I really like Groundhog day, and I'll try to explain why.
First off, a quick segue on seasons in historic times and modern times: In medieval times, the shortest day of the year was mid-winter. In modern times, the shortest day of the year marks the beginning of winter.
Both of these methods of marking seasons make sense. If you don't have vast quantities of artificial light, then it kind of makes sense to mark the shortest day of the year as mid-winter. On the other hand, there is about a month of "temperature lag" between the shortest day of the year and the really cold weather in the mid-latitudes. You might want your mid-winter to coincide with the coldest weather - which typically arrive in January and February - and that's how it's set up on the modern calendar.
Groundhog day also has significance on the Christian Church calendar. There it is called Candlemas (Candle + Mass), a holy day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
Seasonally though, on the pagan calendar, Groundhog Day marks the first day of Spring, which on the modern calendar, occurs about 6 weeks later.
The reason I like Groundhog Day is because it finally becomes noticeable that you are gaining daylight again after so many long winter nights. By late February, the change in daylight hours is quite obvious, but in early February, there only a few small hints that winter is beginning to lose its hold. Soon things will begin warming, and you won't have to hunker down quite so much. I get a little seasonal blues toward the end of winter, so I'm always cheered by the arrival of Groundhog Day.
I guess those paragraphs are a way of introducing some of what I'm looking forward to being done dealing with: Deep snow.
My happy place - after I clear the walkway and get the heater cranked up for half an hour.
All the test equipment lit and glowing. I don't know why I gathered up so many oscilloscopes. You really only use one at a time... They are just cool, I guess. I added the center two scopes (468 and the 2430) to the workbench recently. Not because I need them there, but because they are cool and different, and I like them.
If you have never plowed or blown snow, you probably are not aware of how much snow sticks to your equipment. Here in the inland Northwest, the snow tends to be quite moist and sticky. It clumps up and gets in your wheel wells, and packs into your wheel rims, and sticks to the plow.
Then you bring your snowblower and/or plow truck into the shop, and all that snow melts off and makes huge puddles. If you get a lot of storms back to back, the snow-melt water really adds up. I have a floor squeegee in the garage and another in the shop. This gets rid of the bulk of it.
However the rest evaporates, and then you run the risk of all your stuff getting rusty from high humidity. So I run a dehumidifier during the winter months to help evaporate the remaining water and to cut town on corrosion of stuff inside the shop.
This GE unit here stopped working for me. The fan works, but it isn't removing any water from the air. I was pretty sure the capacitor for the compressor (black pod in the middle) wasn't working.
This is the replacement that I'm testing here. Oddly enough, I was smart enough to discharge this bad boy after testing it, before grabbing it to re-install. It really snapped a great spark, too. This capacitor tester can apply 500 Volts, which could definitely be a life-changing voltage to a guy.
When I replaced the compressor's capacitor, it still didn't start though. I purchased a second dehumidifier to bring the humidity down while I am busy working at my regular job.
Another thing: For several years, I have been meaning to purchase and install a blower for the fireplace. I finally got around to doing that this past week. We have a zero-clearance propane fireplace, and it's always been more decorative than heat source. In fact it's probably a negative heat source, pulling more warm air out the vent than it returns to the house.
To improve the heating efficiency of the fireplace, I bought a blower kit for it. Unfortunately, this kit uses a crossflow blower, so at anything but the lowest speed, it shrieks. At the lowest speed it hums. Not something you want to be sitting near, but if I'm burning lots of propane, I'd like to get the room warmed up at least!
This is kind of a decent unit, because there is a temperature switch that won't let the fan turn on until the firebox gets warmed up, ensuring it isn't blowing cold air through the room, and it also has speed control, so that you can decide if noise or heat is more important.
I have another career post in the works, but have kinda been busy between work, snow removal, and projects. I'm about to begin restoration of that cool vintage vice as well, so stay tuned!
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