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Joe

Joe

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9 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

The trick is to wear layers. I had pajama pants under my jeans, some thick wool-lined winter boots, two pairs of wool socks, a t-shirt, sweater, hoodie, and winter coat on, and then a neck-warmer, toque, and medical mask on. Also those thin black, cotton gloves (every northern person knows what I'm talking about) under some insulated mitts. 

 

It can take 10 minutes to get ready to go outside, but I was pretty warm for the 20 minutes it took. Eyelashes froze with frost, though.

 

This is how my wife dresses when I put the thermostat at 70 instead of 74.

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GeneticBlueprint

GeneticBlueprint

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On 2/12/2021 at 10:25 AM, Joe said:

 

This is how my wife dresses when I put the thermostat at 70 instead of 74.

 

When my first son was born my MIL came to help out for a couple of months. She always acts like she's suffering with any kind of cold. Well, one day in June it was like a million fucking degrees outside. I came home from work and it was warm in the apartment we were living in at the time. So I go to check the AC. MIL had turned it off. I turned it back on and set it to the mid 70s. The current temperature read 90 degrees inside. Not two minutes after I turn it on she's putting on a sweatshirt and rubbing her hands together and blowing into them and making a big thing out of it. I mean it had "cooled down" to 88 degrees and she was doing this. So I went and turned the AC down to 65. I told my wife to tell her mom to cut that shit out. It never gets as hot where they're from as it was inside (and outside) our place that day. It infuriated me.

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Joe

Joe

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8 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

When my first son was born my MIL came to help out for a couple of months. She always acts like she's suffering with any kind of cold. Well, one day in June it was like a million fucking degrees outside. I came home from work and it was warm in the apartment we were living in at the time. So I go to check the AC. MIL had turned it off. I turned it back on and set it to the mid 70s. The current temperature read 90 degrees inside. Not two minutes after I turn it on she's putting on a sweatshirt and rubbing her hands together and blowing into them and making a big thing out of it. I mean it had "cooled down" to 88 degrees and she was doing this. So I went and turned the AC down to 65. I told my wife to tell her mom to cut that shit out. It never gets as hot where they're from as it was inside (and outside) our place that day. It infuriated me.

 

Yeah it's a constant battle in my house. My wife has improved significantly though: we were paying double for heat and electricity in a 1 bedroom apartment in Jersey City than we are in our house right now. Pretty insane.

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Guest

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1200px-CenterPoint_Energy_logo.svg_.png?

The power situation is disastrous, and it likely won’t be fixed tonight – Space City Weather

SPACECITYWEATHER.COM
Millions of customers in the greater Houston region continue to experience some of our coldest weather in decades without the benefit of electricity to heat their homes. (Full disclosure, I am one …


Much like our bodies aren’t meant for this, neither is our grid. Typically this is a time of the year when the generation side also shuts down for maintenance and upgrades, so the statewide need for electricity being so high came at the absolute worst time. 

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CitizenVectron

CitizenVectron

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1 hour ago, sblfilms said:
1200px-CenterPoint_Energy_logo.svg_.png?

The power situation is disastrous, and it likely won’t be fixed tonight – Space City Weather

SPACECITYWEATHER.COM
Millions of customers in the greater Houston region continue to experience some of our coldest weather in decades without the benefit of electricity to heat their homes. (Full disclosure, I am one …


Much like our bodies aren’t meant for this, neither is our grid. Typically this is a time of the year when the generation side also shuts down for maintenance and upgrades, so the statewide need for electricity being so high came at the absolute worst time. 

 

A question (since I honestly don't know): how do you heat your homes in Texas? Is it mostly electric heat? Here (western Canada) we are almost entirely on natural gas to heat homes (mostly forced air, but some still use boilers with radiated heat). It's rare to see electric except maybe in cabins or other places without natural gas lines. I know in eastern Canada heating oil is often used in place of natural gas (brought in by trucks every few weeks/months), but electric can be more common.

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Guest

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11 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

A question (since I honestly don't know): how do you heat your homes in Texas? Is it mostly electric heat? Here (western Canada) we are almost entirely on natural gas to heat homes (mostly forced air, but some still use boilers with radiated heat). It's rare to see electric except maybe in cabins or other places without natural gas lines. I know in eastern Canada heating oil is often used in place of natural gas (brought in by trucks every few weeks/months), but electric can be more common.


