1618 Kingsway Drive Archives

January 12, 2025January 13, 2025

Rain, freezing rain, ice & snow

The forecasters were pretty much right. They promised us a wintery mix, and we got the whole gamut: rain, freezing rain, half an inch of ice and about five inches of snow here on Kingsway in Cape.

Here is my standard photo looking across the street to the Bolton house.

Wib’s emergency

When the weather started to look iffy, I figured I should journey to Wib’s, remembering when I made a similar pilgrimage in 2013.

An outside combo, with French fries, slaw and iced tea fueled me up for a trip to grocery stores.

Empty shelves at Schnucks

I went to Schnucks specifically looking for key limes and bacon-wrapped pork steaks. They had neither.

I asked the guys in the produce and meat departments if they were hiding any, but they said the supply truck hadn’t arrived, but it should be there the next day.

I thought there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hades of that happening with the forecasts for the rest of the week.

A combination of supply chain issues and panic buying left many shelves virtually empty. Click on any image to make it larger, then use the arrow keys to move through the gallery.

Studded tires will start you, but not stop you

1966 minor crash on icy street

There was a time when I would have fired up the old 1959 Buick LaSabre station wagon and roamed all over town documenting the wintery weather, but I’m older and wiser, and the Buick has long since gone on to its eternal reward. (Dad gave it to one of his workers to haul firewood on his farm. It was a straight-ahead vehicle, meaning that it no longer worked in reverse.)

Here is where I learned in 1966 that studded snow tires might help you get started on ice, but they didn’t do diddly when it came to stopping.

The guy in the black car was on the wrong side of the road when I was heading down the hill.

Roughly five inches

While I was visiting family in South Carolina and Florida over the holidays, the birds emptied about 2/3 of the bird feeders in the back yard. The ice storm froze the ropes and pulleys I use to hoist them past the squirrel zone, so I couldn’t do much for them.

I saw some woodpeckers looking at the few pitiful scraps of suet block, so I managed to replenish that feeder.

I used a measuring cup to fill a feeder down low, then promptly left it hanging on a Shepard’s crook. When I went outside the next morning, it had about five inches of snow in it. I couldn’t get any wind or precipitation readings from my weather station because it was a solid block of ice.

Heated water dish

Before Phoebe the Bleeping Cat was granted indoor privileges a couple of winters back, I kept a heated drinking dish for her. I bought a kiddie pool to hold water for all the back yard livestock, but it was frozen so solidly that even a posthole digger wouldn’t break the ice.

The dish stays liquid even if the rest of the world is a white, solid mess.

Cool mailbox

After a distracted driver mowed down my mailbox, I replaced it with this bigger one so the carrier doesn’t have to make as many porch deliveries.

USPS has this cool app that lets me see what mail is coming, so I didn’t have to wade through the snow to see there was nothing in the box that was urgent.

Snow covers a multitude of sins

Nothing like a fresh blanket of snow to cover up all the ugly parts of my front yard.

Older and wiser, remember?

I walked the perimeter of the yard checking for damage, but I was pretty much OK except for some minor limbs down.

I saw several people leaving stores with sleds under their arms, but I opted out of trying to sled down the hill on the west side of the house.

In fact, when I was in Buchheit’s last week, I saw some handy ice cleats that were nice to stick on my rubber boots. I have some hip pain, but I’d prefer not to break what I’ve got.

September 15, 2024

Does Anybody Recognize this Mailbox Killer?

Driver who destroyed my mailbox 09-11-2024

I came home from grocery shopping to find my mailbox flattened. The guy above mowed down a rose bush, destroyed my mailbox, missed my wife’s van by about a foot, bounced off a manhole cover in my front yard, and kept going down Kingway Drive at 10:14 a.m. on Sept 11.

I’d like to have a serious discussion with the driver about covering the cost of replacing the mailbox.

Dead mailbox

I thought I’d never have to replace it

When I put it in several years ago, I endeavored to make it as bulletproof as possible. I filled the pipe with concrete and rebar and set it in concrete two feet deep. I wanted some kid with a baseball bat to get a big surprise.

