Beauty is a bitch

Don't be fooled by the title, this post is weather related. We haven't had minus °C since the 29th of December and before that a few days in early December. And plus °C in those cases mean a few hours of around 1 °C. No snow melting temperatures. The last of those were the 1st of December with around 5 °C. Then the temperature turned minus °C and has stayed that way. Century old records have been broken.

In a normal winter it gets cold, it snows a bit, it gets warmer, the snow melts away, sometimes it rains away, before it gets colder again. So even if it snows alot with a winter like that the snow isn't a problem because a large part of it melts away every now and then. This winter we have close to three months of snow and none of it has melted away.

And it's not just that it's minus °C it also very cold, around -10 °C to -20 °C with a few freak days with -5 °C or -25 °C. You have to be careful before going out, you have to dress yourself in warm but bulky winter clothes. Cold temperatures are unforgiving. Two winters ago I worked outside with a tuque on but it did not cover my ears. Last winter I couldn't go outside in minus °C without covering my ears, they ached. This winter I can go outside in minus °C without covering my ears, but I'm careful The frostbite has healed, it only took two years.

But this winter is also the most beautiful I have ever seen. A cold night covers everything in white and I'm not talking about snow. There's moist in the air, even in the cold winter, sometimes fog, covers everything in hard rime that can be up to a centimeter thick. Ant it's not ice, it's snow crystals, much like snow flakes. Imagine such a landscape after a foggy -20 °C cold night lit up by the morning sun.

Our winter is a beautiful but she is cold and unforgiving to the unwary.

I'm on Google maps

I finally made it on Google maps' street view. They have put together the material they've filmed here and made Finland "street viewable". Anyway go to Google maps street view, trough this link. That's me, too bad they've blurred the faces, my surprised expression would have been priceless.

To the right behind the mailboxes and a couple of birches there's a small green field(lawn). Behind that field you see a red painted wooden fence and within that fence there's a red house, a garage and lots of trees. That's where we live. Have a nice look around my neighborhood =).

Satellite TV

I wrote a while ago about we're going to switch from cable TV to satellite TV. We'll I finally got the dish up. I built it myself. I got a leftover dish from my father-in-law and I ordered the rest from Germany. Except for a few screws, the DVB-S module to the set-top box and a bit of cable I bought in town. The stuff from Germany I got for 42 € (the stuff itself was 29 €) and that includes package and delivery to the door. I ordered it on the Internet on last weeks Thursday and it got delivered to my door on Tuesday. I'm deeply impressed by the German Post. If I had ordered the stuff from some company in Finland it would have taken at least a week to arrive, 100 € added to the price and you have to collect it yourself at the Post office. You could buy the stuff in town, but we're still looking at a price tag around 120 €.

It was a bit snowy and windy but the temperature was only around -2 °C. That meant that I could actually take my gloves of for the more delicate work and that the sealant I put around the cables where they went trough the wall will actually harden. I didn't have any applicable frost resistant sealant at home.

So all that remains now is to connect he ground cable to the ground and the four cables from the LNB:s to the DiSEqC-switch and replace the cable receiver with the satellite reciever in the set-top box and we could actually se something on our TV tonight. Well if I have positioned the dish correctly which I tried to, otherwise it's tomorrow's work. I'm doing the evening shift right now.

On a funnier note, after I had left for work my girlfriend decided to go to the grocery store. Well she was looking at the dish while driving away and managed the drive her car into one of the snow walls on the side of our drive way. She had to ask the help of two neighbors to get her car free =).

Winter

We're having a severe case of winter again. The last few days the temperature has been around -20 ºC to -25 ºC. Since the snowfall hasn't been heavy there's no need for yard work. I try to avoid heavy clothing because it's difficult to move around in them. Get out, get into car, if possible have the engine heater and compartment heater plugged in, like at home and work, drive, get out, get inside.

One of the guys at work who lives 50 kms away in a less populated area use heavy winter clothing while driving to and from work. He figured that if his car breaks down it may take a while before someone comes to pick him up. I manly drive in the city area and a lift home is not far away.

But for longer drives in this weather I stuff some heavy winter clothing in my car, just in case...

Busy

It's been a while since I've written anything here. I've been sort of busy lately. We are renovating our kitchen and I'm trying to figure how to loose a dog in 30 days or keep it. The reason or more correctly the two reasons why we have too many dogs are the fulfillment of lifetime dreams. But as said by George Graham Vest: "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." And right now I feel unworthy.

