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Post by Kapitan on Dec 6, 2023 21:50:48 GMT
What, it's not astronomical winter yet? No, but it is meteorological. And from where I sit, I can see the sun ducking down below the rooftops across the street--and only 45 minutes away from falling below the horizon. (Yes, our sundown is already around 4:30 p.m. Sunrise is around 7:35 a.m. The days are short.)
And the temperature in near-Nordic Minnesota? Well, actually not bad at all: it's 44 right now, which is 16 degrees above average. Still, the darkness does make it feel like winter even if the weather doesn't, and that weather, well, it isn't going to hold long. We'll get our cold. We always do.
With the season in mind, I just bought my first winter beer, Schell's Snowstorm. They change the specifics of their winter brew each year, and this year's is a strong four-rye dark ale. Hearty and hardy stuff, this.
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Post by kds on Dec 7, 2023 18:46:42 GMT
It definitely feels like winter here too. The sun goes down at 4:42p. Its gray. We even saw some flurries.
I'm currently in a fight with a cold. I first felt symptoms Sun night, and started taking zinc tablets. Now, its five days later, and I'm still feeling very mild symptoms. I guess the zinc is working, or else it would be a full blown cold by now.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 7, 2023 18:49:50 GMT
Shockingly, our weather actually just keeps improving. We're going to get to 50 today and maybe tomorrow. Parts of the state could hit 60, which is absurd in Minnesota for December.
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Post by kds on Dec 8, 2023 3:36:22 GMT
We're due to get into the low 60s on Sunday. Unfortunately, Sunday will also see wind and rain, which could make going to the Ravens game less than pleasant.
Our winters aren't nearly as cold as Minnesota. Our highs are rarely below freezing. But, this time of year in particular, when there's a lot of moisture in the air, we went that wet, raw cold air.
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Post by kds on Jan 4, 2024 4:17:01 GMT
I've mentioned this before, but that first grocery trip after New Years stinks. No longer filling the cart with snacks, Christmas treats, or ingredients for cookies.
Oddly enough, this year, I really indulged in sweets. Its usually the savory that temps me. The will power I displayed last December was not there this year.
On another note, Baltimore could get getting our first winter storm in a couple years as a Nor Easter is expected for Saturday. Although, the significant snowfall will likely occur north and west of Central Maryland.
I was actually going to grill Saturday night. Now, I'll grill in almost any weather, but I'm not messing around with a Nor Easter. Instead, we're making turkey chili.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 4, 2024 13:21:03 GMT
Oddly enough, this year, I really indulged in sweets. Its usually the savory that temps me. The will power I displayed last December was not there this year. Same here. It's almost embarrassing how many sweets I bought. In fact, I still have a ton of them left over: some cookies I put in the freezer, some candies and caramel corn in the cupboard. Not just overeating, but overeating the bad stuff, both sweet and savory. Unwise! I've been a borderline saint the past week, though, so hopefully I can keep up the better behavior.
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Post by kds on Jan 4, 2024 13:33:37 GMT
Oddly enough, this year, I really indulged in sweets. Its usually the savory that temps me. The will power I displayed last December was not there this year. Same here. It's almost embarrassing how many sweets I bought. In fact, I still have a ton of them left over: some cookies I put in the freezer, some candies and caramel corn in the cupboard. Not just overeating, but overeating the bad stuff, both sweet and savory. Unwise! I've been a borderline saint the past week, though, so hopefully I can keep up the better behavior. Whatever I didn't eat either went in the freezer or was given away. I ate so many sweets that by Dec 27 or so, I couldn't look at another cookie.
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Post by carllove on Jan 5, 2024 1:18:27 GMT
Same here. It's almost embarrassing how many sweets I bought. In fact, I still have a ton of them left over: some cookies I put in the freezer, some candies and caramel corn in the cupboard. Not just overeating, but overeating the bad stuff, both sweet and savory. Unwise! I've been a borderline saint the past week, though, so hopefully I can keep up the better behavior. Whatever I didn't eat either went in the freezer or was given away. I ate so many sweets that by Dec 27 or so, I couldn't look at another cookie. Funny that my husband just told me he wants me to make sugar cookies again, since they went fast over Christmas. I kind of want some as well. This time - no fancy decorating - just a single color glaze. I spent hours decorating my cookies at Christmas. I lost a bit of weight before Christmas after the rounds of antibiotics, and my clothes are hanging off me, so I’m not worried about calories.
