92 thoughts on “January 5, 2015: Batteries”

  2. Finally, some winter weather! I hope we can get enough snowfall yet this winter to help our drought recovery.

    2. I'm fine with winter, but days with highs below 10F really keep the kids inside and driving my wife crazy.

      1. It could be worse, it could be five kids all between the ages of 1 and 3 that have to stay inside because its too cold. That's what my wife is dealing with today.

        The only thing that annoys me about this cold is the people in the office who complain about this cold.

        1. I try to maintain perspective (perhaps they're living here because they can't move for family or economic reasons), but the complaints about winter really wear my patience thin sometimes. When people talk about enjoying rain in December or warm winter weather, all I hear is "I'm happy with this aspect of global warming." This is about more than enjoying or not enjoying winter. Our habitat needs a cold winter to function properly. Take away those, and I'll bet we'll start hearing complaints about other things in spring, summer, and fall, too. I hate the heat and humidity of the summer, but I sure do love what they do for our garden and for farms.

          1. After living outside of MN longer than I've lived in it, I've come to the decision that MN folks differ from other areas not so much that they can endure colder temperatures, but in that they don't constantly b!tch and moan about it like other places. I know not to make a fuss about 10°, because I know what -46° feels like. And we didn't complain about that, either; it's like getting your butt kicked by a superior team -- you do your best, and wait for the game to finally end.

            2. The older I've gotten, the less that winter bothers me. I really don't mind cold and I understand the need for moisture, but I just wish it would snow when I don't have to travel! 🙂 Some years, I've been very lucky in that regard, others, not so much. I'm going up tomorrow, weather permitting.

              1. I will admit that the idea of snow bothers me when it looms over something i want to do that requires driving. I don't like missing a curling match because I couldn't get to the club. But that's all for purely selfish reasons, and if it's less than ten inches I'm probably going to drive it anyway.

                1. Driving a diesel, I assume cold is generally more of an inconvenience for you than snow.

                  1. For the most part, glow plugs work pretty good in combination with all the Had stations having diesel with additives this time of year. That one time I went on a work trip for a couple days during the coldest the days on February when my glow plugs didn't work was not fun.

                    1. I think I remember you mentioning that particular incident here after you got back from the trip. If you ever run into a similar one in the future and you're flying through the airport up here, feel free to give me a call if you need a lift or someplace warm to wait.

                      The winter I drove my F100 I became an expert on how to use a manual choke. Never had a day when the truck wouldn't start, but there were mornings it wasn't happy with me for waking it up.

            3. Maybe that's why I feel free to complain about it - I lived somewhere else for 6 years, and got soft. It isn't pleasant to be outside in weather below 10F (personally, once it hits single digits, I have trouble distinguishing it from anything colder. It pains me to be that cold. Literally.). I just say as much.

              I don't expect people in Florida to not complain about hurricanes or people in Arizona to not complain about the heat or people in DC to not complain about the humidity. So why shouldn't cold-weather people feel free to complain about their natural afflictions?

                1. To be sure, I appreciate that part of it. I just don't like the part where I hurt because I stepped outside.

                    1. It's a pain though with kids under say 6. They don't keep their mittens or hats on. When they do, they don't keep them dry.
                      And they don't keep their mittens together. I had a sitch last year where I was giving a sled-hike and a little one took her mitten off, got cold hands, and put her wet cold hands back into the mittens
                      I ended up putting her in my coat and running her home through reasonably deep snow, leaving the olders to take care of the other little one, who had my stocking cap to keep her hands warm. Then I ran back to them and brought the other little home in my coat. Then back out to make sure the olders didn't get lost in the woods.

                      New rules:
                      1. No Sled Hikes
                      2. If you take your mittens off without permission, I take you straight home.
                      3. I cannot take both littles out in the winter as the only adult.
                      I violated #3 last week and paid for it.

                    2. This is very true. Maybe I wouldn't hate it so much if I were able to just go from point A to point B unencumbered, but kids = more, longer trips in the cold.

                2. Yep. Cold weather means less insect pests, etc.

                  I'm not saying cold-weather people can't complain about the cold, I'm just saying that in my experience, MN'ns typically don't, even though they have every right to. And btw, DC has nothing on StL re: humidity; if you want an extreme, choose Houston. You need to learn to breathe underwater to live there in the summer.

