it's cooooold!
Mood: cold
Posted on 2005-12-08 11:22:00
Tags: cold
Words: 195

It's very cold out - 26 or so now, and the radio says that it feels like 9. 9!! Yikes. NI was closed until 10 AM this morning (so was UT) and when I got down to my car, I had to spend 40 minutes de-icing it (with djedi - thanks a lot!). Although part of that was not realizing that if the engine isn't on, the heat will blow air, but it won't really be hot. Oh well.

It was neat - there was a layer of ice over all of my car - windshields, windows, top, everything. I couldn't roll my window down because of the ice. But eventually the heat and front and rear defrosters did the job.

It was a bit creepy to see cars on Mopac, but going 20 MPH lower than the speed limit. Didn't see any accidents, either, which is good. Now I'm warming up with a nice cup of tea.

So, do you people in the north (or north of here - Carrie said it was 3 degrees in St. Louis yesterday!) have to drip your pipes every night for like months? Or are the pipes better insulated up there or something?

4 comments

Comment from wonderjess:
2005-12-08T12:43:14+00:00
up here they bury the pipes deep. :)

here's a fun fact about winter I forgot about until I took the ipod out today: when it gets cold out, the cords on the headphone freeze...not like frozen solid, but very stiff. aiyiyi.

Comment from blamantin:
2005-12-08T13:23:27+00:00
For the pipes -- it depends on how cold it is, when the building was built, and how well they're insulated. In my building they sometimes have us drip our pipes, but I think its only if its staying consistently below zero. And yes, you do have to drain pipes that lead outdoors (like to a sprinkler system or something) or risk them bursting.

Sorry about the cold there. At least you know its likely to improve! And it seems that its still novel enough to you to be fun. We were actually at 9 this morning, and expecting half a foot of snow tonight. If only I didn't have to come in to school. At least its really good weather for baking Christmas cookies.

Comment from wildrice13:
2005-12-08T16:12:47+00:00
Yah. The whole dripping pipes thing was very foreign when I moved here. I understood why, but certainly never did that up where I lived. Not unless it was SO COLD that the frost line extended below the pipe depth, but that would be incredibly unusual.

But ya know, given that it freezes here every winter, even if not as often, I think it's kinda silly that they don't insulate pipes here too. Though I guess they probably don't bury the pipes as deep either, which would cost a fair amount more to do.

Meh. Silly Texans.

Comment from djedi:
2005-12-09T13:09:01+00:00
Yeah, they really cheap out on pipes and such around here, which is stupid because given that some pipes still freeze and burst and it costs a lot of money to fix, much more money than just burying them a little deeper, they just are being short-sighted.

Maybe they figure global warming will soon eliminate winter freezes down here.

Gah, short-sightedness is so stupid. Saving 10cents now at a cost of $1 later is just idiotic. For example, think how much money (and lives but I'm just making a monetary argument) could have been saved if they just woudl have improved the leeves in New Orleans.

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