The Big Chill

So the snow came and then the cold set in.

And by cold I mean freeze-the-enamel-off-your-teeth-while-your-mouth-is-closed COLD.

When I woke up yesterday morning it was -12 degrees, with a windchill factor of -40. Oh Indiana - what happened?  I thought we were friends.  Did I go outside at all?  You betcha - for about 5 seconds.  I just wanted to see what -40 temps felt like.  It felt cold. Take-your-breath-away cold.

The only good thing about the weather was that Lance got to stay home again.  The roads were so icy and the windchill was so bad that pretty much everything around town was closed.  I don't think I saw or heard a single car all day.

The bad part?  All that snow out there and it being too cold to play in it.  Normally I'll let the kids play outside whenever, figuring that they'll come in when they get too cold.  But temps like this are dangerous.  Plus, I didn't want to go through all the effort of getting them dressed just to proved to them how dang cold it was outside.  It was pretty rough on Cole and Josh, who bugged me all day about how bored they were.

But on the whole, it was a rather pleasant day.  In the late afternoon the lights started to flicker every once in a while. In the evening the flickers would last several seconds, which was a bit nerve-wracking.  No power in the spring, summer, or fall is and inconvenience.  No power in the winter means no heat, which makes things a bit tricky with little kids.  Especially when the roads are so bad you can't go anywhere to get warmer.  I had a whole action plan in my head (all of us sleeping in the basement), but fortunately we didn't have to use it.

This morning Lance had to go back to work.  Even though the kids didn't have school today because it's still so freakin' cold I woke up feeling like we could kind of start getting back to normal post-Christmas-break life. I had them do their chores and then I started deep cleaning the kitchen - only to be stopped because the internet wasn't working.  THE HORROR!!  I had some very sad little computer game playing boys on my hands.

So I called Comcast and pretended to be Lance because the account is in his name and they're pretty persnickety about who they talk to.  Forty-five minutes later and the internet was finally up and running.  Sheesh.

I got back to work on the kitchen, only to realize that we didn't have any hot water.  What the @#$@!!!  Our water heater is only 2 years old - what could have happened?! So back down to the utility closet I went to inspect the water heater.  Our water heater is cool because it'll tell you what's wrong.  (To a point, I guess.)  And it told me that the vent on the roof was blocked.

Dang.

So I called the water heater company just to see if this is really a Thing and apparently it's fairly common and there's not much we can do other than risk life and limb by climbing the roof and unblocking the vent.  Since there is a lovely and rather slick slab off ice on the roof I don't see that happening any time soon.  Temps are supposed to get above freezing by Friday, so we might have a long wait.  Sheesh again.

Life could be worse - I'd much rather be without hot water than without electricity.  But still, I can't help but feel a little picked on.  Guess I'll have a little pity party as I heat water on the stove so I can wash the dishes by hand. (The Horror!)

Just in case you're curious, here's a few pictures of the frozen tundra that is our backyard.  I've seen higher snow (there's probably about a foot), but the drifts and the waves created by the wind are pretty impressive.  (Hard to see in pictures, though.)  True story: I changed the below photo to black and white and couldn't tell much of a difference.  It's like living in an Ansel Adams photo.