Sissy stuff to keep warm with during the "VORTEX"?

[samantha1]

Betty,bet you are glad there may be no snow if the met office is right

[Betty]

Yes, it is April, so I'm tired of looking at it, & also tired of slipping around on it. The maintenance guy they pay to shovel almost never does, & it's a long walk from my door in back to the street on slippery ice, snow, or deep wet slush. It would also be nice if it was above 50F... about the normal temperature for this time of the year around here.

I just noticed the last few bits of snow melted this morning... at least in my neighborhood. Maybe it will stay that way now. I see no lows below 33-35F forecast during the next 7 days.

[Betty]

It's been almost seasonable temperatures for almost 2 weeks around here. Even several days above 60F (16C), with a couple above 70F (21C). I didn't even care about the wind or rain as long as the ice & snow was finally gone.

You'd think I wouldn't be mentioning the return of the evil vortex again until January, except maybe to compliment it this summer when it's not so unbearably hot, humid, sticky, & swampy.

The weather forecasts just said there will be snow Wednesday & Thursday with nighttime temperatures around 30F (-1C). Sure, that's not as bad as near 0F (-18C), but that's way too cold for normal around here near the end of April.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised after having vortex problems as bad as last year. Here's a flashback photo taken last year from outside my window on April 15, 2014.

[Betty]

Having normal weather for this time of the year for the past few days. Humidity went really high though making breathing difficult for my COPD. Just about a week ago though we had overnight lows below 40F & frost a few days in a row (In May). The week before that weather in the mid-80s F.

The past few weeks there has been some pretty severe storms & tornadoes in the mid-west USA. We don't get lots of users from the mid-west, but the ones we do get are long-time regular users. I've heard from almost all of them, & they survived the previous mess in good shape. But now they just had another wave of storms. Huston Texas, & other mid-west towns are under water. I hope our friends from that area are OK. I don't see them online yet. Hopefully it's an internet or power problem & nothing serious.

On the international news they've been saying America is in a drought for a month. Not true. A few states are, while the rest of the country is just as wet as normal or getting too wet.

Now it's our storm time. A big storm is on the horizon due to hit within the hour. The storm passing over the Great Lakes will be unpredictable. The lakes can intensify it, or pacify it this time of the year.

Either way, any lightning between me & to the north as far away as Toronto can cut off my DSL connection until it's over. Lightning overhead or to the south, east, or west has no effect on the DSL.

If it gets too close I will disconnect the line anyway for lightning safety reasons even if the DSL is still functioning.

My lightning detectors have only picked up a couple lightning strikes. Strong ones, but were still too distant to hear thunder from. The most intense part of the storm looks to be around 70 miles west from me, but heading straight for us. High wind & hail is predicted but so far, it just got cloudy & dark, with hardly a breeze, & only a few breif drops of rain.

[Angela M...]

Have had a lot of high winds in the area for the last two days taking out some tree's and signs but only just got some rain the last hour or so. I heard reports of hailstones in the London area of Southern Ontario a few hours ago though. I finally turned on the A/C unit as it has been humid here the last few days and it was taking some time to cool the house. I went out to visit relatives and came back to a walk in cooler. The outside temp. had dropped dramatically in the last two hours. Mother nature is getting very confused these days and so am I.

[Betty]

Got up to a humid 87F (37C) outside my window 12 hours ago. This morning it's 47F (8C) out there.

The mid-west continues to flood. Once again a few of our mid-west visitors were missing from Betty's for a few days, but they have all turned up here OK by this weekend.

We had some flooding in Warsaw, NY, about 40 miles west of me. I used to have family & friends that lived out that way. My parent's camping cabin/cottage & property was about 7 miles outside of the town. The property was a mix of some wide open spaces, bordered by some wooded areas & many miles of wilderness. In just 40 years it all has grown in to become a very heavily wooded area inaccessible to vehicles. The cabin, which is collapsing can only be found by a 2 mile hike through heavy brush & woods now. You wouldn't even see it until you're almost on top of it.

