picture of a picture of me

Christmas

We went to go see I Am Legend today with a few friends. It was a pretty good movie. Will Smith won back some of his credibility that he lost with that song "lets get jiggy with it".
It did leave some questions hanging that I wanted answered, but all in all it was good.
Tonight we are baking a pumpkin pie and relaxing.
Until there is more to write...
-4 F and snowing
Justin

Personal snowstorm

I forgot to mention in my previous post about how we create snow everytime we leave the house. When I open the door, the hot "humid" air from inside rushes out to meet the cold air under the roof or our porch, it swirls and a second later snow flies. Its pretty cool to watch. I say "humid" because the relative humidity of our cabin is probably somewhere around .4 percent. Its dry as a bone, but outside is 0.000%
I am sure that we are going to have frost all over the place around the door by the end of winter. We already have frost inside the house in all the corners down by the floor, around all the glass in the windows, and around the door frame.
-Justin

COLD

Well, it finally got really cold. The lowest that I saw the mercury drop today was 43 below zero. Nothing wants to work right at those temps, the truck runs weird. All sorts of weird noises coming out, tires get this totally hollow sound to them. They freeze flat, so when you first start up, it sounds like you have flats. Engines ping, ting, bang, rattle and generally just dont agree with the cold. We had something go haywire in the front wheel as we were driving tonight, may just need grease, may need something replaced. We'll be dropping it off at the shop in the morning, hopefully getting a ride onto work without any trouble.
Taking the dogs out in this cold has been a bit challenging. They want to go out, they want to run, they want to play, but once they get out there, its just too cold.
They have to wear jackets and boots just to be able to stay out for more than a few minutes.
We have been a little weary of letting them run too much without leashes lately, as there have been some wolves that have been hunting dogs not too far from here (15 miles or so to the east)
I think that 3 or 4 dogs have turned up missing/dead from wolves this year. There was a crash in the rabbit population, and this is one of the turns from that. Domestic dogs and wolves have always had a rough relationship.
I did a test at work today, took a cup of very hot water, ran outside and tossed it up in the air. Nothing but vapor came down, rather floated down.
Very cool to see.
For anyone whos been wondering, the outhouse has been very cold but manageable in this weather, its amazing how fast you can get things done with when you have cold working against you.

We've been napping since we got home from work, so now its midnight and time to walk these dogs,
-32 F and ice fog
Justin

unpredictable showers

So, I went down to the University tonight to take a shower and got there just in time for them to close. I was sure I had an hour to spare, but was sadly mistaken. I called a friend out of desperation and asked if I could use hers instead. The only pay showers in town are at our laundromat, but it costs 4.50 for 15 minutes and they don't guarantee hot water. Last time I spent 4.50, the water turned cold as soon as I put shampoo in my hair. It was then that I decided sneaking into the activity center was worth getting caught for.
Chrissy
12 degrees and snowing

Sleddogs

We got an old sled from our landlord that we are fixing up so that we can run the dogs around.
We got them some harnesses a few weeks ago and have run them up and down the roads around our house using a cheap plastic sled. This new (old) one will be much better, as it is actually made for sleddog racing. The races start soon, in a couple of weeks there are some skijoring competitions that will be going on about a mile from our house. I can't wait to go see them.
After that there are some sprint races for dog mushers, that stuff is pure adrenaline.
-Justin