Ramblings on a cold morning----

Wow!  Another even colder morning than yesterday!  Today it is a mere 24 degrees here in beautiful San Antonio, TX!  The coffee pot is cranked up and my space heaters are struggling to keep up with my unending demand for heat.   My little mini farm of animals (2 dogs -a Yorkie and a mix dog with one blue eye and one brown eye -a Siamese cat and 2 guinea pigs -1 long haired and 1 short haired tri-color) are all hunkered down in their individual beds trembling for warmth.  I think that the guinea pigs could be mistaken for tea cup bears hibernating in the back of their cages!  It’s really funny!

The kiddos all got off to school ok this morning, each of them miraculously finding their previously lost gloves from the year before.  Luckily our small section of town was spared from the statewide rolling blackouts yesterday and therefore my kids didn’t have to endure sitting in the dark and shivering at school.  However, the mall where Ashley works was affected and I’m not sure how long she had that adventure.  With her upbeat attitude I can only imagine that she had fellow mall employees laughing through it all.

Today is trash day here and after taking a quick glance out the window I realize that not one of the 4 people leaving our house this morning cared to drag the huge rolling trash can to the curb.  I considered making a mad dash out there myself but seriously decided against the torture.  It’s just not worth it!  I suppose our raccoons and possums will have another week to feast on our plethora of garbage.   At this pitiful temperature I just don’t find that I care very much.  I may change my mind next week if I have to clean up that garbage should an inexperienced varmint causes the can to tip over and spill the contents all over the ground.  The experienced varmints are quite knowledgeable of the climbing in and out of the large 90 something gallon city trash can without causing it to tumble over.

Well, the news update just came on TV and they are now reporting that our temperature has dropped to 21 degrees!  This is madness!  I get that there are others in the country with temps much lower than that but to that I say I LIVE IN TEXAS!  I can much better handle the heat because I believe I can always get cooler but being this cold is INSANE! 

This extreme cold weather has brought out my learned habits of living in more than one trailer in my earlier life. Last night I went around locating any air leaks and luckily only found a few.  A few years ago right after buying our house we purchased those awesome double paned windows and had them installed.  VERY worth the cost!  They are in my opinion the best investment we have done thus far concerning the upgrades and improvements we have done to our 30+ year home.  The only problem is that we live in an area that goes from wet to extremely dry conditions therefore our house is always settling and shifting.  We have two windows now that need to be re-caulked as they let the cold air leak in.  I rolled up old beach towels and stuffed them into the window sill.  We haven’t replaced the doors yet and therefore those are the other sources of cold air seeping into the house.  Last night I dug out the industrial staple gun and stapled up blankets over the front and patio doors.  We have now become a go in and out the back door family because you have to open the inside kitchen door and go through the laundry room to get to the back door which keeps the cold air from reaching inside or better yet keeps the warm heat from escaping out.  All of this red neck weather proofing has created quite the toasty little cave today.  J  

The thought of staying indoors, hunkering down under the warm covers and drinking hot coffee while watching movies is all fine and dandy until the realization of being STUCK indoors all day creeps into my mind.  I have been basically stuck indoors for the greater part of the entire last year due to being so ill and the later part of the year I was actually stuck in bed!  So, now that I can actually get out and start living again the hand of cruel fate has struck me with this cold weather causing my imprisonment to last a bit longer.  ARRRGGGHH!! 

I am trying to turn the other cheek, look at the bright side, make lemonade out of lemons but honestly it is quite a struggle today to come up with a cheerio saying that will calm my ever growing cabin fever.  For the last week I have taken on a personal crusade to conquer the seemingly unending mountain of housework that was inevitably overlooked while I was sick because husbands and children are missing the:  OH, I need to clean that mess up gene.   It’s been quite amazing and shocking to me to find some of the masterpieces that have been waiting for me!  I can now attest to the fact that dust can in fact transform into a great big, heavy blanket if left long enough, the dust bunnies under the bed will unite into one great big monster bunny and leftovers forgotten in the extra back fridge long enough do indeed require simply throwing the bowl away. 

Well, this is just a few of my rambling thoughts for the day and it’s not even 9:00am!  It’s kind of scary to think what I may think of by noon!