Most people don't realize it, but NY state is a pretty large state. About 2/3 of the area is wilderness that is undeveloped due to severe harsh winters in those areas & hot humid summers. About 1/4 of the area is farmland. A significant about of the world's grains, apples, maple syrup, dairy products, & meat comes from NY state. The rest of the state is just a few cities, & lots of small towns.

So if our growing season is too cold or short, the price of food goes up a little bit in London, Moscow, Amsterdam, Tokyo, & Hong Kong because NY state ships food worldwide. Unlike food from China & other areas, NY, Pennsylvania, & Ontario food is considered very safe & "uncontaminated".

To the north is Canada's Ontario, & to the south is Pennsylvania, both of which are mostly wilderness & farms too.

It's foggy right now. Rain expected until Tuesday night. Very heavy rains with lows around 46F expected tonight. Highs around the 50s expected for the next few days. We don't expect it to get up to 70F (21C) until Thursday.

In India last week it got up to 122F (50C). Wow, us northerners think 80F (27C) is too hot. Over 1200 people dead because of the heat, & the streets were actually melting in New Delhi.

More with pictures:
http://5dot4.com/psk/index.php?topic=53.0

[Angela M...]

Hi Betty,
cold and rainy here for the last two days. Can't wait for summer to start.
New York state has some great wineries also and I have sampled some a few years back but am not really supposed to drink now with all my pills. I miss the wine tours in the Niagara region and elsewhere but as we age our bodies betray us. Another thing about getting older is I need to attend two family funerals next week.
 Been watching the news about the flooding and we even had hail near the London area yesterday with high winds also. Crazy weather patterns these days and I just turned on the air conditioning and shut it off again the next day.
Hope you can cope with the crazy weather patterns these days and your health issues.   

[Betty]

45F this morning. A rare extra cold morning in early June should be in the 50s, not the 40s. A high of only 52F expected today. Highs of 70s & 80s F are normal for this time of the year.

It's not just complaining about the weather, but it's so unnatural for what we're used to around here. Don't get me wrong. Born & raised in this area, I prefer cooler weather, & can deal with frigid weather easier than unbearable hot weather. I could even get nauseous, dizzy, get headaches, (symptoms of heat stroke) & sweat like a pig on a humid day much above 80F. It's what our bodies get used to. With only 2-3 months above 80F but 6-7 months below 30F, we don't have a chance to get used to heat much.

Of course when one gets older, hot weather is even more dangerous to us. Also with my COPD, I my breathing gets much worse on hot or humid days. But 45F for a June morning is way colder than normal. After over a week in the 80s, we're not used to it anymore.

[Angela M...]

Not too bad up here today, did a bit of gardening but the high winds made a bit of a mess of my flowers, breaking some of the taller plants off half way down.  Luckily the Peonies are not out fully yet as they get quite large and heavy.  Not had time to do my patio planter boxes yet. I love flowers in the garden as much as I love flowered dresses and panties. The large Lilac tree by my front door has a wonderful scent right now that you can smell when you go in and out and it is also by my office window so at night with a small breeze it wafts in the window.
When we have tea or lunch on the patio I cut some branches of it for a vase in the middle of the table. In spring and summer I can put flowers on the table often but in winter they are too expensive.  When I was little living in England, I would put on one of mommies ruffled aprons and go in the garden my father planted to help cut flowers. He had a wonderful green thumb and grew so many beautiful flowers. When we came to Canada we rented apartments for a few years so we did not have one until we bought a house. By then my father was too busy with work to plant anything so at age 11 it was my job and I loved it. I would also be employed by all the widows in the street to help with their gardens and cottages in the spring and summer. I was a very busy boy and some of them had grandaughters my age to go swimming with although I was a little more interested in their swim wear and on some occasions I got to try them on if they were hanging in the bathrooms or cabanas.

