I knew the weather was suppose to be bad, so for my last day of work before the winter shutdown I kept the radar on my screen the whole day--and it just kept getting worse.  Normally I work until 4:15pm, which gives me the 8 3/4 hours a day I need for in order to take a half Friday.  However, with the radar of impending doom, I decided to cut out at 3:00pm.
   The drive was white-knuckle pretty much the entire way back home.  Eve (my car) needs new tires, so I knew my control wouldn't be all that great.  I knew the drive would be a challange.  As I left, my roommate was pulling in.  He called me to tell me I had a headlight out--not a good way to start a long drive on a bad weather night.  I wanted new headlights anyway as the ones I had were really dim.  So I stopped off at an auto parts store and picked up the brightest (and also most expensive) bulbs they had.  I'm glad I did--they helped a lot.
   Most of the Iowa drive happened between 50 and 60 MPH.  I had two lanes and at this point, it was mostly rain with a thin layer of ice.  I had control for gentle turns, but stopping and quick maneuvering was out of the question.  As I started into Wisconsin, the rain turned to snow, and before too long, the roads started to accumulate a frozen mix of ice and snow.  My speeds dropped to around 40 to 45 MPH.  On hills, Eve would often break free and spin.  With all the road noise, I could not hear the engine RPM increasing.  My only indication that I was spinning was be looking at RPM and MPH, which would shoot way up.
   I drive Hwy 11 most of the way through Wisconsin, and in Brodhead I switch do Hwy 80.  Hwy 11 was hard driving, but hwy 80 was much worse.  Despite only going around 40 MPH, I drifted into the shoulder a couple of times.  Each time, letting off the gas and allowing the road to slow me down gave me back control, but it was a little nerve racking.  Usually I take Beloit Newerk Road from hwy 80 to hwy 51 to get to the Garage.  But I decided that if hwy 80 was this bad, Beloit Newerk was likely worse.  So, I went to visit Tazz right away.
   The trip was around 4 hours, but honestly I don't know how much more.  I was glad to be done for the evening, but the weather wouldn't be clearing up the next couple days, and I have more driving yet to do.

  Travis

   Jai, Que and Desirae.

   Kelly and Ollie tonight at coffee.

   Desirae this evening at coffee. 

   The basement has a path light by blue LED x-mass lights.  They run down the stairs, have one branch off to the washer, and other other makes a loop around my area.  They are a bit dim, but enough to walk around.

   I could weeks ago I picked up a new heater I thought I'd try for heating under my desk.  I saw a flat panel device and saw it was designed so that it could be mounted on a wall.  I was so impressed with it's heat output, I decided I'd try it in the box.  It worked fantastic.  The wall mounts old it about 1" away from the wall, directly over the ventilation fan.  It provides radiant heat and doesn't get very hot itself.  And none of the surfaces in the box get hot as well, although noticeable warmer.  The heater takes just a few minutes to warm the box up.  It is a better setup then the oil filled heater--warms up faster and small profile.
   A few days latter, installed a thermostat in the box.  The device I bought was the cheapest thermostat I could find that would switch 120 volts--furnace thermostats switch 12 VDC and a relay in the furnace switches the AC.  This thermostat was designed for base-board heaters.  I followed the directions and had it wired in no time.  But I found the heater never shut off.  The switch on/off worked, but the temperature settings left the thermostat always on.  This model thermostat had two independent switches because it can switch both 120 and 240 loads--and for 240, one uses both switches.  Since I was switching 120, I decided to try the other set.  Sure enough, that worked. 
   I found that setting the temperature to 60 F (15.5 C) creates a perfect sleeping environment.  I think the actual temperature in the box is a little warmer, but maybe 60 really is a good sleeping temperature.  The only down side is that I have to get out in the morning, and it sure isn't 60 F outside that box!
   In the picture, you can see the flat panel heater in the center right, and the thermostat in the center, far left.