Mark Twain once asserted "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

I'm guessing that Mark Twain never spent a winter in the Western North Carolina Mountains!  Mark Twain never actually said that you know (Snope on Mark Twain).  Apparently if you are famous for witty quotes you get credit for much more than you actually say.  After all of that bragging about clearing out the garages for our vehicles my truck has been outside for our first two snows

and last night which got down to single digit temperatures.  I've been working on a storage cabinet to get some tools off the floor and so my parking space is taken currently taken up as a work space.  

And I have boxes scattered all over the floor at the moment.  Apparently the more disorganized you are the more challenging it is to get organized.  Tools, fasteners and appurtenances that I need to build the cabinets, cabinets I need to put stuff away, I can't seem to find in a timely manner because they are scattered randomly in boxes.  Even things I've seen and had in my hand recently I struggle to put my hands on again when I need them. 

A good number of boxes were packed under the stress of moving day and more than one box has random stuff just dumped in and mixed together.   One thing I'm having to do as time allows is to sort like stuff into different boxes.  As you can see I've finished painting the shop except for the cabinets I'm in the process of building.  By way of comparison, here is what the space looked like when we were looking to buy the house.

I'm definitely making progress but there is still much to do.  I had better find a way to get my truck back inside because I think my battery might be freezing up.  The last two mornings my truck engine barely cranked over. 

My shop renovation is going to have to take a short hiatus.  I've contracted with a local electrician to install a new meter section with a manual transfer switch and a portable generator connection.  Living in the city you don't have to think about these things but we have a well with an electric pump.  If our power goes out we can't flush toilets, get drinking water, shower or heat the house.  My plan is to get the new meter section and transfer switch installed now.  I can buy the generator anytime but I can't magically get the switch gear installed after the power is out.  You fix the roof while the sun is shining, right?

Just a side note.  I used my new truck bed extender to bring home the materials for my cabinets.  It works every bit as good as advertised.  If you have a short bed truck you need one of these.

I'm sitting here typing my blog this morning drinking my first cup of coffee with a fire going and it's snowing outside again.  I think the ground is finally cold enough that we may get an inch or so to stick this time.  If you are interested there are a couple of local live web cams that you can look in on by selecting the underlined/highlighted link.

Downtown Asheville has a camera that pans to three for four different views.  

Downtown Sylva, the little town just outside of Liam's college has a camera pointed down the main drag.

And Western Carolina University has a camera in their main quad that provides a snapshot when you hit the link.  Each time you refresh the page it gives you an updated snapshot.

Liam has started his second semester at Western.  Good news/Bad news.  The good news is that Liam earned a 3.6 his first semester.  The bad news is that at least for the time being he is no longer subject to the mandatory study hall requirement.  I think Liam is going to find it a bit of a challenge to keep up that grade point level without the enforced discipline of the study hall periods.  If Liam's semester gpa falls below 3.0 I think he's obligated to rejoin the study hall group so there is a bit of a safety net.  Liam is also doing reasonably well with his indoor track season.  He has to get used to being a "Freshman" again.  Liam did win three events against smaller colleges during the cross country season, however WCU competes at the NCAA DI level and Liam is running against a lot of good athletes that have been competing at this level for three or four years.  Although, in his very first invitational, Liam's 3000 meter time of 8:55 was good enough to place him in the fastest 3000 meter heat at the end of season Southern Conference Championships.  So Liam is about where he should be at this level of competition.  As long as he stays healthy and keeps his grades up the rest should take care of itself.

And last, poor Buddy.  I found some doggy boots cheap at Big Lots and of course had to get them.  And once again, Buddy was not amused!

https://youtu.be/yUd3rIKIIk0

We hope everyone is having a great New Year!

Rick