Cold, Cold, Cold

It was below zero again this morning, and cold despite the sunshine.  I think it'll be our last below zero day, but there are still several single-digit days on the way.  And one of them will be the day of our Girl Scout cookie booth!  Whose big idea was it to have outdoor cookie sales in New England in February and March??!!  Door to door sales in January were hard enough--almost every Saturday was bitter and drippy.

But we carry on.  Which is easy with the sun shining.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

After an unseasonably mild December, it finally feels like winter in Connecticut.  There have been snow squalls, a light dusting, and now this bitter, deep cold.  It's around 6 F right now, with wind chills well below zero.  We've put the safest space heater we can find in the basement to warm the NYCats, who have opted to stay downstairs; they sleep on top of each other now.  Even without the heaters, it stays about 60F in the basement.

But not in the pipes.

As per usual when we're down in the single digits, the pipes in the outer wall of our kitchen have frozen.  We've got the sink's hot and cold working again but not the dishwasher.  (Oddly, it doesn't affect the pipes in the same wall that run to the bathroom above the kitchen; go figure.)  This is a yearly problem that no about of special taping, blown insulation, preventative dripping faucet, or the like has ever stopped.  Sometimes it takes awhile with the heat fans blowing to defrost the blockage.  And with these temps over the next few days, it might be awhile before we're not running the heat fans.  (Don't worry, we turn everything off when I'm not actively around watching them.)

But otherwise, we all have mittens and hats and heavy coats, including my big "Chicago" coat.  And as this is CT not Chicago, it won't be like this for very long.  (And even better, I'm not commuting in it like I used to, when my eyelashes would freeze together from the icy wind while I waited for the red line!)