August 18, 2016

Think ice

Well, "Think snow" didn't have any effect, but "Think 100 pounds of ice" has worked beautifully. I don't have a thermometer but I was very comfortable all day and never broke a sweat at all. It's about 9PM now and there's about 10 pounds of ice left, so I kind of got too much.

Of course, too much is better than not enough. So I've got an order in for another 100 pounds (about 45 kilograms) for tomorrow morning.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 07:59 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 81 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Surprisingly, we never really came close to 100° this summer.  Oh, there were three or four days in a row of 95, but five degrees is five degrees.

The problem was, of course, the humidity.  We saw heat indices pushing 110° or above those days, and it's been a long time since I've felt that miserable.  No wind, either... just a great boiling fetid swamp engulfing Duckford.

And then the storms came and I huddled in the hallway of Pond Central, wondering if there were going to be flying monkeys or not.

On the whole?  I don't recommend either place's weather.

Posted by: Wonderduck at August 18, 2016 10:08 PM (vZvpB)

2

The prediction was 100 F and the high temp of record was exactly 100.

One of the nice things about heat waves here is that they are never combined with high humidity. Our air blows off the Pacific and it has a lot of water in it when it hits the shore. But it's also quite cold. If it heats up for a heat wave, the relative humidity declines considerably. So even if you're exposed to the heat, sweating does a good job of cooling you.

The prediction for tomorrow is 102, which is why I put in another order for 100 pounds of ice instead of cutting it back.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 18, 2016 10:19 PM (+rSRq)

3 How much does 100 lbs of ice cost from the supplier?

Purchase an ice-making machine, maybe add a controller to make it programmable, take advantage of low ambient temperature and off-peak hours that are seasonally 1/3 to 1/10 the cost per kw/h.  But even at 15 cents per kw/h, a scratch estimate yields ~2 cents per kg of ice (less than $1 for 100 lbs).  Get your fellow residents involved with ice-storage cooling, ask them to supply a bin while you provide the ice at a discount, and they'll be paying to keep Steven a happy Polar Bear every year.

Profit.

Personally, I prefer my inefficient central HVAC.

Posted by: Rykehaven at August 19, 2016 03:48 AM (BSgMR)

4 Rykehaven, you seem to be going out of your way to make yourself personna non grata in these parts. Did you notice this on the comment entry form?

I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2016 06:10 AM (+rSRq)

5 The ice is working fine today, too. But I may be SOL tomorrow. I tried putting in yet another order with Safeway and the credit card charge bounced. I suspect that BankOfAmerica's credit card fraud detector decided I couldn't possibly have wanted to buy from Safeway three days in a row.

I'll try it again this evening.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2016 02:34 PM (+rSRq)

6 And... I just tried it again and it worked fine. I wonder what kind of problem BoA had?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2016 06:12 PM (+rSRq)

7 I wonder if it was a 24-hour timeout? By which I mean BoA wouldn't let me make another charge with Safeway until at least 24 hours after the previous one?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2016 06:12 PM (+rSRq)

8

Very possibly there was a communication issue between Safeway's credit card processor and Bank of America.  I seen it happen before, and the default response by the retailor if they have problems communicating with the bank for whatever reason is to deny the transaction.  Unless there is a real problem with your card, waiting a bit and trying it again will take care of the issue.  For purchases from a supermarket chain that you had a history of charges on the card, the card would be unlikely to flag it even if you made purchases on consecutive days.

Posted by: cxt217 at August 19, 2016 06:47 PM (Kdt2H)

9 The receipts they give me each delivery have a running count on them. Today was #203.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2016 07:44 PM (+rSRq)

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