2011 December 3

        Well, it was certainly different weather to awaken to this morning than yesterday.  Yesterday it was 12 degrees.  It finally worked its way all the way to 40 and then stayed close to that all night.  It was still 38 when I arose this morning.  And it is raining fairly steadily.  
        I'm trying to remember what the conversion is for rain to snow.  How many inches of rain would convert to how many inches of rain?  I guess I'll have to Google it. - Hang on, I'll be right back!  I'm back.  Did you miss me?  The answer is ... drum roll, please ... one inch of rain equals ten inches of snow.  So the half inch of rain that has fallen today would have been five inches of snow ... so far.  Did I mention how much I love the rain?

Grimes, IA 50111

Change Location

Dec 3, 2011 1:38 PM

Temp

40.7°F

Switch to Celsius

4mph

Hi: 44°F

Lo: 34°F

Rain: 0.47"

Gust: S 11

Wind Chill: 38°F

Humidity: 100%

Dew Point: 41°F

Avg Wind: 4 ENE

Pressure: 29.91"

Rain/Month: 0.47"

Sunrise: 7:24 AM

Sunset: 4:45 PM

Moonphase:

As reported at:

Prairieview School

Today

Hi: 42 °F

Rain. High in the lower 40s. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.… more

Tonight

Lo: 24 °F

Light rain through midnight...then a chance of light snow after midnight. A slight chance of light snow early in the… more

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       We went out in the rain so that we could go for a Pancake Breakfast being held at our church this morning.  It was to benefit a kids' baseball team, Eastside Sox.  Our church's secretary has a son on the team.  We had pancakes (as many as you care to eat), sausage links, donuts and other pasteries, coffee, milk, and orange juice.  It was nice to sit and visit with some of our friends over breakfast.  Normally, a few couples from church get together for breakfast on Fridays at Dahls.  Ella and I decided not to go yesterday so that we could go to this pancake feed today.  This way we still get fed and the money goes to a good cause.

2011 December 01

The day started so prettily.

Sunrise on December 1, 2011

       Unfortunately, that is the last we saw of the sun.  Today's forecast is:  Cloudy, 30% chance of light rain and snow, breezy, colder, high in the upper 30s with North wind up to 20mph, low tonight 15 to 20.  Hmmm.  I don't have anyplace to go today.
       I spent most of the morning reading blogs written by RVers.  I also went online to have a copy of my military discharge papers sent to me.  I could enter all of the information online.  However, I still had to send a copy by snail-mail with my signature, before they would send the information.  The intersection of privacy laws and public domain information is strange.
      I'm thinking that today will be a good day to sit in the recliner and work on a sermon for my blog, Sermons By Thomas E. Williams.

2011 November 30s

See all the pretty sparkles?  They are fractures in the thin coating of ice.

It's a beautiful sunny morning again and chilly enough to cause the lake to freeze over.


  This is Wednesday so I've already been to our men’s group.  We had another wonderful class following Adam Hamilton’s journey series.  This time we heard about Joseph, husband of marry and earthly father to Jesus.

         When I got home from the meeting, the LP tank that I’d left for Cutty’s to fill, had been filled.  And it was now setting next to my other tanks.  That was very nice of them to carry it all away up there.

Nativity

Poinsettia 

Yesterday, Tuesday, I put the Nativity at the rear of the trailer and found that the lights don't work.  We put up the little Christmas tree and found only half of the lights work.  Ella potted some artificial poinsettia outside beside the door.  She also hung a wreath on the fence at the end of our patio.

It is a lovely little tree with

an over-sized star.

Today we went to Dollar General and picked up a string of lights for the tree.  Then I came home and removed all the pre-wired lights from the tree.  There were a bizzillian tiny plastic clips holding the lights to the tree!  We did NOT put the clips on the new string of lights.

Advent - Thinking of Christmas decorations

We dug our little pre-lit Christmas tree out of storage but could not find the legs for it.  I’m hoping that they are in one of the other Christmas storage boxes.  I can’t imagine why they would have ended up in a separate box.  I do have a regular Christmas tree stand that we can use if I don’t find the ones that belong with the tree.

We originally were planning on placing the tree on the table but have decided to put it on our coffee table/footstool.  The coffee table is actually a steamer trunk that is covered with a small blanket type throw.  It works well for both coffee table and footstool in front or the couch.  And of course you can never have too much storage in an RV.  We don’t do a lot of decorating at Christmas.  That isn’t to say that we don’t have a lot of decoration up.  It is just that they are up most of the year.

Somewhere under this pile of snow
is a row of lighted candy canes!!!

When you look like Mr. and Mrs. Claus, you tend to accumulate a lot of Christmas knick-knacks.  These are scattered in strategic places all over the HH.  I even added a shelf, on the fascia board over the slide out, to hold a bunch of Santa’s and Mrs. Clauses.  We, of course, have a North Pole at the edge of our patio.  We have had lighted candy canes (about three foot high) that we’ve tried to have up at Christmas time the last couple of years.  Year before last the canes were completely buried in snow.  And last year we didn’t put them out soon enough and the ground froze so that we couldn’t drive the stakes into the ground.  We had the canes up for Christmas in July and have just left them out.  So, as I said we don’t have a lot of decorating to do for Christmas.

2011 November 27

            I awoke about six o’clock this morning and heard the furnace running.  When I went into the bathroom I realized that only cold air was coming out of the vent.  So I said to myself, “Tom!”  And I answered, “Yeah, I know the propane tank is empty.” To which I replied, “One of us is going to have to out and switch tanks.”  “Well, you do it then because you are so much stronger than I am,” I said to myself.  I always fall for that type of flattery so, of course, I got dressed and went out and changed over the tanks.

            (What?  You don’t have those kinds of conversations with yourself early on a cold and blustery day?) Yeah, right!

Now some of you may be asking, “Why don’t you have an automatic switch over on your tanks?”  To with I’ll reply, “I do.  But I like to know when one tank is empty instead of waiting until both tanks are empty to discover that I have no propane.”  And just to ease your minds about us being cold.  We weren’t, because I have the electric fireplace going for supplemental heat.

When the outside temperature is above freezing, I bump the electric heat up a couple degrees and lower the furnace a couple of degrees.  Then the furnace becomes the supplemental heat and the fireplace the main heat source.  The electric is more efficient but the furnace has to be running to keep the holding tanks warm.

            So, I’m up and have the coffee going.  It’s several hours before Sunday school and church and I’ve already got this written for my blog.  Ella and I will be lighting the Advent wreath during church this morning.  Pastor Lee sent us the script that we are to read.

By now the bathroom will be nice and toasty so I’ll go get in the shower before Ella gets up.
- - -

It was thirty-two degrees when I woke up this morning.  It was thirty-two degrees when I went to church.  It was thirty-two degrees when I came home.  It was thirty-two degrees at three-thirty this afternoon.  At seven it had dropped to thirty-one degrees.  It is now nine at night and still thirty-one. 

I am used to Iowa weather which can change seventy degrees in a couple of hours.  I don’t remember ever seeing a day when the temperature didn’t change at all.