Day 413

The world was a sheet of ice when we woke up this morning. Dot raced out the back door as usual when we let her out before breakfast and she slid halfway across the yard. When I gave the dogs their regular walk a little later, I felt like I was mounting an expedition to the South Pole. They said on the news that this is the coldest that it's been in Dallas in fifteen years and I can certainly believe it. I put on a down ski jacket over two sweaters and I was still cold. One coat wasn't enough for the dogs today. I put two winter coats on each of them. Not surprisingly, we were almost the only ones in the park this morning. I saw one determined jogger, but that was about it. Luckily, I've been able to keep my balky furnace running, because my repair guy wasn't able to get out on the roads today.

The only time I ventured out on the icy roads was for a quick trip to take Dash to the vet. I could have rescheduled for another day, but my vet is only five minutes away and I do have the Defender 90. I thought I'd take the back roads to avoid the other cars sliding around like billiard balls. This was probably a mistake. Absolutely nobody was driving on the back roads and they were all still covered with a thick sheet of ice. It was like driving on an ice rink. I was surprised that anyone was even at the vet when we got there, but some hardy souls told me that they'd been at work since 7 AM.

To ward off cabin fever, I decided to fire up my old Media-100 video editing system and back up some video files before I retired the thing for good. I guess I waited too long. I couldn't even launch the application today. I did a hardware test and discovered that my Media-100 PCI card had gone bad. When did this happen? I have no idea. I haven't used the system to edit anything for almost three years. It's not even worth repairing at this point. The system paid for itself years ago, but it's still hard for me to throw it away. It's the only video editing system I know well enough that I never have to look at the manual. I guess Final Cut Pro and I are going to have to get to know each other a little better in the months ahead.

The temperature has dropped five degrees since I started writing this post. Either I'm a very slow writer or the temperature is dropping pretty fast. It's going to be in the single digits before morning. Every couple of hours I hear a loud thunk as something falls on the roof. I think that some smaller limbs are falling off our trees as they grow heavy from the ice that has accumulated. Sure hope the power doesn't go out tonight. When tree limbs start to fall, power usually goes out somewhere. Here's hoping that everyone stays nice and warm. I'm going to get out the blankets and make sure I have a warm dog right next to me tonight.

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