Freezing this morning driving to work, -5c the whole way
Same here friz fruz.
Sadly the sun has just gone down now onto a lovely evening, and I have returned to the heated room after sitting reading in the sun drenched veranda.
Our house is bloody freezing… It’s so badly insulated and unlike most of you we don’t have a cosy insert or poêle à granulés - we’ve got a stupidly large and inefficient open fireplace The letting agent came round the other day to sort out some details for when we leave and mentioned that the landlord will have to change many things in the house before letting it out again… Just a shame he didn’t think about doing that whilst we were living here!
This was taken in my kitchen earlier this afternoon. It shows 12°…!
Nice hat ! I like your beard shorter like in your avatar!
You back at work then?
Nice!
You poor thing, that is nasty!!!
We have both logburners going tonight again. I had conseil de classes tonight so didn’t get home until 8pm, already -1c then. I have to leave again at 7am, I’ve put the cover on my windscreen! I’m secretly hoping hubby will turn in the car and scrape it for me like he did tilhis morning
12? you lucky people…
Only these 2 weeks of January folks when we might be looking at continuous freezing weather in a block. I dread these 2 weeks every year. OH came here first and one year had -7 all day every day for these 2 solid weeks. Lower, obviously, at night. In a normally mild climate with a bout of snow typically every 7 years.
Yes, as of last Tuesday - had to be signed off as fit by Dr on Monday. Goodness it’s weird going back after a break twice as long as the summer hols! And completely exhausting, especially with a soirée parents profs that finished at 21.30 (when the working day starts at 0755). Things can only get better…
In 1996, I returned to work after a term convalescing from a bad car crash, followed by the summer holidays, and announced I’d be handing in my notice, as in the meantime had got a professorship in S Africa. Didn’t go down well!
I just told them no one’s indispensable!
That would have been fun when you hardly saw some of them, I imagine! Take it easy, only a few weeks until the holidays! I’m off on chomage in 2
Can sympathise with the precariousness of p/t work in education - my first five years lecturing were on term only p/t contracts. However, my situation then was fantastic compared to the UK equivalent today.
That’s grim - I’ll keep my ears open for anything that might suit you.
Not too chilly here in Brittany, but not exactly tropical either - -4°C forecast tonight and (sorry Gareth) fairly cosy in the house even without a fire as I didn’t get the chimney swept this year though I have to admit that EDF must be rubbing its hands with glee at the amount of 'leccy that I’m pouring into the place even with a heat pump to make it comfortable.
Unfortunately I know from experience that if it gets much colder than this the heating starts to struggle and we really need the fire going.
Better to leave the cover off and fill an old lemonade bottle with dish washer liquid laced hot water from the tap and spread it from the top of the screen after starting the engine with screen blast full on. Make sure the wipers aren’t stuck, they shouldn’t be after the hot water. and then get them going. The frost will imediately be gone and the screen gets a good clean at the same time.
Sorry to hear about the chomage, I thought teachers were always needed.
I’d go for tepid rather than hot, especially at first - otherwise the thermal shock can crack the windscreen if you are not careful.
I hesitate to disagree with the Grand Master when it comes to motoring matters, but washing up liquid is not a great choice as it contains salt which isn’t good for the paintwork or the rubber seals.
Also tepid water is OK but if you pour really hot water on your screen it might crack.
A windscreen cover does help I find if there is a hard frost or snow as it means the windscreen starts off reasonably clear. I have one which is double thickness with black on one side and silver on the other so it provides a measure of insulation and can also be used in summer to deflect heat.
Your best suggestion though is the last one about putting the car heating on full blast - also the air con if your car has it as that absorbs the humidity.
(also what Sir William said while I was typing)
That is almost word for word what has been the response whenever I have put forward this idea since I first started the practice 65 years ago. Now, let me see, how many cracked screens have I had? None, not a single one.
Is there a definition of tepid, I mean actual temperature wise? Oxford says ‘only slightly warm’, which would be completely useless for what I suggest as it would re-freeze the moment it touched the screen. I use the water out of my hot tap which is very hot, too hot to allow onto the skin, but because my low ceilings and shallow roof space restrict my tank to 30 litres, must be kept that way to avoid wastage. It will be cooled somewhat by the addition of the liquid (again no detriment to cars over all that time) and the time it takes to go outside into the freezing air, but not enough to re-freeze on the screen which is also of course being heated from within.
The bottle is almost, but not quite, too hot to hold and on my way to the car I give it a good shake to get it nice and bubbly. I also use it on the side windows and the mirrors (on this car, to my surprise and disappointment after I bought it, they are not heated).
So scrape away if you want to and stand your frozen stiff cover against a wall, but I know the best, quickest and safest way to to get going on a frosty morning.
Don’t know if there is an official definition in terms of temperature. Over 50°C can scald, most people will find even that temperature too hot to immerse a hand for more than a few seconds anyway. “Hand hot” - i.e a temperature that will not scald and can be tolerated by most people will be around 44°C, tepid probably extends from around 30°C to 37-40°C, “cool” from 20-30°C, cold anything much below 15°
Almost certainly too cold for this purpose then, after a couple of seconds I can’t hold my hand under my hot taps.
Back to weather temps, I notice for the first time this winter my top pond has ice on it, thin ice admittedly, but even so too risky because of cutting injury to swim in, but the air temp was zero while a foot or so under the ice was 4c.