                  1. More important than insects and lists, the cold means zero chance that I might come across a snake.

                3. I'm hopeful that the 13-14 winter cold + the long-standing summer 2014 river-bottom flooding will have killed off a lot of the invasive buckthorn near my home.

              2. I don't expect people in Florida to not complain about hurricanes or people in Arizona to not complain about the heat or people in DC to not complain about the humidity.

                And those of us that experience all three get to complain thrice as much!

            4. Or better yet, it gives us something to brag about. (But mostly silently in our heads, because Minnesotans.)
              I went on a bird hike through the Coon Rapids Dam park last year on some day that never got above -10. (I really should remember the specifics.)
              On Monday when other people complained about how cold it was and I said that wearing a black parka, the sunlight kept me pretty warm, as long as I stayed out of the wind.
              Oh, the joy I got out of silently judging these others as weak...
              That's what the cold is really good for.

              1. I still hear Too Tall on radio stations on my various travels across ND and MN.

                True story: I used to be a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and every year we'd have a spouse night. We have a meeting in Fargo at some restaurant and have a general interest speaker. Kind of a nerdy deal, but it was *kind of* of fun. Anyway, there was one guy that I worked with (Dave) who was just a little dense. I mean, he had an engineering degree, but sometimes you really wondered what was going on in that skull of his.

                Anyway, Too Tall was the guest speaker and he talked about weather forecasting for about half an hour or so. The main point of his speech was how he didn't rely on the computers, but how he did all his own forecasting. He knew from experience, he asserted, that certain parts of the area reacted a little differently to weather systems than what the computer models said, so he would always make adjustments for that. If you were into that kind of thing, it was actually pretty informative and entertaining (plus he played college basketball against Magic Johnson!). At the end of this very thorough presentation, he opened the floor for questions. Dave asked the first question: do you do your own forecasts?

                Those of us who knew Dave were not surprised by that. But you should have seen the look on Tom's face. He'd just spent a half hour explaining how he did just that!

          3. I complain sometimes, but I try not to do it too much. I've lived here all my life. I know what winter is here. I may not like it, but I know it's coming. We all know it's coming. So let's deal with it and get on with our lives.

            2. I always say that it isn't January that makes a winter rough. It's March. It's always cold in January. But, if it continues through March (or into April!), that's a bad winter.

              2. Huh. March is tournament time, which always seemed to distract from winter's misery (and usually involved some slushy days down in Tropical Minnesota).

        2. Whenever people complain about the cold, I always say it isn't too bad, as it's a dry cold.

          Personally, I prefer -20 F to 32 F with rain.

          1. the real tragedy of winter cold snaps: we had three consecutive nights of below-freezing temps for several hours each, likely destroying what remains of my orange crop.

            Of course, the mutha-fracking roof rats in the neighborhood have been eating most of the oranges anyway, ignoring the baited trap I've left out for them.

          2. you're absolutely right. When it's frigid and dry, keeping your skin covered is most of the battle in staying warm; 40° in San Fran on the other hand is bone chilling no matter how well you're covered up

              1. Spot on.

                I've followed this discussion the past few days, nodding in agreement with the winter enthusiasts and smiling at those who're, uhm ... less enthusiastic about the MN climate. I'll note that I'm smart enough to keep this opinion to myself when speaking with my wife...she can't stand the winter weather here and only stays because it's where our family is.

        1. I can't believe you guys are complaining about above-zero temperatures. Are you Minnesotans, or are you mice?

          2. It was below zero yesterday afternoon when I took my daughter skating. I told her that we have to hurry and get inside the rink to warm up. Ha!

            1. Dido skating with kids, but outside. Teaching them to take pride in hardiness. But also how to keep appendages warm and when to call it quits if need be.

              1. My daughter needs to skate on good ice at this point. It can't be rough; she's spinning and jumping around. She also was meeting with her coach yesterday for her weekly lesson.

                1. You're in a whole other world of skating there. This was not the ice for that kind of thing. Not to mention axles and such with snowpants and a facemask...

