Beautiful February day here in Illinois. Had to get the E out, wash it down, dry it off and go to the lake...

And a few of you have posted questions asking about my Cloud Rider (http://www.cloud-rider.com) grill. I used the flash on this one to help bring out the design pattern in my All Season Black Powder Coat Hexagon version. Enjoy!

Looking Good!!! Here in Chicago it was also beautiful today. I should have done the same. The road salt on my Element is getting nasty.

http://members.aol.com/wmas1960/WebPosts/0006-NET.jpg

With the higher temperatures the last couple days, the roads have been wet with the newly melted snow. It was less than a week ago that we had piles about 12'+ high in some of the parking lots. Now you can almost see over them. Our yard was covered with about 8" of snow and now it is almost a sea of mud.

A couple nights ago I ran out of washer fluid in the Element. Kind of interesting. My first fill lasted for 6 months from the time I got the car. Until about December. Then I refilled with a full gallon of fluid and ran dry in a little more than a month. The last 6 weeks have been brutal. I put, I would estimate, 5 quarts of fluid in to top off the resevoir. WOW, that is a lot of fluid!!!

The guys finally came back to install our gutters yesterday. All the Ice has finally fallen off the roof. The last few nights the dog has been hysterical. She sleeps in the bay window on the front of the house. Ice bergs have been falling from the main roof and hitting the sheet metal roof of the window area. Scaring the Cr** out of the dog. Fortunately not literally. Thursday night was fixing dinner and the dog was at my feet. I heard a loud crash as the dog then scurried out of the room with her tail between her legs. Wondered what she did when I turned my head to notice a bolder of ice on the back step and the floodlight hanging by the wires shining in the window.

They replaced the roof right before Christmas and couldn't install the gutters due to the cold and snow. The icicles were getting fierce but in 2 days all has now melted and come off the roof.

http://members.aol.com/wmas1960/WebPosts/Icicles-NET.jpg

Will have to get my Element a wash and see if I can get some nice, mid winter thaw pictures....

T Mac, I like that grill and your E is looking good! :) Gotta get me some side steps. They really dress up the Element nicely.

48 degrees here today on the Joisey Shure! Hard to believe that last Saturday when we went skiing in upstate New York it was a balmy -4 and -20 (yes, that's farenheit!) the morning before. :shock:

So today I decided to wash The Cube. It's last bath was January 1st and since then it's braved a foot or more of snow and sub zero temps so it deserved it. Of course the snow is melting all over the place and the roads are full of salt so it's just going to get dirty again but at least there will be a clean surface for it to go on.

Now it's a clean SOP Element residing in the garage but it was pretty dirty before though...

hey tmac you go swimmin in that lake :)

hey tmac you go swimmin in that lake :)

Only way I'm getting in that water is if my little ones happen to fall in. Otherwise, it's fun to look at. I've fished there a few times but without a boat, fogeddaboudit! :)