You may have heard about our cold, yes? (6)

Dear Lord Loser - the numbering is back up, just so you know in which order the nonsense should be read.  You're welcome.

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For many years my family lived in upstate New York.

'Upstate' as in just barely north of the PA Line, but anything north of 'The City' is upstate so our little town qualified.

Up there, as you can imagine, there was Winter.  Lots and lots of winter.  Winter for months, winter that started in September and didn't let up until April.  Winter that had lots and lots of snow and cold and dark.  Winter that brought sunsets at 4:30 and clear night (5 pm!) skies.  Winters with snowmen that were built one month and were likely to still be there the next month, such was the perseverant cold.

Blood gets thick with Winters like that, and folks do complain about summer being too hot when the temps hit 75F or so.

I feel ya, sister.

So you think that with all those late '60s/early '70's Real Winters (before global warming became a thing!) under my belt, I'd be used to the extreme low temps we're experiencing today in NC, but that would be an incorrect assumption.  Nope, I am as miserable as a native Floridian when the AC is a little too cool (below 70!); it feels like I'll never be warm again.  In my house the temp is set to 65, and the poor HVAC unit has been working mightily to keep it there.  I won't allow the kids to turn it up any higher because then it will NEVER go off.  The highlight of my day has been the drive to the orthodontist's office with Thing 2, the heat cranked fully to the red zone and blasting like I had to dry my hair.  Bliss.

Taking the brunt of the 50-degree temp drop from last Sunday (70!) to today (less than 20!) is tough on an old gal like me.  And it's fine to moan about it a bit. right?  Thank goodness there are things like heating systems and warm cars and hot tea and slippers and wearing a hoodie AND a scarf indoors to take the edge off.

Those 15 years of Winter in CT of recent vintage seem to have worn smack off, so it's no wonder that the NY winters of my youth are but a distant dark memory.  Those hard tough edges have worn off, have been lost along with every pair of mittens I've ever own and the need to have a winter coat.

It's just not supposed to be this cold, you see.

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Go ahead and laugh, but just know that when the water heater in the crawl space can only deliver sort-of scalding water for a short time when it has the potential to serve up truly scalding water for eons in better weather, it's freaking COLD.

Now I'm going to go stick my hands in my armpits and figure out what I can boil for dinner (steam, you see).

Here's to warmer days ahead - Tiff out.