[Betty]

Was a few on & off drizzles & cloudy all day yesterday, with several hours of no rain. Got down to the 40s overnight & maybe will go down to 42 F tonight. Today they're expecting sunny & in the 60s F.

After tonight it will be nighttime lows in the 50s F & daytime highs of 60-70F. Very spring, April-like weather... wait a minute... It's June!

Yesterday the sidewalks actually dried out for a while by the time my UPS package came with a wifi router for me to review. So I was able to go downstairs in just my socks & outside to the front of the building to get it. It's a fad in my building. It seems everybody goes down the stairs or through the hall in their socks to answer the door when there's no snow outside.

I don't like anyone to wear shoes inside my place for fear of stepping on the cats. Without shoes you can actually feel stepping on their toes or tails before you hurt them or feel your toes bump them before you trip over them. Cat's, more than other pets have a nasty habit of cutting right in front of you when you're walking, & not looking down. And because they can be totally silent, you won't always hear them nearby. You can be busy, & step just one step backward, & there's unexpectedly a cat there.

If you're carrying something, especially something big or heavy, they will cut right in front of you & stop, forcing you to almost step on them or fall over them! They think it's something for them, or at least something interesting to investigate & poke at. Esp. boxes or bags of stuff. Even if there's nothing interesting for them inside, they'll love a box or bag to play in.

Yep, since around late fall last year I have another side job as a professional reviewer for a major international store chain. I've always wrote reviews for free about products I've bought just let others know if they were any good or not. Except for Betty's, I'm internationally well known for my reviews, but never made a cent on them.

They were usually reviews for electronics or other tech items, but there are so many reviewers who did the same. But after I got laid off, I started writing a lot of reviews targeted at other disabled & elderly on a frugal budget about cheap eating, survival, & tech for us to survive on very limited budgets & disabilities. Suddenly people were asking permission to republish the reviews, or quoting them.

Then in late fall an international store chain asked me to review stuff for them. No pay, but I get to keep the stuff. Write reviews to get free stuff? Sure I can do that.

About every 2 months they send me a list of a few dozen items to chose 3 of, that they'll ship to review. They were just small packages of junk food, cereal, or cheap trinkets that I don't need. But they were free. The total of the 3 items were only worth about $5-$8. Still, they were free, & I'd use them up anyway, so I'd review them.

The previous shipment, 2 months ago was a medium-size box of regular Rice Kripies, a box of Frosted Rice Krispies, & a box on Nuti-grain energy bars. I was required to write at least 200 words about each one, plus include a photo & video. Photo, video, & 200 words about Rice Krispies? It took some thinking, but I pulled it off, & they loved it.

This month they moved me up a grade. They offered only 1 item to review out of a list of several Remington & Norelco electric razors, & several wifi routers. $50-$150 in value. I selected the most expensive high-end wireless router to review. It listed at most stores for around $150, & I was getting it for free. No pay for reviews, but free stuff is always nice.

I didn't have wireless & don't have a router at home. To get online with my laptop, I have to unplug the DSL's ethernet connection from my PC & plug it into the laptop. I can only get online with the phone by plugging it into the computer's USB port in "tether" mode.

So my phone & laptop are now wirelessly online today. Can't afford a data plan for the phone. Technically the mobile/cell service is expired because I couldn't afford it anymore. But I found a way to still get text & Facebook messages on it free. I could still send or receive calls through the internet in a tether mode hack trick. But with wifi to my home connection, I don't need to tether the phone anymore to have phone calls & get internet on the phone. It was so nice to check my mail, Facebook, & make calls from a "no service" phone this morning while sitting on the toilet on wifi! Kitties seemed annoyed because that is usually a time when that they get some petting & back-scratching while I'm just sitting there.

I love my old Samsung smart phone. It does everything any modern iphone or tablet can. It's been very well used & abused, & still works perfectly.

