Really! Please closer that back door! It's too cold for the deep south!

What I've been thinking (and wondering) about these past couple of days is how I thought that extremely cold weather was normal & nothing to complain about. Did I really go ice skating when the temperature was in the teens? I know I did & I seem to remember enjoying it. It must be true that one's blood thins out the longer you live in a warm climate. I just can't take extreme cold anymore.

For all of you dealing with below zero temperatures today, you have my sincere condolences.

Weather brings memories for sure, my friend. Last month I was back in Chicago for 11 days, home for most of my life.The snow fell like fairy dust, and the cold went through me - not the -20 folks are having now, but enough to bite. The sky in a winter light looked right, sharp shadows and winter sun, in a sky just the right blue. Like it should be in December, and I felt at home in a way that made me shiver with glee.

And what I hear Chicago has now, I remember too - snow as high as Daddy. I'm not sure I'm ready for a weekend on the ice, though, like Andi I've been here a long time. I really don't like being cold! But a real fall with the colors, and that special green you only get in the earliest of springs; well, winter's fine with me. Batya

I was born in Chicago and can remember that cold wind off the lake and the snow that never seemed to stop. Nice memories though. Batya...how are things with you? I wouldn't want to be living in Israel right now.

I'd love to take credit for leaving the door open... except then it'd be warmer than -6 *#$&ing degrees!!! To be sure, there are people who are colder than we right now, but this weather makes me prickly. The only good thing about it being so frigid is that it's too cold to snow. We've had 53 inches so far this winter (normal is just under 24 inches by this date)... this is well above last year's record totals to date. I've developed elbow and shoulder problems from all the lifting. (Steve is in London.) Although I did experience the little victory of actually starting one of those stupid pull-the-string engines by myself for the first time.

The other day I was at the park playing frisbee with the dogs and it was 20*... (they need exercise no matter the temperature) and I noticed some workers re-roofing a house and thought sarcastically "Who the (*@& roofs a house in the middle of winter!?" A few seconds later I retrieved the frozen cloth frisbee from Izzy's mouth and flung it so she'd have to climb a plow berm to retrieve it... and realized the hypocrisy of my sarcasm. I guess life goes on no matter how cold it gets...

Dorph, we had a recent serious crime spree that had the locals reaching for their pitchforks: Someone stole all the flat screen TVs and other high-end electronics from all the ice houses on the lake. Those things are anything but rustic... Truthfully, "fishing" is just an excuse for the men-folk to leave the house, drink brandy, and fart freely in one another's company. They get grumpy in winter too!

I got a call from my neighbors yesterday asking me to pick their dogs up from the kennel when they're in Florida. As much as I like them, all I could do was cuss. I was embarrassed by the wave of Schadenfreude that overcame me when they told me it was supposed to get below freezing while they were there. (It better not get cold when Steve and I are in Southern Arizona in February!)

All I want at this point is a very gradual thaw. Honestly, I can deal with the snow and cold... and I have strategies for dealing with the darkness, but all I see when I look at the piles of snow everywhere is the threat of another spring of destructive floods, and that scares me.

Stay warm everybody, and to those of you in the south: Go make your French toast!

I'm freezing to death here.
It's too cold to even think about getting out of the house.
I'm glad the diabetes classes are over because no way would I
get Katrina or Neil out in this mess.

Michelle, I did make French toast the other day.
It was wonderful! I couldn't eat but a bite but the family enjoyed it. Maple Pecan French toast yummy!

I was thinking about Izzy the other day and wondered when we were going to get some pictures of what that Big Ole
clump of fur is doing for fun these days.

Jan, just a few minutes ago she grabbed my winter hat and her leash and asked me to take her out in this madness. (It's now +1*F.) I declined, but let her go out back to sniff the deer tracks in our backyard. Nothing like fresh snow to reveal which critters come to your yard and how frequently!

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Earlier today I had to drive about 15 miles to the meat processor to pick up the deer Steve left with them in late November. It was rather harrowing on hilly, back country, poorly plowed roads (neither ice nor sand works at these temps). The scariest part was the intersections had 8' high snow berms so visibility was limited. I was scared I'd be confronted by a giant farm truck with a snow plow blade for a front bumper and not have the traction to get through the intersection in time. I actually turned off my radio and opened my window a little to listen for traffic at the blind intersections with stop signs in my direction. At least when the corn is this tall it doesn't grow so close to the road!

Oh, and lest anyone be influenced by that last pic to believe that the cold weather and isolation it imposes has finally knocked me off my proverbial rocker, let me post one more pic to simultaneously prove it and reinforce a GP cliche...

