getting colder

For the last week or so, the temperature's been no warmer than the teens and my heating system has been working overtime to keep up with it.  As I type this I can hear the oil furnace in constant run mode, even though the pellet stove has been running non-stop.  I'm not complaining.  I'm just now getting acclimated to the cold, like I always do this time of year.  But last week the single digits chilled me to the core and I found myself paralyzed with cold, twenty miles from home and unable to do anything but freeze and shiver from head to toe until the heater produced some heat.  I hate when that happens.

I completely forgot the short story I read by Jack London about a guy in the Yukon winter who had it much worse.  If you never read To Make a Fire, now's the time.

This guy, back during the Yukon gold rush, set out on an eight hour march to the gold rush camp in -75F weather.  I checked my outdoor thermometer and -70 is bottom line and will never come close to that.  This guy was out hiking in weather 100 degrees below freezing and all he could think was it was real cold.  Real cold?  70 below is like outer space cold.  That's like stay-inside-weather-in-Antarctica cold.  Well, guys back then were a bit tougher than they are now, I spose.  I wouldn't put my beer out in weather like that, let alone me and my dog.  Even his dog knew he was some kind of special stupid to be traipsing around in killer weather like that but he knew how to make fire and fed him so he went along with his retarded master's plan, unwillingly.

Short story much shorter, he fell through the ice, got his feet wet and failed to make a fire because his hands and feet were freezing and a big pile of snow that fell on his fire really fucked up his day.  He ran like an idiot with frozen limbs to pump blood through his system but he was totally unprepared to cope with wet feet, no fire, a temperature of 75 below zero, and base camp six hours away.

He died of stupidity.

It's now 10F and I was just outside having a smokie and a drink and feeling totally comfortable, basking in the warmth of the full moon and thinking about that Yukon asshole who thought it was a good idea to go hiking in -75 weather.  Granted, he was a better man than me, as far as putting up with the cold, but I'll wear a sweatshirt and boots in 10 degree weather and feel comfortable and t-shirt and sneakers for shorter durations.

Anyway... I heard the weather guys say the temps will drop to single digits by Friday.  When the weather guys are so specific about stuff like that, I can't help but call em out out, so I set up the PVC CB to set up a north north-west block to keep that cold Canadian air from dipping too far in this direction.  The intent is to send the cold to go some place other than here and keep the temps bearable.  I'll keep charting the movement.  Let's see what happens.