Polar Vortexing!

For the second time this winter we are being hit with the effects of he polar vortex. This morning Sharon flew off to Denver, Colorado where it is tankfully warmer than here! Last time the vortex did its thing she was scheduled to fly to Cleveland and her flight was cancelled. This time her flight was a go - except for the fact that the toilet froze before they got off the ground and they had to change planes.

It was -1 degrees when we left the house today at 5:00am. Even though the sun was shining through most of the day, the temperature dropped during the day and now at 9:00pm, the tempertature here in Glen Ellyn is down to -8. We are supposed to get down to -18 by morning. Yikes!

I spent the day inside except for the trip to O'Hare and one trip out to bring in the garbage and recycling bins and to get the mail. And, I was thankful that I put plastic film up on the inside of windows and put up the last storm window yeterday. The house is chilly, but there are few drafts. I was thankful that Shelby wanted to cuddle on my lap when I was on the computer and watching TV. He knows how to keep warm and keep me warm. I can take this time to pull of income taxes together and other paperwork tasks. I need to finish laminate in the basement but it is even too cold down there at 60 degrees.

Bring on warmer weather!!!

 

Welcome Home!

Last night we arrived home from our trip to find a driveway full of snow and two very hungry kitties. Our cat sitter must have mistaken when we would arrive home and left our kitties a day early. They forgave us though and we are not being punished.

Darn it is cold here! This winter has been one of the coldest in a long time. Last night Sharon said that if our winters were going to continue to be this uncomfortable, we should consider moving. But where?

I'm off to a fast start with blog entries so far this year. I'm on number five and we are not even done with January.

I just came inside after a short session with the snow blower. It is too cold to do the whole driveway at one time. I've got perhaps 1/3 of it done and my fingers were so frigid in my really good gloves that I had to come inside for some warming. I guess my fingers have recovered because I am typing.

I read online today that 24% of Americans didn't read a book this past year. Or is it 25% did read books? Whichever it is, it is a sad number. Read more books! I do most of my book reading on my iPad now after making the transition a couple of years ago. I'm on my third book this year. I've finished up the series on the life of a Roman Legionary by R.W. Peake and have started on an AI series by William Hertling. There is a big difference between historical fiction and science fiction, but I do enjoy both genres.

Enough, back to blowing snow!

 

Long Weekend in Redmond

Sharon and I spent a long weekend in Redmond with John and Kristie and Avery and Anika. We got to see Kendra too. The purpose was to celebrate birthdays - mine on January 15th , Avery's on the 31st, and Anika's on the 27th. One visit and we take care of three of us. We flew into Redmond at 11:45PM on Friday and left at 5:10AM Tuesday. This gave us three full days with the whole crew.

On Saturday Avery and John were entered in a fly tying contest and Avery was one of the winners! He will go to the semi-final on February 1st. In this contest the tiers (or are they tyers?) are presented with identical bags of fly tying materials and then one mystery object. They can use any of the materials in the bag but they must incorporate something of the mystery material. The mystery material was a toothbrush!

Avery's Winning Fly

Congratulations Avery!

Saturday was also our birthday dinner. Sharon and the kids baked a cake from scratch - chocolate, with vanilla icing and raspberries between the layers. Yum. And one of the high points of my day was sitting on the back porch soaking up sun while drinking a Red Chair from Deschuttes Brewing. Good company, good beer, good sun - warm and sunny and delightful.We entertained ourselves with music - Avery on the trombone, John on the mandolin, and me on the ukulele. Avery and Anika and I all took turns on the kazoo. We learned that no matter what John is singing, he sounds like Bob Dylan though I think he wants to sound like Jerry Garcia. We ended the day with a delightful dinner, singing "Happy Birthday" and sharing cake and cards.

Sunday was another laid back, lazy day. We started with a pancake feast for brunch. We had buckwheat and sweet potato pancakes. Ever had sweet potato pancakes? I haven't had them before but will certainly have them again as they were a real treat. John and Sharon and Anika were our official pancake artists. Kristie took charge of the sausages, and Avery and I took care of being slugs.

After our big brunch we went for a walk in the canyon to work off our calories. Sharon reported our walk was about 2.5 miles. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather. John took a tumble on the long board and became the only casualty on our walk. John and Anika had to hustle back home when they remembered that Anika had a Girl Scout meeting to go to!