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Sorry about that! Since my house faces New York Harbor I've been feeling the northwest icy blasts too. It makes me (and everyone else in the neighborhood) flock to the grocery store and buy lots of food. When it gets this cold those of us who live past exposed sections of subway track have to make up a Plan B: the switching mechanisms can freeze and subways can't go past until some poor transit worker goes out there with a heater and thaws those mechanisms out. I have an online account so I can work from home if that happens.

I have been making lentil soup, orange-pecan french toast casserole (using challah, and more pecans than the Cooking Light recipe recommends), carrot-parsnip bisque, and Hoppin' John. For Ukrainian Christmas, vegetarian borscht, blini with smoked fish, honey cake, and compot: dried fruit stewed slowly in cider with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and peel from lemon and orange.

My retired uncle is staying with me after our celebrations of Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7) and new year (Jan. 15). He has been fixing things around the house and I come home and cook us nice things to eat. He is so at home in my apartment that he's following a schedule I wish dearly I could copy: sleep the morning away, get up and enjoy the noon light, watch TV and eat, putter on the 'puter with tea and poppy seed cake, go to bed again for another long winter's nap. I put two quilts over him and he can't even feel the cat jump up on his bed.

Mary,
Did you get to see the plane land in the river?

Thank you, thank you, Michelle.
Izzy is always good for a big smile.
I love that girl.
Maybe some day I'll meet her in person.

LOL Michele, those are great pics.

Robert, I'm afraid it may have been me. Well, actually Jessie my dog. He was dragging a big branch from one of the darn silver maples around and got it stuck in the gate opening. Unfortunately when I left the gate open it caused a huge draft and froze my pipes during the day time. Grrrrrr... I usually only have to worry when it gets down in the mid teens at night and run the water. I thought it was about twenty here but when I got up from my nap Christy informed me the hot water is frozen. Grrrrr... Not sure when it will get up warm enough to thaw them. We've never been able to get them insulated where they're at. They go thru a wall and run next to an old stone well that holds the cold under there. Ah well. Maybe tomorrow I'll give my new torch a go at them. At least we have cold water. Christy keeps a crock pot upstairs for such times so she has at least a little bit of hot water in the mornings to splash in. Sorry bout that.

Up at 430a, temperature 15.5 -- I know, that's a heat wave for some of you, but this is the *southern* side of DC and we aren't used to seeing such small numbers on the thermometer. Left for work at 6a, temperature 11. Arrived 20 minutes later, temperature 9.

Somebody, please close that door.

No, I didn't get to see the plane land in the river -- way too far uptown from where I normally go. But I did drive by the site last night -- I had to keep my eye on the traffic so all I saw were ambulances, news trucks, and other utility vehicles. Wish I could have seen the plane floating in the water. All hats off, even in this cold weather, to the pilot who landed that plane so safely on the surface of the Hudson, and protected the lives of those inside and outside the aircraft.

I normally don't turn on my heat since I'm on the top floor and can count on the lower floors and neighbors to keep me warm, but last night I took the books off the bookcase that hide where the thermostat is, and turned the thing ON. When I went to bed my thermometer said 56. This morning it was a delicious 68. Uncle is going to go out to the Polish butcher and get us some kielbasy, and I'll fry it up and add it to the Hoppin' John.

Michael, I agree. Yall can have your freakin' 5 degree weather. I keep telling LF, at least we don't live some place like Meeen-a-SEW-tah so that we have to wear even more clothes even longer... at least we get a reprieve during winter (unlike them!) UGH! I was wearing shirt sleeves and no coat on Wedensday.

Michelle, "... has finally knocked me off my proverbial rocker...", honey, all that did is prove you're fully off your rocker. Giving that sweet thang martinis, what kind of mommy are you? Shame on you. But I still love you anyhow.

New York M, your sustenance sounds soul nourishing. Glad you're enjoying your most cherished asset, even it is only vicariously.

About all I know of getting around New York City I have learnt whilst watching Cash Cab. I like that show.

Cudos to all New Yorkers for their amazing and quick reaction to the accident.

Ditto to that. When I saw the footage on TV yesterday, all I could think about was how bloody cold the Hudson River would have been on a day like yesterday. The rescue effort was amazing! And I was happy to see on of the Circle Line's boats taking part.

It's still really cold here today, but thankfully, one of the advantages of living in the south is the knowledge that tomorrow our high will be 62.

18 degree temperatures, 35 degree water temperatures (according the NYTimes). I don't think they'd have lasted much longer in that water.

amazing effort by everyone: pilot & crew, Harbor Authority, NYPD, NY Waterway ferries, the tugboat that just happened to be in the right place to get lines around the plane so it wouldn't sink, blocking the harbour. Apparently the Circle Line ferry was commandeered by the police - several of the photos by the public seem to have been by regular passengers.