              2. I took the jalapeno "skating" outside yesterday too! He was just sliding around in his snow boots, but I figured if he had fun in those conditions, it would be worth investing in some used skates for him.

                We had the rink to ourselves, which was great. I strapped on my skates for the first time in 4+ years. It was a blast once my ankles stopped hurting.

                1. Full disclosure: after returning from skating, I spent an hour and a half trying to get the boys to do something other that take each other's stuff and hit each other. I'm trying to interpret this as a call for more creativity on my part rather than a harbinger of doom.

                  3. My father just told my brothers and I that he thought we'd never speak to each other as adults because of the things we did to each other as kids. We had a good laugh, and then I hit my brother in the face with his kid's nerf football.

        2. My AstroStart decided to stop working this week while it was -20 and worse in Winnipeg. I drive an old car so I was on like six hour shifts going outside to start it. I hate the cold so much.

  3. Stuart Scott, longtime ESPN anchor, died yesterday at 49. He left behind two daughters. My heart goes out to them.

    SportsCenter was a big part of how I followed baseball growing up, particularly since I couldn't watch the Twins on television (other than when they played the Brewers or White Sox or appeared in the rare nationally-televised game). I'm sure I annoyed my dad with how many times I could watch a single episode of the show on a Saturday morning. Back in the day SportsCenter felt fresh and was hosted by a bunch of funny, passionate people. Stuart Scott was one of my favorites. I admire him now for what he said about cancer in his speech at the ESPYs:

    When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.

    Most folks with cancer don't have the luxury of self-deception about their mortaility. Still, talking about your mortality in public when you have been diagnosed with a deadly illness takes an extraordinary reserve of humanity and grit. Scott definitely showed what he was made of when he talked about living with cancer. Here's a clip from that speech.

    httpv://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K9cSX5XPY70

    RIP, Stuart. You truly were as cool as the other side of the pillow.

    1. I wasn't a big fan of his on SportsCenter, but I was definitely a fan of how he dealt with his illness. May he rest in peace.

    2. I watched Rich Eisen's tribute to him, ten minutes after he found out his friend died. That was intense.

      I, too, could watch the same episode of SportsCenter over and over when I was 13. I haven't watched it in well over a decade now, but it was great to have before the internet. Scott wasn't my favorite either, but he had energy in spades.

      1. Hard as it was to watch, I'm glad I did. Others can visit this Deadspin post if they'd like to see either Rich Eisen or others at ESPN share their love for Stuart Scott. If you feel disconnected from the people you see on TV (as I know I often do), this might be a good opportunity to remind yourself that they're carrying around the same fears, grief, and love for friends that we all do. This is as genuine as anything you're ever likely to see on ESPN, or perhaps on any channel.

        I particularly appreciated what Cris Carter and Keshawn Johnson had to say about how Stuart Scott helped blaze a trail for young, urban, African-American personalities on television. I knew Stuart Scott was cool when I was watching him. What I couldn't appreciate was that he was a role model for other people my age.

  4. LOL.

    When Stoudemire signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Knicks in the summer of 2010, he declared the team would return to relevance. He mostly delivered on that promise, helping New York reach the playoffs for three straight seasons.

    The Knicks were 7-14 in the post season and won one playoff series in an overall abysmal conference in their "return to relevance."

  5. I've spent most of my morning looking at rashes online to see what Sour Cream has. This house has been sick in this form or that since just around Halloween; The Milkmaid has been sick pretty much the whole time.

    Sour Cream was beaten down by a quick-moving fever two nights ago and yesterday developed a body-covering rash that showed up seemingly over the course of an hour. It looks to be swimmer's rash, probably obtained in the hot tub the night before. Skim and I didn't get it, but it doesn't really look like anything else. Sour Cream is miserable and I have no desire to go to work and leave her, but at least I'm off tomorrow.

    SO SICK of this. How long can one family fight non-life-threatening illness? Can it just be done?

    1. Any chance the cause of this illness is environmental? I wouldn't think mold is a huge issue in Arizona, but you might want to consider other factors if this is something your family just can't shake.

    2. Any time I get any kind of a fever, I'll eventually break out in a rash. How much of my body is covered depends on how bad the fever was. I don't know why; I've just come to expect it.

