COLD
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moon phases � |
The word for today is cold.
I woke up at 2am last night with a cold. I have no idea why the cold insisted on announcing itself at that ghastly time of the night but that is what happened. I found myself in bed with a nasty dry sore throat and sinus congestion that can only be described as feeling as if that stuff (great stuff I think it is called) that comes in an areosol can that is meant for filling in cracks in your house was sprayed into the cavities in my facial bones and it expanded and hardened there. A quick segue to rapid fire sneezing followed by a tedious wait for air to once again reach my lungs without having to be inhaled through my mouth thus further drying out and cracking the back of my throat.
It was not a restful night.
The whole time I was exploring the misery called the common cold the wind was howling and rattling everything in its path. An artic cold front was blowing down the mountain and it was making quite a racket while sending the wind chill temps into the -20 range.
Morning came. I woke up wishing I could sleep until the cold left my head but that was urealistic so I got up. Let me tell you it was cold in the house this morning. The fire had burned over night but with the wind chill it only does just so much good. I bundled up and went to the barn. Going outside when it is 5 degrees and the wind is translating that most reasonable ABOVE ZERO reading to well below zero to the point of it making whatever skin is exposed hurt is not the way to wake up when one is feeling a bit off.
I have to admit the cold brings about an alertness that is rather startling. I suppose it has something to do with the will to survive, you know, stay wide awake or you will freeze to death sister. Anyway, in my new found panicked alertness I realized the heat (yes we do have heat besides the woodstove)should have kicked on given the coldness. Well, after much turning of thermostat dials and running up and down the stairs from thermostat to boiler I came to the conclusion that the heat was most definitely not working.
Bummer.
I called the plummer but it being the first really cold day of the winter he was busy and will come by tomorrow. Of course tonights single digit low should thouroughly freeze the heat pipes making the plummers visit a really expensive and time consuming affair. Or we will discover that the antifreeze in the lines actually does work.
We spent tonight putting the circuit breaker back on each time a light was turned on in a bedroom. The portable heaters I set up are using too much electricity to allow for lighting. I did manage to get the temp up to 70 at one point after several hundred pounds of wood was burned, the oven was on and two electric heaters were running. Right now the temp is droping since I have to let the fire die down a bit to make room for as much wood as possible for the overnight.
So, yeah, like I said the word for today is cold.
written at 8:36 p.m.
December 20, 2004
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