I hoped whoever ran over is going to have some serious body work to fix. They not only literally flattened the box, but they yanked the post out of the ground. I didn’t see a trail of liquids, so the vehicle might have had a strong enough bumper to protect it.

Yanked right out of the ground

I can view the security camera video, but it’s in a weird format that was going to take more trouble than it was worth to post.

By the way, the driver appeared to be bald or have short hair. If this was a crime show, some tech would be able to pull up the license tag, but I don’t have the skill or equipment to do it.

When the rains stop, I’ll replace it with something even more substantial.

P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn’t have any political signs in the yard.

July 1, 2023July 2, 2023

Flickers and Mother’s Flashlight

I went to bed uncharacteristically early Friday night, which caused me to wake up around 5:15 a.m. I went into the kitchen for something to drink and decided to watch a little TV.

I hadn’t been there long when the kitchen went dark. That can happen if I try to use two high-wattage appliances at the same time, but nothing big was running.

The blackout was followed by a few encouraging flashes, then total darkness. The whole block was dark. The radar was clear and it wasn’t storming. (It reminded me of the blackout during Y2K.) Scanner traffic said that power was out around the Mt. Auburn neighborhoods, too.

I have little dollar flashlights hanging strategically in every room in the house, so I had enough light to wander back to the bedroom where I grabbed Mother’s old faithful bedside flashlight.

I bought it for her 25 or more years ago, and she always kept it next to her bed. She loved it because of its bright yellow color, but also because the shape made it easy to grab and to carry. It had an easily pushed button that would project a beam straight ahead, or at your feet.

We debated burying it with her, but figured she’d be mad that we wasted such a useful gizmo. I inherited it with the house.

Held off on the generator

I bought a Champion tri-fuel generator last year, but didn’t get around to extending the natural gas line and electrical hookup until AFTER I lost power for 16 hours and 38 minutes in the winter.

I gave some thought to hooking it up, but the house was cool enough for sleeping, and I decided it would be easier to do it after it was light, if the power hadn’t been restored by then.

As it turned out, that was a good decision because things started coming back to life at 6:06 a.m..

So, the generator is patiently waiting. Its battery is trickle-charged, and it’s wearing its GenTent cover ready to spring into action.

Ready in Florida

I bought a little 3000-watt generator after Hurricane Hugo, and didn’t use it until a series of storms rolled over Florida ten years later, starting in 2004.

I gifted the small unit to Son Matt, and bought a larger one that I adapted to run off propane and natural gas. It sleeps in our backyard shed, along with hurricane panels, tarps, sleeping bags and other storm supplies.

Generator’s only good if you can keep it

There’s a story that may or may not be apocryphal about a guy who parked his generator right outside his bedroom window so he could make sure it was still there.

In the middle of the night, he could hear it humming away, but his room was getting hot. He went out to find a thief had substituted a running lawnmower for his generator.

There are some stories that should be true, even if they aren’t.

Here’s how we secure the Florida power supply. A thief could still make off with it, but he’d have to have the right tools and a degree of determination.

(If he leaves a lawnmower, I hope it’s one of equal value.)

THIS was a surprise

The region was under a severe thunderstorm warning a big chuck of the July 1 afternoon. It blew through fast with some gusty winds and rumbles of thunder, but only about .03 inches of much-needed rain.

I heard scanner reports of trees down and power outages, but I thought we had escaped any excitement on Kingsway.

I went out to pick up a limb that had fallen off a maple tree several days ago, and was surprised to see this splintered walnut tree. It’s leaning against another tree, and isn’t in a place where it would damage anything except a concrete birdbath.

I’ll let God and gravity take care of it.

December 26, 2020

I DID Have Christmas Decorations

While sitting on the throne on Christmas, I looked to my right and realized that the house DID have decorations up.

These towels have been hanging there for no telling how long. I know they’ve been there since Mother died in 2015. It just never dawned on me until today that they were seasonal.

Obviously, I don’t use them.

I started to crop out the lacy thing on the right, but decided to leave it for historical accuracy, and as a sample of earlier customs. It’s a loop that was designed to hold extra rolls of toilet paper.

I don’t use it, either, but I’ve left it up for sentimental reasons. Any of the Steinhoff Clan who would like to claim it can speak up. I’ll even pay the postage.