even now, but we each have enough to last at least three lifetimes. So yeah when I want to go "shopping" for fabric, I head upstairs or over to her place.
 
I just won this trailer in a survey I filled out for portland department of transportation Now we can haul the dog to the vet
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Burley Bee Bike Trailer - Single | REI Co-op

Share your love of riding and the outdoors with your little one. The Burley Bee is a lightweight bike-only trailer that comfortably seats one child. Plus, it has tinted windows and ample cargo space.
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Talking about shipping, I was informed today that a book I ordered for and drop-shipped to a friend of mine in Reno was shipped back to the sender because they couldn't deliver it. I'm fairly sure I entered the PO Box correctly. Now, I have to figure out how to talk to customer service for next steps.
 
Outside of work I have to continue my odyssey to renew my Canadian PR card, in addition make an appointment with the German consulate in Toronto to get some documents verified, see if I can also get my kids the German citizenship. Annoying tasks all around.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Congratulations.

Fantastic.

That is absolutely brilliant news and - take a bow - you should be very proud of yourself, Dr Flowers.
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Thomas Veil said:
Congratulations!

Hopefully you are throwing yourself a well deserved party. :cool:
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Just trying to figure out where I should be taken for dinner. I'm over the moon!
 
Alli said:
Just trying to figure out where I should be taken for dinner. I'm over the moon!
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And so you should be.

What do you like to eat (crab, I think, may have featured) and where do you like to eat it?

Perhaps a small, tasty, cosy meal this evening, - in a local favourite spot - and something more planned - and possibly formal - and ostentatiously celebratory - in a week or so?

Anyway, brilliant news, bravo, superbly well done. You must be thrilled, and again, you should be very proud of yourself, that is an outstanding achievement.
 
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