Since the whole country is feeling the Canadian Blast right now, I'm sure that its not news to anyone that Florida is experiencing way below normal temps at the moment....what makes it really out of the ordinary is the length of time we've been stuck in these frigid temps. Typical Florida winters include a day or two or maybe three of freezing temps, one hard freeze if we're lucky (because that helps with controlling the bug population) but this is day eight for us down here. On New Years Day, I began taking down the Christmas Tree in capri's and a t-shirt but ended the day in sweats with slipper socks, a warm and cozy crochetted afghan and a space heater in the living room and an open range in the kitchen.....
and it went downhill from there. As I went around the next morning shutting blinds and pulling lined draperies I felt all the drafts that we'd missed to date in our restorations of this old house so I added towels to the windows and covered the vents.....and I listened to the weather reports. You see, we knew that our downstairs heating would never keep up with temps that hovered around 30 degrees and so we'd shut it off completely to avoid the high cost of running it and were hoping to make it to spring before replacing it. Every now and then, I would head upstairs and warm up because that 3 year old unit was working wonderfully........then. I knew I could handle two or three days of being shut off from the views outside my windows - I knew I could warm up upstairs if I needed to and our kitchen, in which we have completed the re-insulation projects, was warm enough with the range open that I could continue to make meals and do dishes and keep this house going......but then I saw the predictions.....and started thinking that maybe, despite Al Gore's repeated warnings of global warming, that perhaps, this winter, I'd not be getting that warm up outside in two or three days.....and I knew that I'd never make to spring without begging the doctor for some happy pills.....from Friday to Sunday, I still had hope, but as darkness rolled in on Sunday night, I traipsed upstairs (carefully, to avoid tripping on the warm robe I had on over my sweats and slipper socks and slippers....) to talk to David....
"Honey, let's go tomorrow and see about putting in a wood stove downstairs. I know we thought we'd wait until spring to do all of this stuff, but, well, you go to work where its warm and Hunter goes to school where its warm and I, well, I guess I could go hang out at Walmart every day until it warms up....".
To be continued.....
Right here with ya in chilly chilly Florida. It feels like a blizzard zone! We don't remember it being this cold for so many days in a row either. It did make it hard to take down the Christmas decor around here because my shed is so far away from my house, and the shed was COLD! I got it done though. Have a good wknd., stay as warm as possible.
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