    3. I would probably make an appointment with a doctor for a child having a rash following a fever. Even with chicken pox, they probably should see a doctor, though I assume it doesn't look like that. (When I had chicken pox, I had the low-grade fever for a couple days about a week before the rash started to show). Junior had scarlet fever a few years ago, which was a low-grade fever and a red rash on his face and hands. It was no big deal for him, but if left untreated, it could lead to some bad complications.

  6. I was reading this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on "How to Curate Your Digital Identity as an Academic", which goosed me to google myself for the first time in a few months. And I ran across whitepages.com, which has a "profile" for me that not only linked me to my wife and the Boy, but also pinpointed three prior addresses stretching back to the late 1980s. Holy crap. I know these things are easily found to those who are willing to spend a little time and money to search, but I didn't know that they were now freely available to the general public.

    1. The quantity and specificity of our personal information out there in the public domain is pretty unsettling. I'm sure our elected representatives are working hard to create and enact legislation that establishes guidlines for online databases, protecting common folk from overexposure of their sensitive data – even that on public record.

      Also: I have had enough of "curating" things. That verb needs an 18-month rest.

      2. I must be reading the wrong things. Or not reading them well. I don't recall seeing "curate" lately, especially in an unnecessary usage.

    2. I finally got some...uh, embarrassing things I said while I was in college permanently removed from search engines not too long ago (that took years, as the site was so old that search engines weren't regularly updating their links to them). As of right now, my name doesn't link me to anything terribly personal. You can find where I grew up, and anywhere else I had a landline, but you can't find my current address (which is really important given my clientele). About the only thing you'll find now are the standard LinkedIn, Spokeo stuff, some debate tournament result form the 90's, and a couple of random sites I made banal comments on.

      I'm pretty vigilant about my last name appearing anywhere on here, CdL, or my own website.

    4. I had a minor summer fling with my current lady friend back in 1987. Hadn't seen nor heard from her since 1988. Late this summer someone suggested I look her up. I knew her maiden name, year and college she graduated from, her hometown, and what she looked like in 1988. After 10 minutes of simple googling I knew that she a) was a senior vice president for a large company located in Bloomington; b) was still attractive; c) had two teenage children; d) was single; and e) how to get a hold of her electronically. That was in 10 minutes of casual, simple googling.

  7. got involved with a FB thread about a new bill being proposed in the Calif legislature that would require the use of rear-facing car seats for toddlers up to age 2 (or other conditions, to be determined). Is this really an issue that "libertarian" or "conservative" folks want to fight over -- on anti-"Nanny State" regulatory grounds? Oy. Current Calif law, passed only in 2012, requires rear-facing car seats to age 12 months or some threshold height/weight. The research evidence seems reasonably compelling in favor of a ~2-year standard (or some threshold height/weight).

    1. Seems reasonable. My biggest concern would be availability of rear-facing car seats made for children of 12 to 24 months. My memory is that most of those were made for the small babies since the child is basically lying down instead of sitting up. Also, I think it would be difficult to get parents of children 13 to 24 months that have already switched to the front-facing to go back to the rear facing, especially if they only have a few months before the birthday and/or the original rear-facing car seat the parents had is too small for the child. It might be prudent (i.e., easier to pass the law) if there's a sort of grandfather clause or the law is made known 1 or 2 years before it comes out to allow people and manufacturers to prepare. Maybe outlaw too small rear-facing car seats. With most laws like these, the change in the law is the most difficult part.

      1. Apparently, the U.S. regulatory standards basically require the seats to be secured with a lap belt/LATCH system only, snugged up to the seatback to the rear. In Sweden, the seats are designed to sit further forward on the seat and are supported in front by a bar that extends to the cabin floor (prohibited in the u.s.).

      2. Most (all?) current seats for 12+ months work both forward facing and rear facing. Both my kids are in basically the same car seat even though my daughter is about 3-1/2 and my son is 1-1/2, so that availability is not really an issue.

  11. R. I. P. Stu Miller, at age 87. He had a sixteen-year major league career, but is best remembered for a balk caused by the wind at Candlestick Park during the 1961 all-star game.

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