Well, that figures...

I'm looking at the weekend forecast now that AvGas prices have receded back to the $4-ish level: it looks to be typical late fall, early (and mid to late, for that matter) winter weather. The kind of weather that reminds me of a $1.99 buffet: there's plenty of variety, but none of it is palatable.

Sunday morning was a case in point. The temperature/wind chill combination is 34F, the skies are cloudy, and so is my mood. Every year there is a day that you just know is the first day of the rest of the winter, and today is that day. Winterization projects abound, including taking the front porch rockers down to their winter den in the basement, taking the snow plow (as of today it is the snow plow; up until today it was the lawn mower) out of the shed and putting it in the garage, and putting the BBQ grill in its place in the shed. The snow plow has to be kept in the garage for two reasons: first, the battery will die in the frigid cold of the uninsulated shed and second, because the snow will pile up in front of the shed doors and I won't be able to get them open to extract the plow.

Last year I just moved the Miata to the very back of the garage and blocked it in with the plow, but ironically enough that positioning left me with a dead Miata battery on one of the rare nice weather days when I tried to drive it. This year I decided to try keeping it in the hangar. The battery will die even more quickly there, but without the plow blocking it in I should be able to drive it now and then. If the battery dies before I can next drive it, it will be easy to jump start since the battery on a Miata is located in the trunk (Or "boot" to you Irish folk - it's an international set that frequents The Chronicles):



The pear trees were the last to finally lose their green, and I thought it a colorful opportunity to provide an update on the health of the duct tape tree:



It seems to be doing fine, but the first big test will be a windy/icy storm. Either the wind will blow it down, or the ice will be so heavy that it hasn't the strength to hold it. Time will tell, as they say.