Bi And Large

Yeah Yeah, I know, the entire continent of N. America is feeling the artic air chill this week, and everyone is complaining about it. But around here, we like to say it's "cold enough to brag about," and I think we damn well earn that right. Today I saw a national news story on CNN or somewhere about the nation-wide freeze and it had a photo of people bundled up in SUPER heavy down parkas with fur trim, like they were running the Iditarod or something. The caption? Something like: "These brave souls ventured out in 20 degree weather Wednesday."

 

BITE ME.

 

Twenty degrees? Ha. That's t-shirt weather out here, ya pansies.

 

It's cold enough here that the news stations like to do fun tricks on camera. Mostly this involves taking a coffee cup of boiling water outside, tossing it up in the air, and noting that (depending on wind) it comes down as either snow or a chunk of ice. Yeah. It's THAT cold here! And guess what - this isn't unusual for January for us. We thrive on it. Tuesday morning the actual temp was -19F / -28C, with a windchill about 15 degrees colder than that again, and the schools weren't even running late. Everything just functioned like normal. Even my 90 year old patients came in to work without a second thought, and I didn't even feel like I had to zip up my parka on the way in. This morning it was about -15 with a -25 windchill and I swept out the garage because I was motivated to clean. I kind of regretted not putting on an extra layer of pants, because my legs were cold where I had frostbite a few years ago after about an hour outside, but otherwise it was fine. You do acclimate.

 

Even so, tomorrow is going to be pretty damn bitter, and I am guessing a lot of things will be shut down to keep everyone safe. I looked at the list of school closings tonight and as of about 10pm, there were already over 300 schools on it for Thursday morning. Check out the National Weather Service's warning for our area for tomorrow:

 

"914 PM CST WED JAN 14 2009

...DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILLS TO PERSIST...

BITTERLY COLD ARCTIC AIR COUPLED WITH NORTHWEST WINDS NEAR 10 MPH
WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILL READINGS FROM 35 BELOW TO 55 BELOW ZERO
OVERNIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING.

SOME IMPROVEMENT IN THE WIND CHILL VALUES WILL OCCUR THURSDAY
AFTERNOON AS WINDS DIMINISH SOME AND TEMPERATURES RISE...BUT WIND
CHILL READINGS ACROSS THE REGION WILL STILL BE NEAR 25 BELOW ZERO.

WIND CHILL READINGS WILL DROP BACK DOWN TO 30 BELOW TO 40 BELOW
ZERO ACROSS EAST CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA AS WELL AS WEST
CENTRAL WISCONSIN THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING AS A
PERSISTENT NORTHWEST WIND CONTINUES IN THESE AREAS. "

 

Yeah. Fifty-five below zero. That's about -50C. And that's pretty damn cold. I am 99% sure that the girls won't have school tomorrow, and even if they did I am not sure I would send them. We've been driving Amy to school this week instead of having her walk down the street and wait for the bus and get frostbite. I know neither school is letting the kids go outside all week. Even so, just running from the car to the school, both girl's hands and cheeks are pretty red. I don't know yet if either my work or Pete's will be open either. It's going to be an interesting morning!

 

All I can think is, I am so grateful for this home, that it is well insulated, and that we put in new triple pane windows a couple years ago. I wish there wasn't a bloody huge open gap arund the front door blowing cold air in, but what are you going to do. Now, the water heater exploded at Thanksgiving, and we were told when we bought the house in 2005 that the furnace was on its last legs. Yesterday both the vacuum and the coffee pot finally died after many years of heavy use. Please, please, please let the furnace hold out through the next few days at least!