Aerie Report, November 9, 2010

Back at the Aerie again....

I left the Bolt Hole Monday morning after emptying the water lines and pumping the liquid stuff outside in an attempt to keep the basement dry. In the past, I had a simple sump hole in the floor (dirt) into which I drained the hot water tank and the lines. The water would soak into the ground but too much of it would evaporate back into the basement air allowing all sorts of nasty things to happen. Including heavy, heavy condensation on the fuse box...enough to short out one breaker and cause my fridge to defrost this summer while we were in Alaska and spill its guts onto the floor. (I emptied the fridge before I left.)

When I left at 10:30 there was a stiff wind blowing out of the north and a little spritz of rain/sleet starting to fall. I learned later there was a winter weather warning off to the east and, when I got to the Aerie, that there was some snow in the slightly higher elevations to the northeast of the Bolt Hole. The Albany radio station was talking about the number of car accidents on the slick roads. I had no such problems on my drive. I was heading to the southeast, away from all that crud.

The wind, however, still blew out of the north with quite a force. Whitecaps could be seen on Seneca Lake and the waves were crashing on the south end of the lake at Watkins Glen. Even so, it was a pleasant enough ride.

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So today Terry and I removed all the screens and put them into attic storage, moved some furniture around, hauled two sofas to the dump, and had a scrumptious dinner of porterhouse steak from the quarter of a beef we bought up near Fonda, NY.

The weather could have been better, however. The forecast had been for some early morning clouds giving way to sunshine and 50 degrees. Never happened. Instead, we had low clouds and fog all day and the temperature never got above 42 degrees. Perhaps tomorrow will bring the promised sunshine. Perhaps.