Yesterday when we were moving the hot tub into the backyard (that our neighbors gave to us and is a huge story in and of itself), our breath was steaming out of us like draft horses in the Budweiser commercials. You could just be standing there, breathing normally, and it looked like you were smoking.
Today was even colder. There was a layer of ice on my car that I had to scrape off before I left at 10am for my friend's house, but the only thing left to use was the squeegee we use to dry the windows when washing the cars. Kurt had already used the ice scraper on the truck when he left at 4:30am this morning, but he forgot I may possibly need it, and now the truck is on base on the other side. But the squeegee actually worked just fine, in case you ever find yourself without an ice scraper.
Now when I say "cold," I know y'all from the northern climes will laugh at our mild temperatures, but when you consider that 40 is a normal temperature for the winter and it's been in the 30s all day, it's stupidly cold. I'm not used to having to wear a coat here, so it's kind of weird.
Plus our houses just aren't built for the cold. When we lived in the apartment in Virginia, the temperatures routinely stayed below freezing in the wintertime, but we rarely had to turn on the heat. Our apartment was so well insulated that we didn't really need the heat, especially since we were surrounded by other apartments that kept us warm.
Here my house has no basement as an insulator, and electric heat just doesn't keep us as warm as the gas heat in the apartment. So when I got home from my friend's house today, it was under 65 degrees in the house, and I was freezing my tushie off. Finally around 8:30pm I had to put the forced air heaters on (in addition to the space heater), AND I put a fleece jacket on over my sweater.
Now I'm almost TOO toasty. My cheeks are flushed. But I'm also drinking a glass of wine, so that could have something to do with it.
So today I went to go see HC. She had back surgery on Nov 7th for a herniated disk, and today was her last day of convalescent leave. It's so weird hanging out with her when she doesn't have her kids (they were in school or in daycare today) because for the first two years we were friends, we took her kids with us everywhere. They're good kids, although her daughter can cop an attitude at times. I think that's a) because she's a girl and b) she's got red hair and the fiery temper that goes along with it. So it's really weird to be with her without her kids; I keep thinking we've left them at a store or something!!!
She treated me to lunch at a local seafood house where you can eat and watch the new Tacoma Narrows bridge being built. The food is AMAZING there!!! Their clam strips have HUGE chunks of clams in them, instead of just the breading with the flavor of clam. And I had their clam chowder today... it's to DIE for. The folks working on Narrows bridge have yet to lay the car deck, but they're walking up and down on the scaffolding as they're weaving the wire to support the deck. The scaffolding they're walking on is see-through as well, and it's a looooooooooooooooooooooooong way down to the water. It makes me shudder every time I see a worker walking up and down along the wires. Eek.
We also went over to her aunt's house to see her mom and dad. Long story, but she needed me as a buffer for her mom. It was GORGEOUS at her aunt's house. Her foyer and bonus room are as large as my entire house. And in her bonus room is a pool table and a wide-screen, high-definition television that's at least 60" wide!!! It was amazing. Her uncle had the Discovery Channel in high-definition on when we got there, and I swear I could count the individual hairs on the mountain goat's legs. I couldn't watch much of it; it was TOO clear for me. It gives me a headache. Reality isn't that clear for me; why would I want a tv to make shows more clear than reality?!
So I'm patiently waiting for this supposed snow fall. We're supposed to get up to four inches. When I checked an hour ago, it was raining. We'll see if we'll get any of the white stuff. I really could care less; I'm not going anywhere till Thursday, when I have to return my library books.
Keep warm!!!