The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Mostly done, except for the trim

As in, the window guys are back today actually to put trim on the windows. Not that the pink fiberglass isn't the height of chic:

I forgot from the first set that I'll have to paint the trim once they get it in there. I have no idea when I'll get around to this. Time to call my guy...

Parker doesn't care about the windows, but he's no fan of the process. When he got home yesterday, he didn't check out the new windows because this scene made him very, very nervous:

I mentioned yesterday that not having windows in my living room caused the Inner Drive Technology International Data Center to complain. See if you can spot when the guys got the windows in their frames:

They have one more window to replace today, which is fortunately in a room with a door that closes, so I don't anticipate sitting at my desk wearing a coat like I did yesterday.

Really wish they'd finished in October

Guys are installing new windows at IDTWHQ, completing the project begun in March 2009. (I split it into two phases to spread the cost over two years.) I ordered this set mid-August. We thought they'd be done in October, but no such luck.

Here's the effect, according to the Inner Drive Technology International Data Center Monitor:

The bottom axis shows local time, the vertical shows degrees Celsius. Also keep in mind that servers produce heat, so the server rack usually runs about 2°C warmer than the rest of the apar—World Headquarters. And for those keeping score at home, right now it's -1°C outside.

I'll have more art later in the day.

Blows hot, blows cold

Remember that bit about our unusually warm autumn? Meteorological winter began yesterday, leaving no doubt of its arrival:

Chicagoans shivered through the coldest December open in 27 years Wednesday. The day's biting 48 to 56 km/h gusts generated wind chills which ranged from single digits to the mid teens [Fahrenheit] as bursts of snowfall dusted the ground and produced the city's first measurable (3 mm) accumulations at Midway and O'Hare. The snowfall generated patches of black ice which led to a number of traffic accidents on I-65 while wrecks forced state police to close of sections of I-69 north of Indianapolis for a time.

Wednesday's -3°C high was not only the coldest to occur this fall, it was 7°C below normal and nearly 16°C colder than the month's 13°C open a year ago. Not since the -4°C high Dec. 1, 1983 has a December opened any colder here. It's interesting to note that the month which followed produced a -32°C Christmas Eve low temperature.

Over at Inner Drive Technology WHQ, we'll get to experience the cold weather in an extra-special way when guys come to replace half of our windows. They were scheduled to do it back in October, but, wouldn't you know, they were waiting on their suppliers...