Cold

It's supposed to be in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 degrees below zero, with the wind chill, in the morning. Not looking forward to that.

Neither is the truck. I did get the oil pan heater plugged in, but still, nobody likes to get up and go at 4:40 in the AM when it's that butt-cold outside. I swear, the next house we have is going to have a garage. I don't care what else it doesn't have, but it is going to have a garage.

Just so you don't think we're wusses here:

I'll be on the bus in the morning, heading to work. The INL does not close down at a mere bone-chilling wind chill. And the kids will likely have school too, since the school district here won't shut down unless the wind chill drops to 45 below or colder.

Still, I don't like it.

Michelle and the kids got the woodpile at the back of the house restocked, so we'll have plenty of fuel to burn. And, thankfully, it looks like the worst of this little burst of cold will be over by Wednesday.

I still don't know how the Leaning Snowmen of Sugar City can handle the cold:

It probably helps that this one in particular was made of November snow, which just doesn't stick around here.

Battening Down the Hatches

Today's order of business: Battening down the hatches.

We've got our first winter storm likely to blow in tomorrow afternoon, and I was a bit behind in getting our outdoor stuff ready for the foul weather.

This is what responsibility feels like. It's frighteningly like a mix between the flu and old age. Of course, I've had a touch of the flu for the past few days, so maybe responsibility doesn't feel all that bad.

It started with the carrots. We still had carrots in the garden until noon. They're now all dug up, with some of them bottled. We may pack the rest in sand, or we may bottle the rest. I don't know. I'm too tired to think about it now.

Then I cleaned out the shed so we had enough room to cram the outdoor stuff into it -- bicycles, wagons, wheelbarrows, and all sorts of junk. Still have more to put in, and I'm running out of room.

Then the worst of it: I had to fix the gutter on the front of the house. Really didn't want to, especially after I'd buried the ladder putting stuff in the shed. But I fixed it. I even liquid nailed it in place, hoping this time that it'll stay put together.

Still have more to do, including getting the camper stowed for the season. So here's to hoping the weatherman is wrong.