Saturday, December 08, 2012

It's chilly!


I went out the feed the birds this a.m. and got an interesting little lesson in hydrodynamics.  The birdbath was frozen so I took a pointed rock and knocked a small hole in the ice.  I was thinking I'd knock it all out but every time I hit the ice, water shot out of the first hole I'd made.  Interesting!  It never would have occurred to me that the pressure on the ‘body’ of the ice would have that result.  Live and learn I guess.  So I waited a couple hours until at least some of the water thawed before I gave the birds their fresh water. 

We had a little water by the base of the water heater the other day.  Today it is dry.  I’m confused; I would have thought that the darn thing would either leak or not leak.  Apparently it leaks on Fridays but not Saturdays?  Again, I’m learning new stuff here.  I’m thinking I’m going to learn how to change out a water heater though before I’m much older.  Life in the fast lane.  Now I’m spending some quality internet time checking out water heaters – looks like we’ll be spending somewhere between $300 and $1,000 on a new one.  There are some amazing heaters; even one that has a sort of heat pump attachment that makes it more energy efficient. 

We were out enjoying the sunset last night and got to see some military aircraft playing over the California desert.  All we could see were the contrails but it looked like they were having fun.  The one plane would make a tight turn and the other would follow along.  I suppose they were a couple miles apart but they looked close.  We watched them for a good half hour just carving trails in the sky. 

I’ll end with a photo of our cat.  He is getting old and doesn’t clean himself very well.  He gets mats in his fur so we get him a ‘lion cut’ a couple times a year.  My wife was playing with his tail; I thought it was kind of cute.  Sorry about the quality but I took this with my cell phone.  Have a good one!


2 comments:

Croft said...

Quite a few years ago we were visiting my big brother at their cabin on a lake in Northern Alberta. The cabin was on a lake and it was Christmas. He took us for a ride on the frozen lake in his pickup. Some local kids had chopped small fishing holes in the ice and whenever the truck passed near one, water would shoot straight up out of the hole. It was possible the lake was not frozen quite enough for safe driving but it demonstrates the same principle as your bird bath.

JoeinVegas said...

When our water heater started leaking I replaced it with a tankless one - doesn't use energy to just keep water at temp, and unlimited showers. I'm pleased with it, and hopefully no more leaks in the garage.