Facebook profile

I'm thinking about linking my blogs to Facebook. Either on my Blogger profile as my homepage and/or as a profile link. You can choose what you put in your profile link but it's a small box that could contain your picture, e-mail and status update and when you click it you find yourself on my Facebook page. There's also a link on how tocreate a profile link of your own. But I'm not sure it's a good idea. I mean it's not difficult to find my Facebbok profile. It's a matter of not making it too easy. What do you think?

-15 °C

This is what you have to wear if you intend to work outside all day long in -15 °C. Due to various reason (mainly work) I haven't had the time to shovel all the snow off the yard that has fallen this week until today. This should work down to -20°C , -25 °C. After that I have a heavier jacket. When the temperature approaches -30 °C you are going to have to start taking breaks (inside). The colder it gets the longer and more often you have to take those breaks If you intend to work outside below -30 °C it has to be very necessary work, like a tree that has fallen over your driveway. If it's below -35 °C you are crazy. There are clothes that you can stay outside with in any temperature but they're difficult to work in, think spacesuit.

But I can tell you that you feel very alive after a day outside in this cold.

Finland made the headlines

Finland made the headlines in the form of a lone gunman, again. This time it was a guy with a couple of firearms related convictions and an assault conviction, in short an aggressive guy who would probably have a gun but not a permit. The last two lone gunman that have made the headlines during the last two years had gun permits, which has strengthened gun laws to the point where it is virtually impossible the get a permit for a handgun.

This guy had a a job, wife and kids but it seems like he never got over his ex girlfriend for whom he had a restraining order placed upon him. He shot and killed four employees(the ex was involved with one of them) at the ex's workplace, which happen to be one of the largest mall in Finland and it was evacuated and searched by heavily armed police officers. In the mean time he had managed to get away and drove to his ex's apartment where he shot and killed her and then he went back to his own apartment where he killed himself.

I have always considered the country where I live in as a very safe one but it also have one of the highest gun-ownership in the world. I don't remember in which order they come but the top three countries are USA, Yemen and Finland. Many legal guns around, many guns to steal and make them illegal...

Welcome to Pandora

How do you review one of the greatest movies of all time if not the greatest in one short blog post? We went to see James Cameron's Avatar in 3-D last night and it was amazing, it was fantastic and yes it's really that good. It's a milestone in science fiction. It's computer-generated imagery taken to the next level. It's a strong environmental message that talks directly to you heart. This is one of those movies that people will refer other movies to in the genre as before and after Avatar. Did I tell you that's it's really that good?

The setting is on a fictional moon called Pandora in the Alpha Centauri system and it was so beautiful that you wanted to weep. I'm not going to spoil the plot, just go see it.

PS. Is suspect James Cameron has been playing World of Warcraft. The Na'vi are blue, tall, have somewhat pointy ears, are connected with and worship nature, have a sacred tree which they live within and like to keep to themselves. Night Elf anyone?

Watch out

I'm doing my first night shift out of four and it's around 4.00. I'm usually not that active this time of the night but I'm sort of experiencing the aftermath of a really cold Thursday. That means that I need to keep an eye or two on things. Anyway this is the time of the night when I have been known to write a bit to honest blog posts. Some scientist claim that being really tired is equivalent of being drunk. I believe them.

I know what I could write about =). But I'm not ;-P. I get to go home and get some sleep in three hours from now.

Christmas Card weather

I've been dreaming of a white Christmas and we're having one. Today we have what I call Christmas card weather . Yesterday and the night before last night we got about 40-50 centimeters of snow, that's about one and a half feet. I've had four morning shift up until now but today is my day off, since I begin the night shift at 22.00 tomorrow, I technically work tomorrow but I still got all day off tomorrow too, before nightfall =).

I was fairly could (-10 - -15 °C, 5 - 14 °F) during my working days so running a distant heating system was relatively busy. However this morning the temperature was and still is now in the afternoon -25 °C (-13 °F). Now I can tell you that my work can be VERY busy when it's this cold, but I'm not there. Drop the temperature another 10 °C (to -35 °C) and it's outright difficult and food is something you have time to eat when you're at home.

But back to the Christmas Card. These weather conditions means that there is no wind and the time of the year means that the sun is just above the horizon in the middle of the day. Just go outside ant take the camera with you and take a picture in any direction before the camera freezes over and you'll have the perfect Christmas Card.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Yes it's snowing outside and yes the next week will be really cold. Conclusion, we're having a white Christmas. Up until about a week ago the ground where still green and/or muddy. Some years winter comes this late but I don't mind, less snow shuffling =).