It's eight degrees here, the warmest it got today. with negative temps and wind, the windchill tonight is supposed to be minus twenty five. A day or two of this now and again in winter isn't so hard to take, but days and weeks on end of cold interspersed with snow storms and freezing rains turning to ice when it warms up is starting to suck eggs.

I laughed at the Izzy pictures. That dog is such a ham, but who could resist? The deer and critter tracks here are so numerous, it looks like grand central station. Poor animals. Our normally flowing pond is frozen over stiff and there is a mess of tracks around it where creatures have been trying to get to water. I haven't ventured down there to see if it's coming out the spring head, prolly is.

The chickens seem to be hanging in there, but boy.....are they happy to see me when I bang the ice out of their water dishes and chow them down. I have a load of feed in the back of the jeep, and am waiting for the balmy 22 degrees forecast for tomorrow to take it out on the tractor. Thank God it has 4WD. I have pulled the feed out on a sledge.

The month is now half over.....I keep holding on to that thought. February is often the snowiest month here, but I have seen spring bulbs blooming some years, and I don't mind the snow so much as the bitter cold. It makes doing even the simplest things like walking down to get the mail, or peeing the dog a chore. I'm just thankful we finally have central heat in the old house. DH and I were reminiscing this morning about how the dog's water used to freeze in his dish in the kitchen and putting aladin heaters in one room and hanging blankets at the door to just make it through the night.

Cheer up, high of 4 yesterday. 43 this afternoon and it is coming east and south. Shorts weather.

It's going to seem like it!

I'll break out the sunscreen.

Well, it's getting hot today, already 27 degr. and rising. The last couple of days my cat cut short her outdoor stays, all the squirrels in the neighborhood sat at the backdoor and the feeders were like Grand Central Station.
The landing of the plae, the rescue efforts and the outcome were truely amazing. When push comes to shove, New Yorkers come together. I love NY. It's the visitors which come with an attitude and then wonder that it is reciprocated.

I hate complaining about the cold when I know that what we have down here is nothing compared to what the others of you are feeling. It's like two different worlds.

We had about 10 - 12 hours of below freezing temps last night and this morning. I think the low was in the low 20s. That's enough to freeze the buds on our spring flowers. I love our entire city in the late winter and Spring. The camilleas and the azaleas are wonderful, and of course the flowering trees get their buds nipped too. I am hoping that the bushes that are under the heavy tree canopy will do well as the trees do trap a little heat from the ground.

But it won't be lovely this year. The plants can stand a couple of hours of below freezing, but not this long. It will do some things good. The amaryllis bulbs will get a rest. I have them well mulched, the bulbs will probablly not freeze. Plants like the Hydrangias had already started spring growth. I suspect they will have some die back. The big tropical Hibiscus is right next to the house and looks OK.

So, I guess our Spring won't be as pretty as usual. At least, this much cold should have finally killed all the pollen bearing weeds and mold and mildew. The allergy season was already getting started in fine fashion.

Agnes, I won't mock you for complaining about the cold. When I lived in AZ and GA I became very sensitive to it and I understand very well that freezes are very different animals for you and me. Cold is relative, and it makes sense to react strongly to statistical aberrations.

Gandle's comment made me laugh. Not because it was ridiculous, but because we really will see people wearing shorts. There's a weird kind of machismo that I've witnessed while living in ND, MN & WI where people really will wear shorts and short sleeves in winter. Especially males on or near college campuses, though I've witnessed neighbors shoveling snow in shorts...

Don't believe me? This was in our paper today:
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It has been in single digits for most of week. We didn't have much snow, but it just won't go away. My poor mother has been housebound now for over a week. I am hoping it will get warm enough to get her out and to the store. I can shop for her but the cabin fever is getting bad.

In the 80s here most of the week. Lows in the 50s. Don't hit me too hard.

Patience, was 61 this afternoon. It will get there soon. After 16 days of arctic like temps we are really getting a break. Even washed the car this afternoon.

I'm glad Don spoke before me, I thought I may get clobbered LOL
It's been in the high sixties to the middle seventies here in the afternoons, early morning comes up in the low twenties.
Sun is shining, sky is unbelievably blue and I am not a happy camper. Our rain-season ends in March, and we are already about 30" below average. We practicing not flushing the toilet each time, something one usually doesn't do until about August.
I am trying to plan a garden, but because of the water situation don't know what I need to plan.
I am better off than many, we have a good, dependable well over a good aquifer, still, it's a worry.
People in the "outback", who depend on cisterns to catch the rain-run-off are really worried.
So good weather really can be bad.

It warmed up nicely today & was sunny & about 64 degrees. The first of my daffodils started blooming today. Ducking & running now.