Pee-cicles

It has been colder than....well, cold this past week. Temperatures have seldom made it above 0 these past few days. This is Iowa so we should kind of be used to it. It's just that we haven't dipped this low for the last ten years.

What is hard to fathom for me are the folks who live in Alaska that are used to it. When their cars or buses don't run they just hop on the snow mobiles. Kids put on their tennis racket-like shoes and head off to school.

Things I like to do when it is this cold-

Spit waaaaay up in the air. I know that it is juvenile but it is still fascinating.
Start my car and let it run for a long time before I get in. I like it toasty warm, but it kills my gas mileage.
Take a pan of hot water outside just to watch it get extra steamy.
Pee outside when I'm not close to a public bathroom. Yeah, probably illegal in many places but when you gotta go, you gotta go; and if it is cold enough you can see it steam and freeze before it hits the ground.

With that said, spring still can't come soon enough. I don't like wearing coats.

Next week it is supposed to soar into the upper mid 30's. I'll be at the beach....not really, but these goofballs decided to go-



I'm going to go find my electric blanket.

It came upon a midnight cold

I had a realization last night. I decided that it was time to take my kids outside in the 8 degree weather for some well needed play time. It reminded me of playing outside as a child. I would get all bundled up and go outside for hours at a time. We never seemed to get enough time out in the white coldness.

We had shovels, gloves, sticks and boots. We would build forts out of snow or take the 4 block hike up to the Elementary school where we spent the bulk of the rest of our time during the week. That was back when parents could trust society to let their kids tread into the unknown.

It was so much fun, but how is it that the memories would so quickly escape my mind? Probably because I'm usually just too busy. Kids can play outside when it is hot and when it is cold. I need to be more mindful of my kids' needs in this area.

The major bummer in the area that I live in is the lack of hills for sledding. I want to give my kids the same opportunity for white flight that I had. I want them to have the same sensation of flying down a hill questioning the ability to survive. I want them to feel the fear of not knowing if they will land back down on the sled or be left cold in a drift.

Kids should have that experience. Parents should provide it for them.

I do remember a few times that my parents took us to some pretty outrageous places to sled. No matter how cold it was we always had a good time.

We looked forward the most to the day when my dad would fulfill his promise of bringing home a whole dump truck load of snow and pile it in our front yard. Sadly, that day never came. I looked forward to making a castle out of it, but apparently it just wasn't meant for this wanna' be prince to reside in such a temporary ice palace.

I did dig a tunnel for my daughter yesterday. She liked it and so did I. There was also a certain sense of joy in my son clinging on to me for dear life in hopes of keeping warm.

Where is it going?

I have no idea where the time is going but I have to admit that it is getting a little bit discouraging. I am often reminded that my kids are getting bigger and older right in front of my eyes.

Just tonight at the dinner table I was thinking about how quickly everything is going by. Right after that thought I then also remembered that we are now 20 days into February. In my mind that means that winter's days are now numbered and spring is just around the corner.

I guess that the average temperature for this time of year in my neck of the woods should be in the 30's but today the high was a whopping 0. Days like today are just hard to get motivated to leave the house. But have no fear- tomorrow the high is supposed to be somewhere from the mid teens to the low 20's. I just want to be able to get out and do something outside of the house with the wife and kids.

Sorry, but I guess this is just one of my random droning posts. Comments and reprimands are always welcome.

Saturday Evening Post

It is Saturday night and all is getting ready to be wrapped up for the day. I feel about as tired as this lady looks.

We shoveled snow today. It was a lot of snow. I think that hopefully this week will have been the last snow for us for the year.

Right now it is only 10 degrees outside, but I have heard that it is supposed to be up on the 50's here by Wednesday. That sounds good to me. I'm taking this next week off of work because of overtime hours that I carried over from last year that I needed to use before March 15th. So the goal is to keep forging on with a home renovation project that I've been working on since November. Damn projects!

Tomorrow morning we will be heading off to church. We have nursery duty- again. It seems a bit odd to me that they mostly have the people with children nursery age that work the nursery in rotation. You would think that they would reserve the work for those without nursery age kids. We have to drive 20 minutes to church, so when we get there it just seems odd to ge there to watch our own kids with all the others.

When the weather gets better I think that rather than going to church it would just be so much funner to just go hiking or fishing or something like that. Sometimes it is better to just go do your own thing without being told what to do.

Well, it's late and I'm sure I'll have more to write about tomorrow.

Creepy Call

Tonight the phone rang and the caller ID showed that it was coming from an 866 number. I decided to answer it since it was the 2nd time today that the number had shown up. It was a recording from the Department of Security.

I was kind of surprised that we would receive such a call. On the one hand it was kind of comforting that they would make calls to homes potentially affected by an oncoming winter storm of the magnitude that we are about to receive. On the other hand it was creepy that they would actually go through and dial numbers letting the residents know that if they did not have power to seek shelter immediately.

We were blasted on Saturday with a few inches of freezing rain/ice and several inches of snow. We lost power for only about 15 minutes, but there are still several areas that are without power and may continue to be for the next week or two. Now, tomorrow we are supposed to receive round 2. More rain/ice and blizzard like conditions that could get us another 6-12 inches of snow. Damn I hate winter.

One theory behind this is that God is pouring out a spell of "mini-wrath" because of a vote that recently took place in the Iowa Legislature concerning embryonic stem cell research. I don't really follow such logic. I doubt that this has as much to do with that as much as it has to do with nature itself and the fact that we just haven't had a winter like this in quite a while.

The problem that I have with saying that God is doing this is "how are we to know?" It would only be pure speculation based on coincidence. Even hindsight can't be sure on this one.

I just know that it will be cold and nasty and I'd rather be somewhere with a beach until all of this clears.

A Cold Thursday Afternoon

OK, this is going to be my first official, official post on this new blog.

It is butt cold outside and just when I thought it couldn't get any better I found out that I was wrong. While it is true that we are supposed to get yet another 2" of snow tomorrow, the temps are supposed to be up in the 40's next week. That is both good and bad in my book.

Good because that means that my furnace will not have to run as hard, or at all. The vehicles will start easier, I don't have to wear as many layers of clothing, etc.

Bad because that will mean melting snow which means sloppy roads. It also might mean water dripping in to my basement as it seeps into the ground and comes in through various little cracks that I have in my foundation.

It is staying light out longer though. That is the one thing that I really hate about winter- darkness and short days. I need light. The natural sunlight is pretty much what keeps me from going completely insane...although that is still up for debate among some.

I am looking forward to warmer weather. Now that I have kids I can appreciate the need to get out of the house more. This spring and summer I plan on more visits to the parks, more walks, more bike rides, going camping and fishing. This summer my daughter will be 4 and my son will be 2. Those are great ages for fun.

I just hate being stuck in the house.