The battery in the laptop died years ago. Built in 2005, a replacement is rare & expensive at $130. So it's not really wireless anyway because it has to be plugged into an electrical outlet. Still, it's 1 less wire I have to run to it, if I need to get online with it when my PC is busy with too many other projects. Usually these days I just leave to laptop plugged into a TV to use it as a media center.

It is was nice to turn it on today & be able to get online instantly though. I went downstairs to the front of my building today, & was able to pick up the new wireless router with my phone, so it's a pretty powerful router.

The battery is dieing on the phone though. It will last a couple days just receiving text & Facebook posts. But I'm down to less than 20 minutes phone call/talk time, wifi time, & after taking 10 pictures with it, without a flash, the battery is almost dead. The battery lists for $45, but I'm sure if I shop around I could find one for under $10. But I can't even afford to spend $10 for stuff unnecessary for my survival.

On nice days when it's above 40F & not too stormy, or not unbearable hot & humid I try to get downstairs & outside to stretch my legs & get some more exercise... except for days I can't breathe just trying to walk across the room & can't go anywhere. On a good day I sit on the side or front porch for a while too. If breathing is really good, I'll walk down to the corner & sit on a park bench in a nice park-like area for a while.

I'll fill a bottle of cool water, coffee, tea or juice to take with me outside... maybe earphones to play tunes on my phone or mp3 player.  If my breathing isn't good enough to get out until the evenings, maybe I'll pour a little vodka in the drink & chill on the porches or back yard with the drink & some nice music in the evening or night.

Can't afford beer anymore, & it's too much weight to get up the stairs for what it's worth with COPD. But I can get 1.5 liters of really good, smooth, Rikaloff vodka for only $13. That's enough to last at least for a couple months.

Sometimes once a week or 2, I'll have some vodka at home in a drink, or have a couple shots of it while listening to nice music, watching a movie, or cuddling & playing with the cats.

Man (or sissy) does not live on bread alone. A drink on a day or night off once a week or 2 probably saves my sanity from being couped up or stuck nearby all the time.

One would think since I got laid off I'd have plenty of free time & cat play time but I don't. I work at home a lot, & force myself to keep a regular work routine even if no work is coming in, or it's a really bad breathing day. It's just that a lot of my work, after expenses ends up earning me $2 an hour or less, or some projects don't get me any money or profit... in the short term.

There's always some old used thing, piece of junk, or something broken I got for free (or almost for nothing) around that can be fixed, rebuilt, or upgraded if I want to spend the time & money on it... or just strip it down for spare parts & hardware.

A couple years ago I took an old 1990s 800mhz HP computer, & turned it into a Linux media center, including a great HDTV movie player (What do you think is running inside that roku box, DVR, or TVO?). My laptop serves that purpose now, plus I have an old duo 1.6ghz that can do the job. So it sat in a closet a long time.

Last winter a nightclub offered me a broken (but repairable) 32" Ocosmo/Scepter TV free. It's the same place I got my 26" Vizio LED/LCD TV for free broken, but fixed it up. As soon as the guy saw I was able to get it started & running for a minute before it died again, he wanted something for it. I traded the old 800mhz Linux media center that don't get used for it. So a couple year later, I did get something nice for all the work I did to it... a nice recent model 32" LED TV. And he's still likes that Linux media center!

A few years ago in my old place, I stored my vacuum cleaner in a room behind my apartment, I discovered someone had removed/stolen the rotor/beater brush mechanism off my very old but robust Kirby vacuum. It was my favorite vacuum cleaner!

Last year someone who didn't have much money needed their old computer fixed. But they had an old Kirby vacuum in their basement. It was water damaged from being down there so the motor & electrics was shot, but the front end, rotor, reusable bag, & power cord were in great shape. The rotor/beater brush sells for $60. So I traded it to fix & upgrade her computer. Her RAM upgrade came from another old & beaten computer I got for free.

So although I'm technically unemployed, I'm always busy working, or on some project, even if it doesn't deliver a big check.