Even I am Cold

I am honestly cold. People who know me have rarely ever heard me say that, especially when I'm not sick. Yet I am writing this at almost 4am and the temperature is sitting at a glacial -21 degrees outside. This is easily one of the coldest days I've ever experienced. Not since the early and mid 1980's have I seen the temperature like this; almost 24 years ago to the date (Jan 19th & 20th) we had official temperatures of -23 and -27 respectfully back in 1985.

Despite the cold outside, we're holding our own inside and staying warm. Meva didn't go to work on Thursday because either the starter and/or the battery died on her car. The van started, but it was stuck behind Meva's car and with the snowy, icy, and uneven gravel driveway we have I was unable to push her car out to the street. We had her car towed to the mechanic so that he can hopefully get it up and running tomorrow, but the van (which once again has a buster heater) is running (with the "Service Engine Soon" indicator on).

Last night I braved the gelid evening and took the van to the grocery store more for the purpose of just getting it started and warmed more than anything. It only takes about 10 minutes to get to the store, but after stopping to make sure I filled the gas tank and put in some gas line anti-freeze, my hands were frozen, stiff, and prickly painful. I had myself wrapped up and covered, but I guess my gloves aren't very effective (so I will be getting new ones) against this type of extreme cold.

And after having to take Thursday off, Meva wants to drive this ice box on wheels 45 minutes to work in the morning. Even as I write this I can't honestly say if I am even going to let her go. Depsite my frequent joking about keeping her in her place and making her obey me dutifully, I do not give her ultimatums unless I am convinced her life is at risk. I already told her last night that if I felt it was too dangerous I don't know how she's going to be able to convince me otherwise. I think the last time I took a stance like this was the day the triplets were born and I told her she wasn't going into work that day because of how badly she was feeling (and the Dr. obviously sided with me since he decided to deliver the babies that day!).

I spent over two hours outside on Wednesday shoveling our driveways, sidewalks, and parking spots here at the house. In some spots I had over 14 inches of snow due to drifting and not having cleared away some previous accumulation. I hurt my back very badly and even had my eyelashes freeze together more than once. Meva has teased me because I actually had to shovel snow off of our evergreen bushes because it was falling on the sidewalk as I shoveled next to it, burying the spot I had just cleared. I'll try to get some pictures of this tomorrow and post them up here.

The van has now been running and warming up for about an hour now, so I need to check on it and get back to bed to rest up for a potential confrontation with Meva should the things be too cold in the van. I'll leave you with an updated weather joke that was inspired by the late Henny Youngmen:

"How cold was it?" someone asked. "It was so cold I saw Rod Blagojevich with his hands in his own pockets."