winter

Casualties of the Cold Snap

Amanda

I’m sure you’ve seen in the news that we’re all under some kind of historically awful cold snap, and I’m sure you’ve seen your friends posting about 10F, GASP. Maybe even single digits?!

Yeah, fuck you all.

I say that as lovingly as possible, but God damn I would probably sell my soul to the devil to be complaining about 10 degrees above zero.

It is so fucking cold.

Of course, my car was in the shop last week and the assholes at the rental company dragged their feet on telling me there were no cars available, so I have been walking to work, about 1.5 miles. A perfectly fine and lovely walk above zero. A miserable, dangerous slog below zero.

Arya would like you to know it will probably never be warm again and also it is hard to pee when your feet hurt just from standing in the snow.

 

Tristan is warm and fat and happy, even if he does have permanent whisker icicles. He is wearing two blankets with a total of 440g of fill, and I dropped off brownies and hot chocolate for the barn staff and I hope to do the same again today, because, fuck. Please refer to the forecast above and look more closely at this coming Saturday, if you have not already.

My bank account is not. Please note, these are two separate thermostats. So add them together to get the true number of hours we’ve had to heat the house. Please also note that we keep the house around 60 degrees when we home and awake, and closer to 55 when we are away or asleep. Yeah.

So, an official list of casualties so far, noting that we are not nearly out of the woods:

  1. Two blanket straps. Brand new blanket straps. When metal gets cold, it just shatters, so all Tris had to do was bump against his stall wall. Maybe more to come.
  2. My eating plan. ALL THE CARBS, RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
  3. My bank account. We got an oil delivery last week. Our propane tank lid was fucking frozen solid to the top of the tank and I had to go out and (CAREFULLY) chip away at the 2″ of ice on it to check and see that yes, we need another propane delivery.
  4. My sanity. My last ride was on Christmas day. Enough said.
  5. My peace and quiet. We had people visiting through New Year’s to ski. It is too cold to ski. So I’ve gone into hosting overdrive.

Please make this stop, universe.

9 thoughts on “Casualties of the Cold Snap”

  1. I hear you! Our Canaan Valley temperatures aren’t much different from yours and motherfucker is it COLD. I haven’t even alpine skied because I don’t want to sit on that godforsaken lift! I love the cold because I know it’s prolonged status is good for killing pesky bugs, but sweet baby Jesus, I’m ready for it to END. I haven’t ridden since… I don’t know? I don’t even care. It’s too cold and I refuse to make the horses do anything other than eat and hopefully keep their weight in a somewhere reasonable range. Stan’s been nude this whole time because some blanket monster attacked him in the night and he managed to get out of his blanket without breaking any straps, leaving the leg straps totally connected but shredding the batting out of the blanket…uh? Fortunately we’ve got a break to more seasonable temperatures coming next week! Hope that’s coming for y’all, as well.

    Hang in there and be grateful winter is only temporary?

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    1. My husband skied at Stowe on New Year’s Day. -22F actual, -50F wind chills. Luckily, Stowe has a gondola, so they did not have to brave the lift.

      Tristan is warm and happy but he is also clearly feeling the weather. He’s VERY alert in his stall when I check on him. He’s going to be a big ball of fun to sit on. Whenever I can sit on him again.

      I keep telling myself all the ticks are dying. That helps a very little bit.

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  3. Periodically, Johnny and I will discuss moving to the northeast because we like to fantasize about living somewhere less red and less religious. Then we think about how miserable we’ve been for the last week when the wind chill has been below zero, and decide we should just move to Austin instead.

    You have my admiration and respect for living with such dreadful weather!

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  4. Ugggg I feel your pain here in Maine. We are right around -26 with a high of 2-5 most days. It is awful! Today is a bit warmer at 23 and it is seriously like summer LOL! Just in the first three days of the new year, we had to pay to repair our furnace (of course a stupid little ceramic piece broke off and our house is only two years old), another oil delivery at almost $300 (last delivery just three weeks ago), and a wheel bearing on the truck. Yeah fun times! LOL! Never mind the normal farm chores that are 1000 times harder in this weather. I try hard not to complain about it, but it is killing me!!

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