Life in the Polar Vortex -
Up just before 6. Check the digital weather station and the readout informs that it's -23 outside. Wait ... what?? Remove glasses, rub eyes and look again. Dang, numbers are still there. Trek down cellar to check the wood stove. It still has some fire. Good, kept the house at 64 overnight. Go for logs in the woodshed, ooops the hatch doors are frozen shut. Well, plenty of wood in the cellar. Have some breakfast and check email. Around 7:30 check outside temps again. Ok, up to -17, wierd to be happy about numbers getting smaller. Bundle up and wait about 10 minutes for heat to build up inside coat. Gotta get going, go out to the garage to get the truck out. Hmmm, garage door won't lift due to ice along the bottom. Try to pry it up but the weather strip starts to tear. Plan B: Clean snow off the old truck sitting outside. Door is frozen shut but a little hot water and yanking free it. Hop in, it cranks slowly but starts, yea!! Let it warm up a minute and try to put the seatbelt on. It's stuck, frozen in the roller. A hard pull brings it out, covered with frost, never seen that before. Ok, underway now, gotta get some gasoline, first purchase in 2014. Drive to the Quick Stop where the driveway entrance looks like an olympic slalom course between snow piles. Fill up the truck and get a bottle of cherry coke from the cooler box but it's warm. No problem, just dig a hole in the snow in the back of the truck and put the bottle in the 4X8' cooler. Digging around, wait... whats this?? There's firewood under the snow? Forgot about that. Oh dang another job when I get home.
Happy Polar Vortex everybody!
