Brrrrrr

Baby it's cold outside! This past weekend we had what they call an Arctic Front come through. On Sunday the high temperature hit a record low for that date, it was -13. Yesterday I saw the temperature up to 14 and today it got much better - into the 20s.

I have a lot of friends who live in the islands so let me just explain what happens when it gets so cold. Nothing wants to work first of all. Cars frequently won't start or keep running. Thankfully our vehicles did not have any major problems. Even once the vehicles get going, they don't drive the same. Oh and although it's not snowing, there is frost covering everything. Luckily we live in a dry climate, when it's wet and this cold that's what they call ice storms. If homes or buildings are not kept warm enough, the pipes will freeze. Actually it's the water in the pipes that freezes, which then causes the pipes to burst. As thawing begins that leaves flood conditions and it is a mess. People don't want to go anywhere and pets should be left inside. There's a lot of effects you don't think about unless you live it.

For us, whether it just happened or we just realized it, our furnace was not working properly. Hubby had to keep re-starting the furnace and he also kept a fire going for us during the day. At night LJ slept in her brother's room where it was warmer and MJ kept a space heater in his room. We were okay in our room as we sleep with the dogs. Hubby also had a lot to deal with at work in the hotel where the heaters were not working in all the rooms. On Monday morning some of the hotel rooms at had ice in the toilets.

Monday I kept thinking I could have been to work on time if it wasn't so cold. Not only did I have to re-start the furnace and put on extra clothing just to walk around the house, I had to take care of the dogs. Now we normally leave our dogs outside so this day we had to find a safe place to leave them. We decided the best place would be our bathroom, but that meant I needed to completely clear off my bathroom counter - no small task! I did it and put the dogs into the bathroom - which was also no small task. Of course I had to warm up the car then scrape the windows. Things went okay for me at work, too bad I couldn't say the same for hubby. But when we came home we realized the dogs had moved the bathroom rugs and found a small crack in the flooring and begun digging. About a fourth of the bathroom floor has now been stripped to the wood underneath. We also had to pay about $60, which we felt was fairly good, to have our furnace fixed. And all because it was cold! But we are doing better now and preparing for the next Arctic Front due in this weekend.