So, earlier, I awoke, arose, fed the cats, ran the dishwasher and snacked on ibuprofen and Cheerios™. Posted something on my blog and the Book of Face and went back to bed. That rather quickly attracted cats and we all napped off and on until an hour ago, TV murmuring gently, "Stay home. Stay indoors. Pray the Frost Giants do not find you," which struck me as sound, sensible advice.
Sensible it was, but sooner or later all good things come to an end. Hydraulics being a good servant but an unyielding master, eventually I had to get up again. What the heck, coffee was made and in the thermal carafe, might as well get to it: I have sorted and started laundry and made and devoured a nice bacon-and-egg sandwich.
Also made a cat-sized peephole in the frost on Huck's favorite window, cautioning him to not get his little cat nose frozen to the glass.
Across the way, there's a man shoveling his sidewalk. He looks far too lightly dressed for the job, but who am I to judge? That's between him and his dermatologist. I am not so much tempted myself, other than possibly trying the "toss a cup of boiling water in the air and it flashes to snow" trick. It appears even those carriers unstayed in the swift completion of their appointed rounds by "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night" are, in fact, put right off their feed by -40° wind chills* with a 99% chance of frostbite and I can't say I blame them a bit. With that and the official "stay home" decree in mind, there appears to be little reason to shovel the front walk just yet.
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* Minus forty degrees, minus forty degrees,
How I admire thee, forty negatee,
Neither requiring nor needing an F or a C.
(© 2014, me)
If one can stay out of the wind and wet, one can stand outside and not really notice such temperatures for a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a doorway on the leeward side to stand in for the boiling water experiment?
Well played. I myself had two breakfasts this morning, and am actively contemplating a third.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the sun shining into my office window has done quite a bit towards warming things up in here. So maybe I'll wait till 2PM and have lunch instead.
Around here that's pronounced, "Minus forty eff'n'cee".
ReplyDeleteStands for "darned cold".
(Well, I'm assuming you don't like visitors cussing on your comments page, so you'll have to use your imagination as to what it really stands for.)
Loved the ditty about 40 degrees. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI've been out shoveling my driveway, so that I might have hope of getting to work tomorrow. It wasn't so bad, wearing coveralls, pants, long johns, wool sweater, hoodie, a scarf, sock cap, silk glove liners, and insulated leather gloves.
ReplyDeleteRoberta,
ReplyDeleteReading through your posts I got the impression you didn't lose power. You're lucky. IPL had 30k users without power this morning.
Linemen make good money, especially when they work OT. And as far as I'm concerned...they deserver every penny!!!
This kind of cold only takes a small mistake to kill...ya'll be careful out there. Or do the smart thing like Roberta...just stay inside.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteAnd all that was under the EVA suit, right?
It's not the Frost Giants to beware; as Neitzsche notes, it's the ice weasels that come at night.
ReplyDeleteIbuprofen - Breakfast of Champions!
ReplyDelete