This year winter just won’t end. Every time it looks like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, we find out it’s just another train coming.
We’re still stuck well below average high temperatures and once a week we usually have some rain and then a wet heavy snowstorm that leaves 4+ inches of snow. Then before all the snow even melts we get hit with another snowstorm.
Average high temperatures for this time of year are just above 60 degrees, but we haven’t even come close to that yet this “spring”.
And unfortunately the forecast is for another big storm to pass through tonight; we can only hope against hope that this will be the last snowstorm of the season.
Here are a series of photos of the front yard and new building starting on the 8th through the 22nd and after our last snowstorm (the first photo is from 4/8/13 and most of the snow was gone, followed by 4/10, 4/12, 4/20 and 4/22):
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
As you can see in the last photo taken on April 22nd, after the rain this weekend most of the snow is gone again now, but apparently we’ll get buried again tonight.
One of the recent rainstorms proceeding one of our snowstorms resulted in the new building roof leaking in my shop again. It’s the same problem as I had earlier this winter – somehow the snow stuck in the valley of the dormer is channeling rain water that ends up leaking into the building.
It’s going to be a real challenge to try and figure out where the leak is, considering I won’t get up on the roof until it warms up and the snow is gone. Then I won’t be able to tell if I’ve fixed the leak until next winter.
At work we’re just starting our furloughs due to sequestration. We’ll all get one unpaid day off from work every two weeks up to 11 days total unless the sequester ends before that.
In the past when they talked about furloughs in the FAA due to budgetary restrictions, air traffic controllers were considered critical personnel and were immune, but every FAA employee is getting furloughed this time around. Labor costs are the largest part of the FAA’s budget, but I suspect that there is plenty of fat that could have been trimmed in the FAA first outside of the controller workforce.
One of the drawbacks to working for a government agency is that we’re subject to the whims and fancies of the political process. It seems pretty clear that the air traffic system is being used as pawns to make a political statement – the furloughs will probably lead to some air traffic delays and that will definitely draw attention to the situation.
I won’t mind the extra time off really though; it’s just too bad that the weather isn’t nicer so I could get some outside projects done.
My debate about blogging or vlogging has been resolved, at least for the time being. Blogging is definitely more my cup of tea, and the extra time it would take to edit videos for a vlog sealed the deal. I’m still shooting more video these days though in the off chance I do decide to give vlogging a try (but a lot of that video is just me bitching about the crappy weather).
I’m now only six months away from retirement eligibility, and I probably won’t leave right away. But it’s going to be hard to keep working once I’m eligible. The rotating shift work is becoming more and more intolerable as I get older and my list of projects keeps growing and growing.
The plan is to pay for as many materials for projects as we can this year and then once I retire I’ll have the time to do the work.
One of the concerns is how long it will take the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to process my retirement annuity once I actually retire. OPM only pays interim payments until it completes the retirement processing, and it can take 6 months or more for them to do that. So I’ll have to make sure I have cash in reserve to cover the shortages during that time period.
It would seem that OPM is having lots of difficulty in modernizing their processing systems and has canceled modernization projects in both 2009 and 2011. Since OPM may be seeing furloughs as well, it’s possible that they’ll get even more back-logged with retirement processing this year, which would delay my retirement processing should I retire late this year or early next year.