Well, Hell has frozen over.
By dark last night, it was snowing. Hard. A relatively fast-moving system swept through (much as it did last weekend) and dumped another three inches or so of snow on me just as some of the other stuff was starting to melt (meaning I could see parts of the driveway and/or road again). At some point this morning, before I got up at 1PM, the neighbor on the farm next door to us plowed out the street with his tractor, and plowed out paths on both sides of the driveway as well, though I didn't hear him -- makes me wonder just how deeply I was sleeping, for once -- and while I am indeed appreciative, it doesn't help a whole lot. I don't plan to leave the house again until at least the middle of next week, as I won't need to venture out for shopping or anything else until then, I'm guessing.
As for the cold, it is 11 degrees outside right now. And it's going to get colder.
Yes, that "feels like -11" in the small print? It's accurate. The -4 tonight is going to be actual temperature, not wind chill.
I've lived in Kansas for almost five years now -- it'll be five years in June. Before that, I lived in Missouri for three years. Even when I lived in West Virginia for a little more than the first twenty-three years of my life, the temperature rarely got this cold. Yes, there were mornings in high school where it was colder, but not by much, definitely not for extended periods of time, and not almost nationwide. That was on top of a mountain, too -- not in the flattest part of the country.
The temperatures themselves are less of a problem than the wind chills are. Along with this cold comes some terribly whipping winds, which will apparently drive wind chills into the -30 to -40 ranges tonight and tomorrow. I weep for my electric bill -- already super-high for December and currently waiting to be paid because I'm so poor right now -- which will almost certainly be the same amount or more when I get the next one. It can't be helped; I need to be able to stay un-frozen, and I rarely turn the thermostat above 62. If I do, the furnace will never stop running, as in the winter, especially in this cold, there's no way to keep the temperature above 65 in this house, ever, without it running nonstop. That's how old and drafty my house is. I can't really do anything about that, either, as I don't own the house and couldn't afford to fix it if I did.
I'm okay right now, honestly; the temperature in my room is 64.2, which is partially because the sun comes into my room in the winter and warms it up a bit, and I'm just sitting here in a hoodie and yoga pants (because, yes, I own yoga pants -- don't you judge me). I'm comfortable enough. The cats are fine, it's tolerable inside, and I keep the inside of the house, even the downstairs, warm enough to where the pipes won't freeze or anything like that. The Monte Carlo is in the garage, where I put her on Friday night because I knew the snow was rolling in yesterday. My car is a tank, but there's no way I'm leaving her outside when the temperature is below zero -- who knows what would freeze and/or stop working on/in said car if I did. Cold temperatures drain car batteries like crazy, and even though my car had a new battery put into it the day before I bought it, that was still almost three years ago now.
Of course, the garbage needs to go out tonight for tomorrow's pickup, but I'm guessing that won't happen, much like last week -- last weekend we got the last snowstorm, and this weekend we got another small one as well as these terrible temperatures. I don't want to mess with it. Translation: I'm not going to mess with it. As a single guy living alone with his cats, I don't really create much trash aside from cigarette butts, cat litter, and used coffee/filters, and all of those things can sit outside in the can and wait until I won't freeze body parts while trying to take it the fifteen yards down to the road. I'm not putting on boots and dressing in multiple layers just to spend three or four minutes taking out the trash. It's not worth the effort, especially when possible frostbite is involved.
It's worse in Omaha, of course -- it's almost always hotter/colder up there than it is here, depending on the season. It's supposed to be -11 there tonight, and it's only in the single digits there right now. Daisy has to work tonight, and even with her Hyundai's extreme reliability, I'd be surprised if the car starts either tonight or in the morning when she has to come home, since she parks outside both at home and at work.
[Edit: she made it to work just fine.]
I'm at least halfway through the Bactrim for my sinus infection; I don't remember when I started taking it, but it was several days ago, and I've never missed a timed dose of it. The infection is now completely and totally gone, though (as with most antibiotics when I take them) I have been in, ahem, intestinal distress since I started the run of them. My allergies have kicked back in as always, as I mentioned before, but on the plus side they're not anywhere near as annoying -- or painful -- as the sinus infection was. I feel perfectly fine and normal otherwise, which is good.
Last night I was up until shortly after midnight; I went to bed rather early. I got up once this morning around 8 and went to the bathroom before coming back to bed until 1PM. I needed the sleep, desperately; I don't know why, but I've not been sleeping well for the past few days. I have weird cycles like this on occasion, where I'll sleep for about six hours at a time and then be wide awake again, unable to go back to sleep.
As the day/night goes on, the temperature is slowly dropping more and more. As I type this, it's dropped to 3 degrees outside, and ironically I keep turning the thermostat down a few degrees every few hours so that the furnace doesn't run continuously to counter the dropping temperatures. The house is indeed getting colder, though again, it's not like I can do anything to change that. The cold is supposed to last two more days before the temperatures vault into the will-comparatively-feel-like-summer middle 40s later this week. For now, however, it's the deep freeze. Wearing layers like an eskimo is about all I can do until I go to bed and sleep under three heavy blankets with the electric one maxed out at level 9.
As an aside, when I was single and living here alone in the winter (so, two years ago? ish?) I would close the vents in other rooms and open the one in the spare room to maximize furnace airflow, and would sleep on my air mattress up here so that I didn't have to deal with the freezing cold downstairs. Now with the electric blanket, I don't have to do that anymore.
Plus, the cats hated that because they couldn't sleep with me.
Anyway, when news outlets start reporting things like "cars frozen solid to the ground" it tends to get my attention, yes. Another reason why the Monte Carlo is in the garage.
Yes, that's Canada, but it's not exactly much different here.
I'm holing up inside the house like the hermit I am until it gets warmer. There's probably a good chance that I won't get out of bed tomorrow until I absolutely have to, simply because I'm not covered by a heat-generating electric blanket if I leave the bed.
It's also possible that I'll learn tomorrow, or at least sometime this week, what classes I'll be teaching in the spring, though if nobody in Wichita can get their cars started in the morning to make it to work at the university, it may take a little longer than expected...
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