The Wounded

Monday was another lazy day. Kristie headed off for work at around 7:00 and the rest of us did nothing but snooze, and read, and play games until after 9:00. It was a cold and foggy day so we were not very interested in going outside. As the outside temperature was not going up the inside temp didn't either until we gave in and started a fire around 11:30. After that it was cozy inside.

Sharon and I along with Avery and Anika headed to Bend for lunch with Kendra. We saw as we approached Bend that the freezing fog made the trees quite lovely. And, after lunch, the sun peeked through the layer of fog in Bend. But, as we drove back to Redmond the fog closed in again. We took the kids to Kendra's at 6:00 and then John, Kristie, Sharon and I headed to dinner. I was not a late night because we had to be out of the house at 4:00AM - we packed and went to bed. Thank you John and Kristie for getting up before the crack of dawn to take us to the airport and, thank you for your hospitality all weekend.

Sun and (Relative) Warmth

Sunday morning I looked out our kitchen window and saw that there was an area of the pond where the snow had melted, there was a bit of open water, and goldfish were congregating at that spot. The pond has been covered with snow for a few weeks and the fish have been living in darkness. I am sure they were thrilled to see light again, much like us when it has been cloudy for days and then we have clear skies.

 

The Polar Vortex Chill Eases and Lessons Learned

Today we are above 0°! In fact, our thermometer indicates 15°. It is hard to imaging that on Monday we were down around -15° all day. It is now 30°s warmer and it is still darn cold!

This "polar vortex" hit us hard, practically shutting down the airports, making the roads a slippery mess, causing ice to form on the inside of some of our windows, and making our house darn uncomfortable! Sharon and I have pretty much been hunkered down since our ill fated trip to O'Hare on Monday. Sharon has been working at her computer helping clients in Ohio and Alaska. It is warmer in our house than at the office in Ohio and warmer outside in Alaska than it is here.

A few things I learned. When it is -15° outside, I should not let our furnace follow normal programming at night. Usually in the winter our thermostat drops us to 60° or 62° at night and then brings the furnace on in the morning to raise the house temperature to 68°. On Monday it was so cold outside that it took a good eight hours to get us up to 68°. On Tuesday night I let the temperature drop to 64° overnight and we recovered very quickly.

Also, windows that leak air normally seem to leak a lot more when it is so cold outside. I sealed the edges of a kitchen window and door with painter's tape to cut down on drafts. It did make a difference. Also, we normally leave one storm window off of our kitchen windows - this was a bad choice this year.

We have had a constant stream of birds and squirrels to and from our feeder in the back yard. We have seen cardinals, chickadees, nut hatches, downy woodpeckers, sparrows, and red and gray squirrels. Sharon observed a squirrel running up the maple tree with a tortilla we placed out side. The squirrel was attacked by a blue jay and the jay took the tortilla when the squirrel dropped it.

Rush Limbaugh says the Polar Vortex is something that the liberal media invented to explain away global warming. Lots of people have been saying the cold shows that global warming is not happening. Do they forget the difference between local or regional and global? Global weather is not indicated by the weather around you at this moment.

 

The Chill of January

January and February are generally the coldest and snowiest months here in the Chicago area and so far this January is living up to that standard. This past week we have seen first a 12 inch snow and then after a short break, another eight inches. On top of that, the bottom has dropped out of Canada and Arctic air is flowing in. As I write this the temperature in Glen Ellyn is -15F. That is with sunny skies! It was about the same when we left the house at 4:30 this morning.
What were we doing leaving the house at 4:30 AM on such a cold day? Sharon was attempting to get to Cleveland. American Airlines sent her a text before we left the house that indicated the flight was on time. About 10 minutes from O'Hare Sharon received another text that indicated her flight was cancelled. We went to the terminal and Sharon trudged in with her bag and briefcase to see what she could do. They told her the soonest she could leave for Cleveland was at 4:30Pm on Wednesday. I was waiting at the curb when she returned and we headed home.
The roads were in terrible shape except for the tollway. With all the snow that we have seen plus super low temperatures, the snow plows could not keep up and salt was not working to melt the snow and ice. We were happy to get home and stay home.
Sharon is working from home and I am piddling. Did a little house pick up, took a nap, read some, and now I'm blogging. I should do something productive like singing, or ukulele practice, or piano practice, or even finishing putting laminate in the laundry room!