Depends on the part of the state. Here in Houston we typically have mild winters with no more than 5 days below even 40f, so electric heat is really common here. North Texas and the panhandle get 30-40 days below 40f on a regular basis in the winter months, so gas heat is more common there.

 

We typically turn the heat less than 10 nights a year ourselves. Tonight will probably get down into the upper 40s in our house at the coldest point, so not terrible, but many people will have it much worse.

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thewhyteboar

thewhyteboar

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2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

lordy you couldn't ever convince me to live in the interior of the country

 

That swath of freezing blue manages to encompass my parents, brother, and grandfather. My grandfather lost power and heat. The guy is in his nineties, beat covid, and now has to deal with a freaking winter storm.

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Now that temps are dipping with the sun down, I’m hearing reports from friends who had power on all day now have been without the last couple of hours, so the situation is worsening. Temps here should bottom out around 15f around 1am, then steadily climb into the low 40f range in the afternoon which will bring some much needed relief. 

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Jason

Jason

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41 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

I’d imagine a lot of people are just going to hang out in their cars tonight. This is why you ALWAYS fill up before a major snowstorm. If I lived down there, I’d probably have a truck, and I would use it to check on all my neighbors.

 

Trucks don't do shit on ice. 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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1 hour ago, Uaarkson said:

I’d imagine a lot of people are just going to hang out in their cars tonight. This is why you ALWAYS fill up before a major snowstorm. If I lived down there, I’d probably have a truck, and I would use it to check on all my neighbors.

 

Winter tires are much more useful than A/4WD.

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Joe

Joe

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59 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Winter tires are much more useful than A/4WD.

 

I've seen this argument made before and I am intrigued by it. You legit have two sets of tires and change them twice a year? Seems so unfathomable to me for some dumb reason.

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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6 minutes ago, Joe said:

 

I've seen this argument made before and I am intrigued by it. You legit have two sets of tires and change them twice a year? Seems so unfathomable to me for some dumb reason.


Some people have two sets of tires, I have two whole wheel sets because my car is sporty and the tires are sport tires. When it gets cold enough it’s basically like driving around on rocks, all the AWD and keeping the car in second gear won’t do shit. So for me it’s the difference between being able to drive in the winter at all or not. 
 

So yeah leading into the winter I have the winter tires / wheels put on, and leading into spring I have the sport tires / wheels put on. 
 

edit - in terms of a rationale: https://www.motortrend.com/news/are-snow-and-winter-tires-worth-it/

 

So yeah not worth it for the once in a five year event like Texas is having now, but in New England it’s worth it. 

 

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CitizenVectron

CitizenVectron

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7 hours ago, Joe said:

 

I've seen this argument made before and I am intrigued by it. You legit have two sets of tires and change them twice a year? Seems so unfathomable to me for some dumb reason.

 

In much of Canada you are legally required to have two sets of tires/wheels. Winter tires work so much better on snow and ice. Twice a year you take your car in and get them changed. I use Costco, cost like $40. Then you store your tires in your garage or under your deck, or some mechanics/garages will do it for a fee.

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b_m_b_m_b_m

b_m_b_m_b_m

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23 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Maybe I missed it earlier but are you heading off to bigger and better things?

Oh this is new, you didn't miss anything. But yeah I am. I mentioned once a few weeks ago that there was speculation (with good reason, it turns out) that my company was going to have layoffs. Well they had them, but once the speculation started I wasn't going to be left holding the bag so I started looking. I didn't end up getting cut but I'm not super optimistic about anything longer term about the company, let alone my role 6+ months from now.

 

Got a couple interviews and worked with a recruiter whom I worked with before and I got an offer. Significant (~33%) pay increase and a more senior title for work similar to some of the projects I've worked on here. I don't think I'd be getting a similar offer as a counter from my current company due to downsizing and whatnot. I was also able to negotiate the start date so I'd still get my bonus from last year.

 

I hate to do it during this time but I've got to look out for myself. Maybe they'll offer to keep some on who lost their job. From what I understand it wouldn't be the first time they've had to do that.

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