Day 4068

The weather keeps getting colder. I had trouble starting my car for the first time in ages. I need to remember to start it every day now until the weather gets warmer. I had a couple of errands to run and the stores were packed. People were buying groceries like the end of the world was coming. There were so many posts about frozen water pipes on Facebook that I got worried and put new insulation foam around all the outdoor faucets.

Dawn refused to walk this morning. There wasn't anything wrong. She was just being smart. She knew almost instantly that it was way too cold for a walk. I didn't have the good sense to come back inside with her and took my six mile walk anyway. I discovered a new use for my N95 masks. The close fitting mask really helped keep my face warm. My coat and gloves kept me pretty warm yesterday, but my exposed face was freezing. With the hood of my jacket up and my mask on, only my eyes were exposed today. I completed my walk, but was happy to return to a warm house. I know people who love Winter weather. I think they're all nuts. When I was young, I read a story by Fritz Leiber called A Pail of Air. It was about how the earth got pulled out of its orbit by a passing dark star and how one family survived by melting oxygen from the frozen atmosphere that had settled over the earth like a thick snow. I always think of this story on very cold days.

We got a notice from the electric company that we all need to conserve electricity during the freeze by  turning our heat down and using as few appliances as possible. I doubt that that's going to happen. When people are cold, their first instinct is to turn up the heat. I really hope we don't have an ice storm. Whenever there's an ice storm there are power outages all over town. Trees fall. Power lines break. It's a big mess. Hopefully, the weather won't be as bad as people are predicting. They say we may see a new record low temperature early next week. Zero degrees in Dallas is very, very rare.

For now everything is fine. The furnace is working well. The two dehumidifiers are keeping condensation away from the windows. We've got plenty of warm clothing. I'm still nervous about this kind of weather though. Things can go downhill quickly when the roads get icy and the power goes out. I still don't understand how northerners can take this kind of weather for granted. Zero degrees is even worse than 100 degrees to me.

If the roads are dry in the morning I need to remember to get my grocery shopping done early. Janet got her shopping done today, so we should have plenty of food. If we get snow or ice, I'm not driving at all. The problem with slick roads here in Texas isn't the ice, it's the other drivers. Nobody knows how to drive on ice here. 

I have a feeling that we're going to be spending a lot of time indoors for the next few days. I should start a new project that will keep me busy, but I'll probably just fret about the furnace instead.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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