TCC for 2/26/08

The Caretaker's Concern 2/26/08
Ghetto temp. 43 F. and rising.
Island tmp. 29 F. Yesterday's L/H: 27/34 F.
Current conditions: Dense cloud coverage, snowing mildly, subtle wind from the East.

The snow began this morning and has been going pretty much nonstop, varying in intensity but overall it's been nothing but snow. In the afternoon the Caretaker decided he was in need of some exercise so he slapped on his skis and headed out on to the ice, he didn't get very far. After about 30 yards or so he turned back. Much of the snow from this storm is the damp heavy kind which is the one type of snow that sticks to the Caretaker's wax-less x-c skis. When the snow sticks to the skis it is no longer x-c skiing, instead it is walking with two heavy boards on your feet. Fun? Not so much. However, the Caretaker was not going out on the ice just to for exercise, his plan was to head over to his car to get a jump on snow removal. So, not wanting to have to walk, which is much slower than x-c skiing, the Caretaker decided he would try to slick his skis, not having any proper wax he thought he'd try spraying them with vegetable oil. Unfortunately the spray oil from the kitchen was too cold to flow through the nozzle. Not to be deterred the Caretaker grabbed a tub of vegetable shortening and a paper towel and headed out to his skis. After rubbing them down with the shortening the Caretaker headed back out on to the ice. The shortening was quite effective, unfortunately at about half the distance to the mainland the shortening wore away leaving the Caretaker with no other option but to walk the rest of the way with two boards on his feet.

Hopefully this snow will freeze up tonight making for better skiing conditions tomorrow. The Caretaker is hoping to be able to ski to town tomorrow to do some laundry. It has been awhile since the Caretaker has washed his clothes and he is starting to run low on long underwear.

--The Caretaker