Winter? oh geez

Not to make a big deal or anything, but the temperature in Hawkeye was 2 this morning.  That's PLUS 2, as we say here when we start competing for coldest spot.  Check me out tomorrow, when temps are supposed to be below zero.  Oh, I'm the lucky one, all right.  Someone at work talked to me about why I live 30 miles from work.  I'm not sure she got it, she misses a lot of things.  Anyway, this morning the ride to work was especially boring and endless.  Then I had to face my desk: piles of periodicals, damaged books waiting for word on their futures, books waiting to be cataloged, oh well--and a clam shell full of paper clips.  Clips on the half shell.  Brought here during Mark's and my shell-collecting days earlier this year.  It's a big 'un.

Temp in the house was 49.  Obviously I MUST do something about this.  The breaker for the heater in the back room arced earlier this year, so I don't have that heater on.  Well, duh, that makes a big difference.  Plus it just occurred to me that heat is traveling up through the hole in the kitchen ceiling.  Yes, I'm slow to pick up on these things.  I asked a contractor friend if I could still use the breaker for the back room heat, if the breaker was safe.  His advice: put in a new breaker.  OK, I think I can do that.  I've learned how to put in new light fixtures, which is ridiculously easy.  Breakers?  Same principle.  I hope.

I bought a small electric heater for the cellar (cellar is a word used loosely here) and took it down there last night.  The heater I had got its feet wet during the power outage, and although the same happened before & I still used it, I've wizened up in my old age and decided to replace it.  The heater has an auto shut-off, but the room has to be 60 degrees before it shuts off.  Lots of luck with that.  I just need to keep the temp. there above 30 or so, but I can't afford much in the way of a heater so here I am.  The good thing about having a warm cellar hole is that the bathroom warms up because the trap door for the cellar is in the bathroom.  Ahhhhh, a warm toilet seat.

I'm trying not to lose my sense of humor or my optimistic outlook during all of this, but today I'm not fighting hard.  Hence the negative attitude.  It will warm up after tonight, though, so I'll perk up.  And Tess will be able to walk on all four paws at once--when it's this cold she has to keep one foot in the air at all times, thawing the paws one at a time.  And why would a dog need to take her Nylabone outside at 2 degrees?  And drop the white bone in the white snow.  Even she has a cavalier attitude about money.  I blame myself, I never educated her about the value of money.