The good morning, good night thread

[starktheground]

My appliances are conspiring against me. Last week my toaster quit. Friday my microwave nearly caught fire. And today my stove stopped working too. I'm pretty sure it all has something to do with my bad cooking.  And unless I can cook a turkey in a crockpot, I'm pretty sure Christmas dinner is going to be delivered pizza.


On the bright side, there has been very little snow so far this year. (knock on wood)

[delph_ambi]

I generally find a toaster or kettle gives up on Christmas Eve, but I've never had too many appliances go at once. Luckily my oven, hob and grill are completely independent of each other so I can still cook something even if two of the three go.

It's the central heating / hot water that worries me. All on one system. No immersion heater as backup. Only one room in the house has an independent gas fire, and I haven't attempted to light that for about five years. Brrr... Daytime temperatures here at the moment are minus four, night time minus ten. Heavy snow forecast for later in the week.

On the bright side, I've just noticed a lone aeroplane trail in the sky, so some airport somewhere must be open and some people must be getting where they want to be. Hurrah!

[eagle37]

Hmm, I have 4 inches of snow and -8C this morning. Suddenly find a number of good reasons to work from home

[delboy]

Today's random musings from the West Country:

Bit on the parky side here, again. But compared to many places it was a balmy -11 when I was scraping the ice off the car this morning. The roads remain like ice-rinks however, so I'm staying in the warm except for a few dog-walks. It did actually take me about four hours to warm up following last night's big match. Would've been okay but Gloucester lost. Defeat-factor is far more painful than wind-chill factor.

Bit odd having to work all week. No chance to get fully into the Christmas mood until the day itself, which will be here and gone quicker than one can say "It's all over for another year." Still, cards are written and posted (whether they actually get collected and delivered is another thing), excuses have been made for presents that are looking unlikely to arrive, and non-online present buying is in a nicely advanced state.

I hear that lad with the hat from X-Factor has made it to #1 for Christmas. I just checked my IPod playlist and it's all lies. Django Reinhardt is still #1 so I don't know where the music powers that be get their data from? To be fair a copy of his (Matt's, not Django) single does exist in our household, so we are partly responsible. When played back-to-back with Michael Buble there's clearly a vast difference in class. But then when Michael Buble is played back to back with Frank...

On the plus side, at least this year there will be no excuses for people doing masses of excess shopping in the days leading up to Christmas as Tesco are open again Boxing Day, and every day following. Somehow, though, I suspect there will be still be huge queues as folks buy enough provisions to stock a 19th century expedition to the South pole.

Hey ho. Off to take the battery of the girl's car and set it a-charging now.

Stay safe and upright!

Derek

[desertwomble]

Here in Abu Dhabi it's a cool 22 centigrade, and almost cold enough at night to warrant a pullover - almost!

I'll be swimming in the (heated) pool later, and dreaming of snowmen and snowball fights.

DW

[Rev. Austin]

Well, I've just come back from watching TRON: Legacy.  There were several sections where something is set-up or built-up, only to never deliver...plus there is one massive great stonking example of supremely lazy scripting that made me shake my head so much it made my eyeballs fall out.  Other that, very good 

[Rook]

made me shake my head so much it made my eyeballs fall out. 

Oh, dear!

You can pop them back in with petroleum jelly. Just be brave!

[starktheground]

Well, I may not live in the desert anymore, but ya'll make me glad I haven't encountered temps in the negatives yet. Brrrrr.

[LashSlash]

made me shake my head so much it made my eyeballs fall out. 

Oh, dear!

You can pop them back in with petroleum jelly. Just be brave!

you should colour-code your eyeballs so yo wont get mixed up between left and right

[Ed]

I still can't believe how many people I see out on bikes, doing a normal speed for good weather, while cycling on compacted snow. Mental

Lost yesterday to the snow, which was OK, because I got to get on with my flooring. The trouble is, I still have the same amount of work to do before Christmas as I had last Thursday, and two fewer days to do it in. I can see I'm not going to get any respite

[LashSlash]

I still can't believe how many people I see out on bikes, doing a normal speed for good weather, while cycling on compacted snow. Mental .... mental? - not really. dont forget that all bicycles have chains ....... get it?

[LashSlash]

.... uhm, like people put chains on the car-wheels when they drive through ice and snow.......

..... still dont get it?....

[LashSlash]

.... uhm, like people put chains on the car-wheels when they drive through ice and snow.......


no?


.... sorry, i give up.....

[delph_ambi]

 

(I get it)


Driving down the shops yesterday through the permafrost I saw a guy strolling along the pavement talking into his mobile phone. Nothing unusual about that, except that he was dressed in jeans and t-shirt, and he didn't look cold. I wish I knew his secret.

[Rev. Austin]

He probably didn't look cold because he was already evidently really cool.  Nyuk nyuk nyuk!  Oh crikey, I've caught whatever LashSlash has got