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Post by kds on Jan 7, 2024 19:10:51 GMT
I lost 2.5 lbs when I weighed myself Fri morning. I'm pretty satisfied with that considering I continued to indulge through New Year's Day.
So, this is my first full week of cleaner eating. I'll say it feels good.
The Nor Easter that come through yesterday just made for a rainy day. We got a very light snow dusting on the grass in the morning before it changed to rain.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 7, 2024 19:36:12 GMT
I lost 2.5 lbs when I weighed myself Fri morning. I'm pretty satisfied with that considering I continued to indulge through New Year's Day. So, this is my first full week of cleaner eating. I'll say it feels good. The Nor Easter that come through yesterday just made for a rainy day. We got a very light snow dusting on the grass in the morning before it changed to rain. I'm also down about 3ish lbs since just before New Year's. I had dropped as much as 5, but part of that was my little medical spell in there, so I didn't really eat for a couple days. But the 3 seems more legit/stable. A big part of that was a week of zero drinking, only broken by just a glass or so of wine last night, but also eating much better again. After my diet and drinking habits got worse basically all of the fall, it's good to be back on track. I'm really hoping to drop a solid 10 and stay (at least) there, but we'll see.
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Post by kds on Jan 7, 2024 20:29:00 GMT
After doing so well in 2022, and the first four months of 2023, I fell into some bad habits. Although, in summer and early fall, I was maintaining OK. But, the last two months, not so much.
One of my big downfalls in 2023 was my beer intake. In 2022, I was drinking beer every other weekend. I did not do that this past year.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 7, 2024 20:35:26 GMT
I gained about 4-5 lbs. over the holiday. No excuses. Too much candy and cookies. Even with my walking program, I've been unable to lose weight. The older I get...
We had about 4-5 inches of snow last night. Shoveling this morning wasn't too bad, but I'm out of shape. Breathing harder than usual. According to the weather app on my phone, it's supposed to hit 56 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't complain about that. Not for the middle of January.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 7, 2024 20:39:21 GMT
I gained about 4-5 lbs. over the holiday. No excuses. Too much candy and cookies. Even with my walking program, I've been unable to lose weight. The older I get... I did, too, basically from Thanksgiving through Christmas, I put on roughly 5 lbs. But as I said, I was fortunate to lose a few. (Even if my inspiration wasn't exactly pleasant.) It does get harder to drop those extras over time, though. We had a dusting both of the past two nights, but neither amounted to anything: while the ground is mostly coated now, you can still see grass poking through in many spots. The temps are finally down to something a little more winter-like (roughly 20s and very low 30s), though still well above normal. Looks like next weekend we will have some overnight lows below zero and highs in the single digits--I think for the first time this winter in both cases. But I don't think we're going to have much snow by then. There's about an inch forecasted for tomorrow.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 13, 2024 13:05:39 GMT
The saying is "better late than never," but in the case of Minnesota winter weather, I'm not sure that applies. We've gotten the typical cold, though, even if it's a solid month or six weeks later than usual. Overnight temps have suddenly dropped below zero, and tomorrow that zero is the forecasted high temperature! The entire week ahead looks similarly cold.
On the positive front, we were supposed to see anywhere from 2-5" of snow yesterday and overnight into this morning. We got maybe--maybe--half an inch. I'll take it!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 13, 2024 20:15:00 GMT
It's cold and windy today, so I thought I'd plop down on the recliner and watch the Bills-Steelers game. Nope. That game was postponed to Monday due to temperature/wind/(probable)snow in Buffalo. OK, so I'll watch the Chiefs-Dolphins game later. Nope. That game is on Peacock - which I don't have. WTF!
I'll have to dig out my Jackie Brown DVD...
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