Cold Snap

Last night the temperature outside dropped like a stone. From above freezing temperatures yesterday down to -18C this morning, with a wind chill of -28C. But I wouldn’t have known that the temperature had dropped if I hadn’t looked out the window at the thermometer! The thermostat is quietly and invisibly smoothing out my life, making sure that the temperature in the house remains relatively constant, and warm enough for comfort. My clothes are warm enough to don as soon as I rise from the bed. I can sit anywhere in the house and feel equally comfortable. And best of all, Attila need spend no time thinking about firewood, chopping firewood, totting firewood, or building fires. Oh the luxury!

We do think about what we would do here if the power went out for any length of time. We do not have much of a backup plan for such an eventuality, although we discuss the issue from time to time. Hopefully we have a lot of time to develop a suitable plan of action.

At night I turn the thermostat down to 17C (62.6F). In the morning I turn the thermostat up to 20.5C (68.9F). At these temperatures I am almost always comfortable, and never suffer a chill. I wear an undershirt, a shirt, a zip up sweater, and from time to time a down vest, so that the layers can be removed or added as needed. On my feet I wear cotton socks and slip resistant running shoes, which keep my feet protected from the cold floors over the unheated basement.

We talk about insulating the basement, but it is a big job, and too costly on our present budget. As it is, our heating bills are manageable. Who knows though, with electricity prices about to jump even higher, insulating the basement may become an expensive necessity. Many of the renovation improvements on our list will reduce our energy bills!

I get ahead of myself thinking about renovations though, because this month is the month in which we will feel the brunt of our reduced income, and the stretch to pay all of the holiday and moving related bills. It is the month when our property tax bill will arrive, and it is a significant bill. It is the month where Attila’s time off without pay during the holiday season will be keenly felt. It was worth it!

Come March we should be back on our feet. And we are enjoying the benefits of our expenditures, a decent internet service, a local telephone number, comfortable beds, and increased storage, precious time shared with family, to name just a few.

This morning I am back to organizing and purging. I have a few items to attend to, such as arranging a service appointment for a recall on our car, and working on an appeal to lower our taxes, as our house is assessed far above what it is actually worth, and we are paying taxes on a phantom, and false, level of investment.

I baked all last weekend so that Attila would have bread, and squares, and cookies for his lunches this week. I like to do my baking when the hydro is less than half price, which it is on the weekends.

I am thinking I should create two lists of tasks, one of tasks that require no electricity to perform, and another one of tasks that require significant electricity to perform.

Today it is so cold that I am seriously considering not going out for my walk. My arthritic knee was painful after walking when the temperature was hovering around freezing. I dread to think how it would feel if I attempted to walk on a windy day with a -25C wind chill factor. So, to compensate for not getting out for my walk, I am cleaning the house, washing the floors with a cloth always works up a sweat.

My pile of items to donate is beginning to get large again. I will soon be tackling the basement, which is chock full of boxes! I know there are two huge totes full of text books, and three large filing cabinets full of teaching materials, and PhD research materials, all destined for the bonfire. It is a wonder to me that I spent so much of my life focused on these things! I would think of it as a waste of time, but for my enjoyment of learning and developing highly disciplined and analytical thinking skills. I think the thing that gave me the most pleasure as my skills increased, was to realize that my intuition has always been accurate. The more I learned, the more I trusted that my own feelings and thoughts have always been based on keen observation and relatively unbiased analysis. I also learned, as I suspected, that no one and nothing is completely unbiased in this world, including science, including me.

I will close with a short report on the Big Berkey. We continue to use it for all of our drinking water, and I love it. In our small kitchen it has a place of honour, where it is used off and on all day long. It is worth every penny, and then some. We use tap water for drinking, and the Berkey removes all traces of chlorine, and all kinds of things I can’t taste or smell. Other side-benefits are that we are not drinking water stored in plastic, and we are not generating piles of empty water bottles to be recycled.

The Big Berkey in our kitchen, clean fresh water on tap. Beside the stainless steel Big Berkey sits the Cuisinart, purchased when Luna was a tiny tot. The bowl has been replaced once, and the machine is still going strong after close to forty years of continued use. The Cuisinart has paid for itself many times over, and I expect the Big Berkey will do the same.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

-18°C
Date: 7:00 AM EST Monday 4 January 2016
Condition: Mainly Clear
Pressure: 102.5 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: -17.9°C
Dewpoint: -23.2°C
Humidity: 64%
Wind: N 19 km/h
Wind Chill: -28

Quote

“Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge’s chamber believes in an unprejudiced point of view.”
Lillian Hellman
1905 – 1984