Posted: January-14-2009 at 7:19pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Wow, it appears the East Tennessee/Southwest Virginia region is in store for the COLDest condtions in over a decade, according to what local TV weather is saying.

It's supposed to be in the mid-teens tonight, and Thursday's daytime high is supposed to be 24-26, and it drop to 4 degrees tomorrow night. Then on Friday the daytime high is supposed to be 18-20, and drop to around 0 by Saturday morning.

Posted: January-15-2009 at 3:18am | IP Logged	Tweet

I mentioned the days were getting longer a week ago.  Josh said it was about time!

I'm glad that this cold weather isn't gonna hang around for a week or two! Hate it for the animals!

Posted: January-15-2009 at 7:19pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Been around minus 10 F for the last couple days.  dam shower pipes almost froze in the wall pulled the tap and dribble dribble dribble, finally got is almost solved I think.

Posted: January-15-2009 at 9:29pm | IP Logged	Tweet

2 degrees in scenic Elk Garden at this minute.......

Posted: January-16-2009 at 12:35am | IP Logged	Tweet

Good one "SpeedRacer." HA HA HA HA

Wow, this really is some COLD conditions we're experiencing. I saw on WJHL TV's 11 o'clock news/weather where it showed temperatures around East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and I saw Clintwood and Wise at 4 and 3 degrees, respectively. I'm sure by now at 3:32 a.m. all of Southwest Virginia is at 0 degrees or minus 0. Here in Johnson City it's 7 degrees, with wind-chill at 9-below 0.

I had fallen asleep on the couch right around the first of David Letterman (I don't even remember hearing his monologue), and when waking up about 15 minutes ago my doggone nose was cold. HA HA HA HA HA ... And I've got my heatpump set on auxilary/emergency on 75 degrees. It's very warm here in the house, but for some reason my nose was cold.

"racingwrench," man I feel for you living up in Canada. No way could I stand it up your way in winter. One of my good friend's from childhood, he and his wife and two daughters live about 40 miles from Bloomington/Minneapolis, Minn., and we exchange e-mails often. He's sent me some photos he made this week, telling me he's knows I'd love being up there and it soooooooooooooooooooo cold. I replied and told him he and his wife need to move back down to East Tennessee and teach. They're both college professors, at a private college (St. Olaf).

One of my cousin's, he and his wife and two sons, they live outside Grand Rapids, Mich., in Allegan ... and David's told me in e-mails recently this has been the coldest winter since he had to move up there three years ago after getting transferred with his job. I cracked up looking at some photos he e-mailed that his wife made of him and the boys outside with the snow-blower blowing snow. David told me if he never has to use a snow-blower again it won't hurt his feelings. HA HA HA HA HA ... About the snow-blower, I couldn't believe how much he told me those things cost. I told him one good thing about living in East Tennessee, we don't have to buy a snow-blower.

Late night snack-time is over and I'm off to climb in a warm bed.

I hope everybody is good and warm tonight. In watching the 11 o'clock TV news and them talking about those without warm homes, and even homeless, it sure makes me very thankful that I have a good warm home.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged	Tweet

Another thing, I think it's a very good decision to cancel school (I saw a lot of school cancellations on TV) due to the extreme cold conditions. With kids having to wait outside for schoolbuses around 6 - 6:30 a.m. and temperatures around 0, plus the wind-chill, it's just best to not put kids in situations like that.

And no way could the bus drivers even keep it good and warm inside, due to having to open-and-close the doors to let kids onboard. I can remember back when I was young, we had to wait at the bus-stop in the bitter cold of winter. And I well-remember doing so and it in the single digits. But now that I'm older, I just don't believe kids should be subjected to standing out in the cold when it's in single digits.

Oh, I remember hearing my father and mother and aunts and uncles talking about how far they had to walk to school ... even in winter when it was cold. My sisters and I, in elementary school we walked about a half-mile to school in our neighborhood. But in wintertime, dad would drive us usually on his way going off to work.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 6:38am | IP Logged	Tweet

Per our digital weather station, the temperature dipped to -5 here at our place before sunrise this morning. We are now at a balmy 1.2 degrees above zero.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 4:41pm | IP Logged	Tweet

I've got to say this is probably the worst cold snap I have seen for a few years.  Grand Rapids would get pretty similar weather to me I love going there to go see Benson run super mods on his track.

Decent walk behind blower 26 inch cut is around a grand brand new one to go infront of a 20 hp tractor  1500  not that bad really.  I'm so glad that I got a blower this year.

