Completely random lessons learned this week that I’ll forget if I don’t write them down:

Keep kids fingernails clipped as time approaches that you may want to get their Christmas and/or one year pictures taken, unless you don’t mind self-inflicted scratches on their noses.

My air furnace is a Trane, is gas-powered, and does not have a pilot light that requires re-lighting but rather has some sort of auto-ignition. The air filter in the furnace needs to be cleaned about once a month, or at least more frequently than never. If not, the hot air can back up and overheat the unit, causing the gas auto-ignition to turn off in the middle of a weekend night, plunging the temperature inside the house to 57 degrees by morning (down to 47 this morning), and requiring resetting by a certified technician to the tune of $109. (I really wish I had a master list of every item in my house, computer, vehicles, and body which need periodic cleaning or replacement, and how frequently for each item.)

If this happens, turn off the furnace (since it’s only blowing cold air), open the basement door (allowing the now-relatively-warmer air down there to rise), open kitchen and bathroom cabinents to prevent pipes from freezing, and above all find somewhere else to spend the night.

Get the chimney cleaned so that you can safely use the fireplace when you want to, suddenly, very badly.

Shovel the driveway as soon as possible, while the snow is still fresh. Luckily I already knew this lesson, it was merely reinforced for me by shovelling my driveway right away Thursday night (and again the next morning) and contrasting the results with the toboggan ice flue which coats my parents’ driveway.

Paper bags of leaves and other yard waste which are stored outside should be covered by a tarp prior to an ice storm, lest they rend and dump their contents all over the aforementioned freshly shovelled driveway when they are picked up.

Water and/or ice weighs 8 lbs per gallon (heard on the radio in regards to trees downed in the ice storm, luckily not learned from experience).

The parking lot I prefer to park in to go to a Rams game is located northwest of the stadium on O’Fallon street, which runs east-west. It cost $7.

As I observed this morning, if you sneak your car into a funeral procession line, you get to run red lights.