Cold, Cold Nights

It was -15ºF when I got up this morning, and -5ºF when I took this video at 10:00 a.m. of the view out the window from my desk.  (That's -26 and -21 in Celsius, my friends.) 

Spike (of the Quireboys) sings Frankie Miller - Cold, Cold Nights

Coldest Week?

I was outside this evening after taking out the recyclables, pondering a recent pile of poop on the snow that had already turned white and the tracks of the likely culprit.  No rabbit or other small animal, but larger and dog-like, judging by the gait.  My wife thinks it was a fox, and while the dog population in the area is much larger you rarely see one off-leash.  The tracks disappeared among the rabbit tracks back in the corner of the yard by the lilac.

Then my nose started to hurt.  It was maybe 2 minutes of being outside, but only 7ºF (-14ºC).

They said on the news this morning that this week is typically our coldest week each year.  Not sure how they determine it since weeks change a bit year to year, but okay.  I like my interesting facts to be more definitive, I guess.  Either way, it's cold.  There is no high temperature in the 10 day forecast that gets up to the freezing point.  As I write this it is already down to 3ºF.

Not a reason to like where I live, but we take it as it goes.

Here's a cool picture of Madison that I saw on this website.  Appears to be late in the day during a warmer time of year, looking northeast over downtown.  One of the best city regulations is a limit on building height on the isthmus and around the capitol building.  That's our house, top right.  ;)

Happy birthday this week to my lovely wife, who hates having it during the coldest week of the year.

The Mitten

Every Monday morning at work we have a short meeting of the department, since yesterday was a holiday we had the meeting today.  For this short meeting I like to call in to listen and take a quick walk around the block, weather permitting, as both usually take about 10 minutes.  This morning during this short walk I noticed some signs, a story placed along our section of the bike path.  It seemed to begin here, but I did see signs across the road on the bike path, too, so not a completed story on this walk.

Today is a bit above freezing, and the next several days will be much colder, so after work I set out for the rest of the walk to get to the end of the story.  At this time I also noticed the very first sign, a title card, that I had missed before at the end of the street by the canoe slide.  A neighbor from up the street soon caught up to me and I let her know what I was doing and she was very helpful righting signs in the melting snow so I could take a picture of them.  You can enlarge the pictures here, but the print is small so provided below the pictures, 16 in all.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present:  The Mitten

Once there was a boy named Nicki who wanted his new mittens made from wool as white as the snow.

Continued after the break!

Quiet New Year, Mostly

It's been a fairly quiet new year so far, aside from my most recent medical issue acting up again.  This Omicron variant is everywhere so we're trying to be extra careful.  We, or mostly just I, had been going out for lunch once every weekend for a while now just to get out of the house, but no longer.  Other than that most trips outside the house are for necessities only.

I say 'most' because we did leave the house today to go look at furniture.  In early August last year we ordered - and paid for - a sofa sleeper and ottoman.  Well, it keeps getting delayed and then delayed again.  At one point it was scheduled for delivery on January 4, but that was cancelled and now has been estimated to be late May.  How does that happen?  I think the scheduled delivery was just a ploy as they do not have the sofa in their warehouse yet and may not ever, the way things are looking now.  We didn't find anything we wanted to replace what we already paid for, though, and all furniture stores are having big issues with stock and long delays in delivery, so we just decided to let it ride for now and not cancel and get a refund yet.  The sofa we have now we planned on moving out to the porch.  It will be a good seating area out there and we may then use the porch more in the warmer months.  But for now, it will remain as our living room couch.

I've been on antibiotics again for two weeks now, yet I started to get a fever and more pain again on Thursday, so I contacted the specialist I'd been seeing.  She had me go to a clinic on Friday, not the overflowing-with-Covid hospital thankfully, for lab work and another CT scan and it showed inflammation and still a micro perforation of my colon.  She does think that this is still treatable at home, but if it worsens I may have to go into the hospital again for IV antibiotics for a few days.  Worst case scenario is emergency surgery to remove part of my colon then I live with a colostomy bag for about 8 months.  For now, another two weeks of antibiotics.  This time a combination of two different antibiotics than I had been taking.  Wish me luck, I really need to get over this hump.

The weather is very cold and it snows now and again but nothing major to complain about.  We had the plumber out again due to a clog in our kitchen sink drain, same guy who was out in December to clear out our main waste line that goes to the the street.  The sink pipes likely have never been clogged or cleared before judging by the muck he got out, the main needs to be cleared every couple of years now due to tree roots.  Not much else that I can think about now, but that's okay, I'll take a quiet new year for now.

It's winter in Wisconsin during a pandemic.  We just don't do much of anything exciting and likely won't for several months, so not sure what I'll be writing about but I'll think of something every now and again.  Aside from my health, just a mundane time of year.

Happy New Year 2022

 A quiet night in with my lovely wife, a good frozen pizza and a few drinks.  Just the times we live in, let's hope for better this coming year.  Happy New Year, everyone!