Off Limits

The workers are perhaps as much as 2/3 of the way across rebuilding the trusses, and will be back on Monday. The bad and good news is that they're finding rotten wood and removing it and replacing it with good, solid timbers and jacking the floor back up so that it should be nice and solid and flat when they are done. Less good is that over this weekend, this has led to a vertical gap of around 2-3 cm opening up between the kitchen floor and that of the family room to the south. These floors used to be level with each other and are not right now. Lisa expressed grave concern about this to the carpenter who said that they'll have everything right by the time they get done. Theoretically, we can walk through the west side of the kitchen (and inside Lisa's office) but should minimize any time on the east side. Lisa has told me to stay out completely and has only briefly ventured forth to gather some of the food we have stored there. This will be a nervous weekend.

Looking at the weather, I've decided to head back to the Bay Area today as there appears to be less chance of snow over the passes than there will be tomorrow. There have been chain controls over I-80/Donner Pass, although as I write this there are none. Also, when there were chains required over Donner, US-50 to the south was open with no restrictions. It seems prudent to leave now while there's less chance of having to put on tire chains and drive in the snow.

Drive Drive Drive

With today looking like a better shot at getting over the mountains than tomorrow, I left Fernley shortly after Noon, after having Second Breakfast at the Wigwam in Fernley with Lisa.

( Pinball Distraction )

I didn't get out of Sparks until after 2 PM, which was a little worrisome, as there were snow-looking clouds over the Sierra; however, all the road-status information said that Interstate 80 was open with no controls. Approaching Truckee, the signs warned that it was snowing over the summit and to take it easy, which I did. Light snow continued to fall as I climbed up the east side of Donner Summit, and there appeared to be around six inches of snow on the ground at the summit, although the road itself was clear and mostly dry. Snow fell faster on the west side, but hadn't yet started to accumulate on the road surface, although I expect I was lucky to get across when I did. (Checking the Caltrans highway information as I write this around 9 PM the same day, I see that there are currently R2 (chains or 4WD/snow tires) restrictions in effect from around Gold Run to Truckee, so it does indeed look like I made the right decision.)

The snow faded away below Baxter, and I stopped at Colfax for a coffee before continuing on toward the Bay Area. I stopped again at Tracy intending to have dinner, but the line at the restaurant at which I was going to eat was out the door and I lost my appetite. I did, however, take the opportunity to check availability of an item at Home Depot: original-type Lysol disinfectant spray. They stopped selling original Lysol in ordinary retail versions some years ago, and the only kinds you can get at most stores are the ones with heavy scents, and Lisa hates those, preferring the original scent. We discovered that you could still get "professional grade" Lysol in the original scent, but when we went to Lowe's to buy some, we could only find the scented versions. Home Depot, however, still carries the original. This isn't the first shortcoming of Lowe's. We have been shopping there in Fernley mainly because (a) they're the only game in town and (b) we had a bunch of discount coupons that are about to expire. Otherwise, they never would be our first choice.

( Rant about Big Box Stores )

Approaching the Bay Area, it started to rain, rather hard at times, and because it was dark and traffic was heavy, it was actually more nerve-wracking than driving in the light snow over Donner. I stopped for groceries on the way back to the apartment, and I got home between 8 and 9 PM, having not really made very good time, but having arrived in one piece.

I'm glad that daylight-savings time ends tonight; I could use that extra hour of sleep!