Got the shower fixed, it sticks out of the house as an addition and there was a cold air draft running up into the wall and freezing the pipe in the wall.  Three cans of spray foam later the draft is gone and now I'm adding insulation to it.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 8:07pm | IP Logged	Tweet

David told me had paid $1,200 for his snow-blower. Like he told me, living up there having a snow-blower is a necessity. That's just a necessity I'm glad from living in East Tennessee I don't have to pay for.

Local TV weather says this cold weather is the region's coldest since 1996.

I saw on TV news where electric rates in Southwest Virginia would be increasing. They already have increased here in East Tennessee, courtesy of the Tennessee Valley Authority. I know the Johnson City Power Board customers saw significant increases from our monthly bill last month to this month. Everybody I've talked with, our bills have risen a good bit.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 8:20pm | IP Logged	Tweet

fgilley wrote: hopefully this cold spell will get over with before the heat bills start cutting into my racing money for this year

What I really believe will cut into people's racing money for 2009 is job losses. I know the job losses around East Tennessee are at levels never seen before. A friend of mine in Morristown, where he worked employed 1,140. One-thousand workers were laid-off, leaving only enough for a skeleton crew for maintenance.

Alcoa Aluminum Products just outside of Knoxville laid off 450 workers, and Sea Ray/Baja Boats in Knoxville, eliminated around 900 jobs.

Just today on local TV news, Wellmont Hospitals and Mountain States Health Alliance announced job losses for the hospital operations.

Other job losses have occured for the last month or two. People losing jobs, equates into people not having income to attend racing. Paying home mortgages and buying food to go on the table comes before attending racing.

A good friend of mine, he's also friends with others on RacersLounge, Volunteer Speedway photographer Randall Perry, he's concerned about his employment. Randall's a tool-and-die person at Kennemetal here in Johnson City, and company-wide including all Kennemetal plants in the country, around 1,600 jobs are going to be eliminated. Monday morning of this week, at a plant meeting it was announced and on that day 38 salaried positions in Johnson City were lost, and 24 hourly positions were lost on Wednesday. Randall told me it was announced that for the rest of the year, the last three work days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) of each month, the plant will be closed. Twelve months times three days equals 36 days, which is a month and a half of time off with no pay. But as Randall said, it's better than completely losing your job.

Anyway, my opinion and the opinions of others, the economy will probably affect local racing operations significantly in 2009.

I truly hope everyone who have jobs, your jobs are secure. But, what's the definition of "secure?" Randall told me he thought at Kennemetal there was no threat of job losses. But it's happening.  

I don't mean to sound all gloom-and-doom, but we've all just got to face it ... the economy is in bad shape.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 8:27pm | IP Logged	Tweet

I don't know what the deal is/was, but my electric bill I received this week only went up $49 over last month's bill. While I had friends who their bills drastically went up.

One of my buddies, his went from $276 to $453. I also had one whose bill went from $146 to $269. All my buddies I've talked with regarding our electric bills, they've all went up a good bit.

One thing about it is, we've got to pay no matter what. We can't get by without electricity.

My next door neighbor, he enclosed his carport about five years ago and made a den out there. He built a chimney and put a wood stove in. It's toasty warm out in his den, and a fan blows the heat on through into part of his house.

I've mentioned before, I have a heatpump ... and a blame heatpump will just freeze you to death. Anytime the temperature gets around 23 degrees or so, I just manually switch it to auxilary/emergency. Otherwise the blame unit runs continuosly and blows out cool air. I'd love to have natural gas heat, because it's so good and warm.

Posted: January-17-2009 at 5:26am | IP Logged	Tweet

BRRRRRRR........ dipped to -6 here early this morning. Warming up nicely now though, as the temperature is already up to 1 degree above zero at 8:25 a.m.

Posted: January-17-2009 at 5:29pm | IP Logged	Tweet

I'm forced air natural gas and I will probably do the sam in the garages once I get a line run to them.So far the to do list to run a gas line for the clothes dryer is still there one of these days.

Depending on the size of the blower and thiming of the purchase 1200 is likely not a bad price I saw a  54 inch cut walk behind with skid steer handles (it's a big behomoth of a pig) with a 20 hp motor on it for 2200 bucks.

We have a heat wave on the go it warmed up to 20 f  and started to snow and blow calling for six inches tonight.

Posted: January-17-2009 at 9:54pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Wow "SpeedRacer," 6-below is definitely COLD!!!!! Here in the Tri-Cities, overnight low dropped to 4 degrees.

Here tonight at 12:52 a.m. it's a balmy 28 degrees ... way warmer (if 28 degrees can be called warm) than last night.

