It looks like we have a great week coming up (weather wise) with clear or mostly clear weather and relatively moderate temperatures. Unlike some other areas of the country, folks here are praying for snow. Without the insulating layer of snow, water and sewer pipes may freeze. I think that we are in good shape as our pipes don't pass under any area where the ground would get compacted. Compacted ground is a better heat (or cold) conductor.
I know that I mention this every year but I still find it interesting. The last appearance of the sun this year in Barrow, AK, is less than a week away. Wednesday, November 19, 2014, will be the last sunrise/sunset until near the end of January. Daylight hours is shown on the blue line on the graph. Sunrise is yellow and sunset is red. The two lines converge in November.
The graph for Fairbanks isn't as interesting. On the shortest day of the year, we still have almost four hours of sunshine.
The only moto-mod that I've done to the Ural over the last couple of days has been the addition of a relay mounted above the battery that switches on with the ignition and provides switched power for the heated grips and heated gear. There has been a couple of times when I found that I had left the heated grips on for an hour or so. No problem starting the engine but I figured that one of these days I'll come back to a dead battery. Many choose to run the heated grips through the ignition switch but I figured that the switch didn't need the additional current. Since the relay will handle 30 amps I could also move the sidecar power to the same relay or add an additional relay later. The seat mounting plate above the battery has a lot of space for things like relays. The stock starter relays are mounted there already.
I certainly have lived in cold long enough to know that even 2 above can send you outside in a light jacket for awhile. Enjoy the springtime temps!
ReplyDeleteLast year there were a lot of water lines bursting in the city. The snow was deep, but the cold just kept getting deeper and deeper. At some point it's just too cold for anything.
It really does have a feeling of Spring especially with the clear skies though a little more snow would be nice. Hard to do any "Spring Skiing" without it.
DeleteBy the way, my photos now open up like yours do- on a separate page. How'd that happen? They used to open up as a slide show of sorts. I don't know how this change happened.
ReplyDeleteUnder Blogger Settings->Posts and Comments, there is a setting for "Showcase images with Lightbox". I have it set to "No" since the Lightbox doesn't work with all platforms or is a hassle to use since it doesn't obey the normal zoom commands.For similar reasons, I disable the Mobile version. It's one of those "Google knows what you want but are too dumb to know" things. They're wrong. I don't like how they choose to render pages.
DeleteThanks for trying.
DeleteGoogle can really stink and BE EVIL at the same time...I have always had it set to No on mobile and always Yes on Lightbox. I suppose I will just wait to see if it shakes out some way. There really is nothing else I can find that would cause this, but then I'm one of those "dummies", so what do I know.
I use a relay as well for the heated grips, they only come on with the ignition on. The grips I have also power down if they sense too low a voltage.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the shutdown voltage is? I've noticed that if I turn on the grips or heated gear while the engine is idling, the led's indicate that they are on but no heat is there until the RPM comes up.
Deletewell, with the oxford heated grips....if it read voltage less than 10 volts I dimly recall, it shut down....this was an early indicator, in my case, that my battery wasn't charging anymore.
DeleteBTW, this was on the R80.
Deletedamn, sorry, the V-Strom
DeleteGot mine on a relay too, along with the 12V outlets.
DeleteThe only thing wired direct to the battery is the two-prong SAE for the life support and powering the air pump.
I think I just figured out the Lightbox problem. I added a code for the live Weather Underground sticker on my blog! That must be when the picture display changed.
ReplyDeleteSo, OK. It's me. Google can still be evil, tho.
Google evil! Say it isn't so...
DeleteI was wondering about the location in the WU widget... NC?
Over 8 weeks without daylight? Ouch! What do the statistics say about the prevalence of cavity and drug abuse in that area?
ReplyDeleteAlcohol abuse is a serious problem but not necessarily related to sunshine. It's a huge problem in the summer as well. And like most places in the US, eating poorly is a huge problem.
DeleteRichard I find the darkness depressing ... already the shortness of the days is affecting my mood, I don't know how you live with such daylight (hope you're taking your vit D!)
ReplyDeleteThe lack of sunshine doesn't seem to bother me much, if at all. In fact I usually have the lights off in my office to minimize the glare. I guess I'm just a mushroom at heart.
DeleteI am impressed that you still get 4 hours of daylight in Fairbanks even on the shortest day.
ReplyDeleteNo snow for us, but we do have sunshine....and woke to 20˚F. Brrr. Our plants sure didn't like it.
Yeah, Fairbanks is a couple hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle so we still get sunshine in the middle of winter.
DeleteThe shorter days are a challenge, so glad that many are still able to prosper and maintain. You make it sound easy Richard.
ReplyDeleteThe short days have never really bothered me. I used to look forward to winter more when I went x-country skiing more. Not too often anymore.
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