There have been a few nights when the wind’s been so emphatic I thought the roof was about to peel off, or maybe parts of the chimney. The latter stands between the two west-northwest facing windows in my bedroom, and the tremendous banging and clangings that emanate are a mystery.
Need to get it checked…
Speaking of checking, one of the very cold, subzero nights on my way up it occurred to me I hadn’t looked in on the back bathroom in a while. This is the bath off the downstairs bedroom that is an addition of about 20 years ago, thus lacks a full foundation and is pretty poorly insulated. Those pipes are the furthest out, most exposed and at risk, so when the temperature begins to regularly drop below 15 I leave the faucet dripping and periodically flush.
From my groggy woodstove warm-room induced state I stumbled in to see what was happening. The faucet was no longer dripping, and after one flush the toilet was not refilling. A frantic midnight defrosting began with a hair dryer– oh the facts that come back to you at such moments, no-blowtorch (not that I have), yes-hair dryer. Go from the top? The bottom? Went with the former. After a good 20 minutes water began to drip. It felt like a miracle. The toilet, I decided to chance it as I felt myself flagging. I turned the light on, left the faucet dribbling rather than dripping, opened the doors wide and left the heat downstairs at an exotic 63. By next morning it was fine.
Outside, the advent of March has not brought much different than February so far. This morning I lay in bed and watched a mini-blizzard blow up. Between that and the time change was in no rush to rise, and the dogs were with me. We’re all a bit weary. But hey, we’re tough, and Florida is for the weak, no?
The sun, when it shines, does feel warmer and one knows there is hope. One day we made it up above freezing and I broke a sweat shoveling with just two layers on.
But the paths have now entered luge territory. The paw and foot traffic, no fresh snow, a bit of sun that warms spots and then freezes– some of the downhills are luge-ready. I don’t have time or patience to attach those crampon things to my boots so I walk like I’m v’ing uphill on skis.
Necessity is the mother, for sure, and this winter you had to bring your A game. Can’t wait to see what these last weeks bring us ’cause I have a sense we’re not done yet.