Random Ramblings

alldatndensum wrote:

I have to make some tough decisions with my church.  We were bankrupt and bouncing checks back in Oct. 2019.  We made some drastic changes and kept the church afloat.  We even started to recover back during the summer and it seemed that we were financially getting stronger.

Well, with several members staying home due to COVID and now the cold, we aren't taking in what we were.  Heating the building costs way more than cooling it.  We have a large insurance bill due at the end of the month.  We can make our other bills and keep salaries, or we can pay for the insurance.  Cutting salaries means I have to decide if I will pastor the church for free or only get paid what was promised me when we actually have the funds.

Without a huge influx of funds or several new members who are generous givers, we won't last much longer.  It is sad, but I wondered even when I took this little church if I were going there to lay it to rest.  It may actually happen this time.

Praying for you and your church.

kerrick wrote:

Oh dang!  Yeah it is cooooooooold here too.  My parents' car said 5.8 degrees F this morning!

Man, I am sweating!  We have a balmy 29 degrees here this morning!

alldatndensum wrote:

Man, I am sweating!  We have a balmy 29 degrees here this morning!

It's 29 degrees here too. Celsius.
Tooooo Hot! I'm melting.

Jen5 wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Man, I am sweating!  We have a balmy 29 degrees here this morning!

It's 29 degrees here too. Celsius.
Tooooo Hot! I'm melting.

Ours was 29 degrees FAHRENHEIT.

Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to get ice and a couple of inches of snow.  Walmart is now out of bread and milk.  We will all die now.

-20 here today with the windchill.  Our local Walmart customers have predictably panicked and wiped out the frozen and dairy departments.  

Jen5 wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Man, I am sweating!  We have a balmy 29 degrees here this morning!

It's 29 degrees here too. Celsius.
Tooooo Hot! I'm melting.

That's 84.2 degrees F.  

Happy Valentines Day, everyone.  Well, except for those of you who are celebrating Single's Awareness Day!  We hope it is happy for you as well.

It's Valentines Day, but for us it was not a happy Valentines Day.
There's always a new day and I hop tomorrow will be better than today is.

alldatndensum wrote:

Happy Valentines Day, everyone.  Well, except for those of you who are celebrating Single's Awareness Day!  We hope it is happy for you as well.

I will celebrate by listening to "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band. 🥸

Normaniac wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Happy Valentines Day, everyone.  Well, except for those of you who are celebrating Single's Awareness Day!  We hope it is happy for you as well.

I will celebrate by listening to "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band.  🥸

You could have thrown in Joan Jett's version of "Love Hurts", too.  

I do hate that you have had to go through all this, brother.






We had a great Valentine's Day.  Since we had freezing fog and there was black ice on the roads everywhere, we didn't have church.  I still gave the message online.  The roads cleared, and we went to Olive Garden for lunch since we were supposed to get sleet and freezing rain last night.  I am glad we did as we have about 1/4 inch of ice everywhere this morning with 1-3 inches of snow predicted overnight.  Looks like Valentine's Day could last a bit longer for us!  

We are being pelted with ice today.  The roads are practically impassable.  Since we don't get much wintry weather, no one here has snow tires or chains.  You can salt, but it does little good when temps are below freezing and the precipitation is still falling.  It is expected to become snow tonight and tomorrow.

They are already warning people, with all the ice, that power outages are likely as most of our power lines are above ground here.  When you don't get hard freezes, older lines on poles last a long time and are cheaper to replace than burying them.  So, if I am not on this week, just know that we lost power and I am trying to preserve my phone battery as long as possible.

For now, though, I am still warm and toasty in my little house with my wifey and two kitties.  I am also excited about the school closure for the next two days that will probably be the remainder of the week.

Oh man, it's too cold for people to be losing power.

My parents live in central Texas and are super cold right now (7 degrees Fahrenheit).  They've lost internet and television service and their water.  They started losing power intermittently today.

We still have power and internet.  More sleet just arrived.  We will be somewhere in the neighborhood of an inch of ice before snow shows up overnight and Wednesday.

Good to hear you have power and internet.

Steadily emerging from the deep freeze that has gripped most of the country for the last ten days.  We actually topped zero and moved up to about 13 wonderful degrees today.  By the weekend, we're projected to hit nearly 50.

Only in the Ozarks.  

I dunno, that sounds like something Idaho would do too! We're known to have all four seasons in one day... And on a related note, the poor weathermen don't have a chance here haha.

So the company I used to work for in California wants to hire me back. I've been doing contract work for them remotely some, but they wanna step it up. I think it could actually be a win-win though it'd mean me effectively shelving my own LLC. They're putting together an offer now.

We finally got a real snow overnight.

That's 4 1/2 inches of snow on top of an inch of ice.

alldatndensum wrote:

That's 4 1/2 inches of snow on top of an inch of ice.

Oh gosh, that sounds like a recipe for a hip replacement.

We just had our driveway plowed.

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

That's 4 1/2 inches of snow on top of an inch of ice.

Oh gosh, that sounds like a recipe for a hip replacement.

Nah!  I put on my old geocaching hiking boots and slip on some snow cleats I bought cheaply after Christmas at Walmart one year in those sections where they have those generic men's gifts.  They aren't the best, but they do work.  My cat got out the other morning when we had all the ice before the snow came, and I was running across the ice trying to catch him.  I never even slipped.  I highly recommend snow cleats!  Of course, if I ever start geocaching again, my cleats could also be used for hiking when a trail is wet.

We were without power for 4 days 

Needless to say, us Texans aren't used to this weather.

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

We were without power for 4 days 

Needless to say, us Texans aren't used to this weather.

My parents are in the foothills (Kerrville), they have had intermittent power, but worse yet no water, cable or television for 3 days.  Not likely to get water back until Monday or later.

Finally starting the thaw-out here, after roughly two weeks of 8" snow, subzero temps, and icy conditions.

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

We were without power for 4 days 

Needless to say, us Texans aren't used to this weather.

While we get one of these snows usually once a year, most Tennesseans are not used to this weather, either.  Oh, the cold we get and most people are prepared with at least one kerosene heater if the power goes out.  We don't, but my wife's mom has gas heat.  We would have crashed there had the power gone out.

Tennessee is fortunate not to have jumped on the "green" power bandwagon.  We've seen what snow does to solar panels and wind farms.  We still use coal, heating oils that have to be burned, and hydroelectric plants (old school dams).  If you have the waterways to do it, hydroelectric is still a green technology that simply turns generators and releases the same water out the other side.  It's green if you ask me as you have the same amount of water as you did before and ads no chemicals.

Some areas lost power around us due to downed power lines, but we did not, thankfully.