How's the weather out there?

No fun up here in MA. Was outside for 5 hours yesterday with a high of 17°F, rebuilding a Toro 1028 snowblower. Got used to it after a while.

Today, I think I'm gonna stay inside! :lol:

It's a beautiful 8* out there right now. Looking forward to some 30s!

I recently picked up a high mileage Prius since I do a lot of driving and learned that they have a "bladder" fuel tank that doesn't take as much fuel when it's cold out.

I filled it up for the first time two days ago and it only took six gallons. The gauge went from empty to full, which I thought was odd because it has an 11.9 gallon tank. I thought maybe the gauge was off, so started my research and found a TSB that says that the tank doesn't expand as much in the cold and when it shrinks down, will not take in as much fuel. Everything made sense after that! I could still test the resistance at the sending unit to compare to their table but it's I'll just wait until it warms up and see if it accepts more gas!

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We've reached a whopping 6.7° here so far. It's looking like the 30's are going to be a distant memory.

Forecast is showing below-zero temps every morning for the rest of the week and weekend.

My floor never got poured in the new shop I just built onto my old barn, thanks to the weather, so I'll be outside freezing for the foreseeable future. What's another year? :lol:

Smitty Smithsonite wrote: Forecast is showing below-zero temps every morning for the rest of the week and weekend.

Right here. All the local kids going out bar hopping on New Years Eve are gonna have a bad time. :lol:

Indeed they are!

The local news channel must've spent a half hour telling people how to dress for the cold, since "there are no heating tents" at First Night. LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:

Updated weather report from yesterday morning:

Here in New Hampshire its been in the negatives at night and only reaching around 8*F tops during the day. Its painful just to go outside for 1 minute

I've been wearing 2 layers of Underarmour (4.0 & 2.0), plus a shirt, sweatshirt and jacket for the past month. It's days like this I wonder why I moved out of Phoenix in '00 ...

I've worked outside year round for 13 years now.
Heat lockers performance fleece is an absolute must!
I wear the long underwear and a pair of fleece lined jeans.
A heat lockers fleece under shirt, a larger thermal shirt over that, and a thermal lined hoodie over that, and top it off with an old snap on coat.
A good hat, two pairs of socks and a Wellington style boot (no laces).
Wells Lamont makes great cold weather, waterproof gloves.
If you've never had to remove a foot of snow from under the hood of a car before you could pull the engine, outside, in a storm, you might not think so much about what you wear to work.
Anyone who thinks they have it bad at work is welcome to come rough it out at the junkyard.

No roof, no walls, no heat just you and old man winter laughing in your face for 8 hours!

Oh, I can imagine!

I've had pretty close over the years. Industrial roofing in the late 90's, and more recently, I did a recycling route for Waste Management, and then Casella when WM lost the contract, for a major MA city. I left in early 2009. I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy. I stuck it out for over 5 years - that's all I could take, mentally. I would usually have anywhere from 3-6 altercations with the public every single day.

I was in the best shape of my life, though. Jumped in and out of the right-side drive position 1,000 times per day. Rain, snow, ice, sleet, hail, 100° and 80% humidity, I was out there.

Smitty Smithsonite wrote: I stuck it out for over 5 years - that's all I could take, mentally. I would usually have anywhere from 3-6 altercations with the public every single day.

Ugh, no thank you. I worked crappy retail jobs during college, and I'm thankful every single day that I no longer have to deal with the public directly.

-2, feels like - 19 around here tonight.

That city was one-of-a-kind, let me tell ya! :lol:

A little chilly out here this morning to start off the New Year:

Woke up to 17 degrees BELOW zero (-17) Fahrenheit. (Actual temperature)...... -33 windchill/feels like.

It was just a couple years ago that all the guys at the shop we're taking their motorcycles to the company Christmas party. Guess it really was just a fluke...

Noah wrote: It was just a couple years ago that all the guys at the shop we're taking their motorcycles to the company Christmas party. Guess it really was just a fluke...

Is it common for junkyards to have diagnostic people working there? I imagined more of a parts pulling set up.

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Lol, no it's not common, thanks for asking!
I'm kind of an odd duck in many respects.

I managed to absorb everything I could by taking cars apart and noticed a lack of diagnostic ability in the on site repair facility.

I found ScannerDanner, bought an old scool Vantage and an old Solus Pro then started consuming videos, (and all kinds of tech articles and local seminars), and using my new found knowledge to diag the trouble cars that float through the shop.

From there I got my ASE certs for A6 electrical and A8 Engine Performance. Now in addition to the cars that I do for the shop at the junkyard yard, there's a couple guys who have shops around here that call me in if they get stuck. I also have a bunch of my own customers who bring me their cars.

That's on top of managing the salvage yard side of the company full time and moderating here in my free time. So, I stay pretty busy.

I like to joke that I'm the only Certified tech in the place, but I get paid to break windows and stab tires.

It's not such a funny joke when it's 34 degrees and raining :pinch: lol!

We are having it easy we had one -12c (11f) and a few -8c (17.5f) a few days back it is now relatively warm but since then it has been just wet and stormy.
We had a -20c (-4f) about 5 or 6 years back wasn't fun because it fell very hard in the space of a couple hours and caused real chaos. Prior to that we had a few years of mild winters so a a lot of younger drivers had no real experience of real snow and ice. No salt had been put down before it came and when it was put down it was so cold had no effect anyway. As result even quite major roads were closed for 4 days, the main town 6 miles up the hill from me was completely cut off for 4 days.

I heard there was a 70+ car pile up on the Thruway here earlier today. They're probably still there.

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Hey Smitty,
been there with ya, 20 years in the trash business. coldest I seen was 32 degrees below zero on the back of a rear load trash truck in Minnesota. we would have to switch off every 15-20 minutes on who hung off the back because it was so damn cold. If you didn't keep the truck moving the hydraulics started to slow down. I shit you not. Only got down to 18 below here the last couple of nights which only means a couple of layers on the clothing. Still suck though

In the south of the UK if a 1 inch (25mm) of snow falls the country comes to a grinding halt, further north here in Scotland we cope better but a few mild winters in a row and people soon forget how to deal with it.
In my young days when I was a ships engineer in te 1970's we had to pick-up a gas oil cargo in Romania in a very cold January. In those days Romania was under the thumb of the the Communist dictator Ceaușescu and the people really lived in fear, there was an army guard stationed to prevent anyone trying to sneak on or off the ship. This poor conscript had to do 12 hours shifts in -20c temperatures and wasn't allowed to talk to us or even take a coffee from us.

Noah wrote: I like to joke that I'm the only Certified tech in the place, but I get paid to break windows and stab tires.

:lol: This reminds me of something you said earlier this year that made me giggle:

Noah wrote: "So i hit the window with brake rotor, and it didn't smash."
What do you do now? Pick up the rotor and try again? Walk away before you look like a pussy who cant break a window?