About 10 minutes ago I put something outside in the garbage container, on my carport, and it's doing something moisture-wise. Little sleety pellets falling that I heard hitting on the deck and driveway. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday there's forecast for snow, though I've not actually heard if any accumulation is expected here in the Tri-Cities. I'd about bet for sure over in Southwest Virginia and even in nearby surrounding Western North Carolina, some accumulation will occur.

Hey "racingwrench," I have family and also friends that have natural gas heat through their heat pump unit and in summer it's electric for the air conditioning. The natural gas for heating is forced air through the duct-work.

Posted: January-18-2009 at 4:55am | IP Logged	Tweet

Road crews were out around here early last night.  Duffield was the first area to start having wrecks. The volunteer fire department members were having trouble getting to the crew hall.

Abby, the dog, is having trouble even walking on the deck this morning!

Josh is having fun on the 4-wheeler in the drive way. 

Posted: January-19-2009 at 9:08pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Here in Johnson City, at 10:42 p.m. tonight just to see ... I stuck a yardstick down in the snow on my deck, and it measured right on 3 inches. It's still lightly snowing too, and local TV weather said the Tri-Cities could receive an additional inch overnight.

The next couple of days are going to be quite chilly, with the daytime high on Tuesday supposed to be just 23 degrees before dropping overnight to a low of 14.

I've had enough of this COLD stuff, I cannot wait until spring and then summer arrive. I told a buddy of mine the other day, where people say it's got to be cold to kill the bugs so they won't be bad in summer. Well, if cold weather we've had this winter hasn't killed the bugs, nothing will. But I don't really buy the deal about cold weather killing bugs, because I know up north bugs (mosquitos) can be especially bad in summer. A friend of mine who lives not far out of Bloomington/Minneapolis, he's told me about how bad mosquitos are up there in summer. So I believe it's all just a myth about cold weather killing bugs.

Posted: January-19-2009 at 9:11pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Hey "ST1," are you happy we finally have received some snow? You had a vacation day on Monday from school and will now also be out on Tuesday.

A friend of mine who lives out past Warriors Park, he told me on the phone tonight about people out sledding at the golf course on Monday. Were you by any chance one of the participants?

Posted: January-20-2009 at 9:12am | IP Logged	Tweet

Wow! What a trip.

Talking about cold and snow, I drive back to or near his base with Bug Jr we he goes back home from leave, then fly back home. Right now, he's stationed in Fort Drum, NY (10th Mtn. Div.), which is I-81 all the way. Ft Drum is only about 25 miles from the Canadian border, and Lake Ontario is only around 5-6 miles as the crow flies. So, one would expect the weather to get gradually worse the further north we drive right? Not so fast my friends!

We backed out of my driveway at the Greeneville house at 6:30am in his SUV and my car (we were dropping off my car at the TRI). It didn't take long to realize that the region had had a freezing rain overnight. We made it to mile marker 41 (between Baileyton and Jearoldstown Rd) when the interstate traffic came to a halt. Turns out a tanker had flipped on one side of the I-State and there was a wreck on the other side at marker 47 (between Jearoldstown and Fall Branch) halting traffic BOTH ways...

so we waited a bit...I walked to the grassy median and realized the ground was frozen from the days of very cold weather, so I told Bug Jr if I made it across in my car to put her in 4wd and we'd turn around, go back to Baileyton, where we could try the Horton Hwy to Fall Branch, then get back on the I-State there...it worked! The Horton Hwy had believe it or not been salted, so it was only slick in some spots.

We slid into Fall Branch, got back on the I-State, and made it to the Airport (TRI) 2 HOURS later (it only takes me about 40 to 45 to drive it on the I-State). It was weird being the only 2 vehicles on the interstate for several miles.

The rest of the trip was going well...until we got just north of Harrisburg PA, where we were greeted by snow on and off all the way to Syracuse. We stayed in Syracuse then he dropped me at the SYR airport yesterday. The trip had taken us about 12:45 to navigate counting the delay at marker 41. The snowplows in PA and NY were doing their job and we were able to maintain at least 55 mph even though some parts of the interstate were snow covered for a few miles. We stopped at Marathon, NY (between Binghamton and Syracuse)...when we got off of the exit, we were driving in at least 8 inches of snow, LOL...the snowmobiles were refueling at the gas station we refueled at...it was a winter wonderland to say the least and you could tell they were having fun! There were mounds of snow piled everywhere from previous snows. It's obviously a much different way of life.

So Jr drops me off at the Syracuse airport yesterday. Left SYR at 2pm, connected in Cincinnati with a 45 min lay-over and jumped on the jet to the TRI...landed at TRI at around 5:45...all was well, right? Not so fast my friends!!! It was snowing as hard here as it was on the trip up! So, I drove back home in the snow again, which of course is much easier than freezing rain.

Why am I so tired this morning?