by the fire

the other day, Cob put a little feature on my computer which tells me the temperature outside. as i sit here, it says -30F, mostly sunny. that seems true as i look out the window on a brilliant, but cold day. this morning it said -45F. yesterday, it said -35F. the day before that (and the 3 days before that, also -40F) and before even that, Cob was getting up in the morning and checking the temperature because he doesn't have to go to work if the temp hits -50F. (it was close, but he went to work). by my count that's over a week of sub -30 and -40F temperatures.

we get cold snaps throughout the winter, but when they drag out like this, it gets old. i get cabin fever, i get tired of my brakes feeling like i'm pressing against a piece of hard, unyielding concrete, i get tired of having to warm up my car for 20 minutes before driving it, i get tired of my lettuce freezing in the 5 seconds it takes me to walk from the store to my cold car.

as far as i can tell, this is what cold, cold weather is good for:


knitting baby sweaters. actually, i'm indiscriminate about what i knit on really cold days, as long as it's by the fire. one of the first years i lived here in Fairbanks, we had a cold snap that lasted so long and dropped the temps so consistently, i actually brought the thermometer in just to make sure it was still working and that the mercury hadn't got lodged in some permanently condensed state.


here's the detail, for those interested.


the weather folks tell us that this will break soon. i say bring it on.