brrrrr.
Yesterday evening I looked outside and saw that it was raining. Raining! I'd taken a nice walk in the gently falling snow just hours before, and had hoped to do so again today. Raining. Sheesh.
But the orange lights of the salt trucks still flashed by our windows, and I wondered if the warm-enough-to-rain temperatures would last. Definitely not. By noon today there was an inch of ice coating the sidewalks, the kind of ice that even the industrial-strength rock salt barely penetrates. As far as I could tell, it's only the flat surfaces, not the trees, not like the ice storm a few weeks ago. Still. It's nasty out there, and I know it's nasty all over the US, too. They've closed the schools tomorrow in my hometown for cold--apparently temps, with windchill, are supposed to reach -34°F! That's insane for Central Pennsylvania!
I didn't, for the record, go on that walk today. The farthest I made it was venturing with my housemate Esther across the street to fetch a cheesecake and raspberry sauce from our neighbor's apartment. That was enough; between the wind and the ice-covered sidewalks I quite lost my desire to roam farther afield. (Have I mentioned my Yaktrax yet? They're amazing. And today I made the happy discovery that my pair, at least, glows in the dark. Double amazing!)
Stay warm, everyone! Windchill is not a thing to mess with. Brr.
ETA: Shortly after I posted this, Peter made noises about going to the supermarket to get foodstuffs for dinner, and I offered to accompany him. I wore my Yaktrax, and wrapped a pashmina around my face (and bundled up otherwise, too, layers, etc.), but we were about fifty feet from the door when the wind whipped down the street so hard we had to stop or fall over. "WHY ARE WE DOING THIS!?" I shouted. "I DON'T KNOW!" Peter shouted back.
But we got sausages, and we returned with no skin frozen or fingers fallen off, so it was worth it.
But the orange lights of the salt trucks still flashed by our windows, and I wondered if the warm-enough-to-rain temperatures would last. Definitely not. By noon today there was an inch of ice coating the sidewalks, the kind of ice that even the industrial-strength rock salt barely penetrates. As far as I could tell, it's only the flat surfaces, not the trees, not like the ice storm a few weeks ago. Still. It's nasty out there, and I know it's nasty all over the US, too. They've closed the schools tomorrow in my hometown for cold--apparently temps, with windchill, are supposed to reach -34°F! That's insane for Central Pennsylvania!
I didn't, for the record, go on that walk today. The farthest I made it was venturing with my housemate Esther across the street to fetch a cheesecake and raspberry sauce from our neighbor's apartment. That was enough; between the wind and the ice-covered sidewalks I quite lost my desire to roam farther afield. (Have I mentioned my Yaktrax yet? They're amazing. And today I made the happy discovery that my pair, at least, glows in the dark. Double amazing!)
Stay warm, everyone! Windchill is not a thing to mess with. Brr.
ETA: Shortly after I posted this, Peter made noises about going to the supermarket to get foodstuffs for dinner, and I offered to accompany him. I wore my Yaktrax, and wrapped a pashmina around my face (and bundled up otherwise, too, layers, etc.), but we were about fifty feet from the door when the wind whipped down the street so hard we had to stop or fall over. "WHY ARE WE DOING THIS!?" I shouted. "I DON'T KNOW!" Peter shouted back.
But we got sausages, and we returned with no skin frozen or fingers fallen off, so it was worth it.