Cold Hands, Cold Heart

So the hoped for basement suite had some serious flaws. We're about to be homeless and we're depressed.

The cold has made us unproductive... laundry hasn't been done (I'm wearing Brad's socks today because I'm out of clean ones), house cleaning is being ignored, breakfast has been skipped every day this week. If it can't be done while I'm under the warmth of a blanket it's probably not going to get done. I dread that moment where it's time to take off the pajamas and put on real clothes; it must be done as quickly as possible.

Although she's clearly in the wrong I'm sure there's going to be a fight with our landlady and I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what's going to happen to us.

It seems like this past 6 months have been nothing but a string of bad luck. Hoping for a change and happier, warmer days.
L

Walk Home with Me

My walk home from work yesterday took about double the normal time (I really will stop mentioning the toe any day now). I found that frequent stops were necessary but rather than just stop and stand I took out the camera and took a couple pictures on the way.

So take a walk with me and see what I see.

This was the first time I decided to take a rest so I looked over to my right and I loved the way the trees were all snowy with the bright buildings lights behind it. I’m sure this could have been a really great picture if I sort of knew what I was doing :)



This is one of the lamps on the Centre Street Bridge and I loved the orange glow against the darkening blue sky.



I tend to forget that after the snow has fallen this path is icy and treacherous and that I need to take the stairs. Yesterday was no exception so this section took and especially long time. The snow was all mounded up on the fence posts and I love the view of downtown.



It’s hard to see but somebody took the time to step off the path and make a snow angel, what a perfect celebration of the weather.



This is the home stretch, I’m almost there and I always think this street is so pretty. In the summer I get little cool patches of shade where the trees hang over.

There are lots of bushes like the one to the right and I think they look like they’re covered with mounds of dish soap bubles.


So there's a typical wintery walk home with me.
L

Snow, Snow Snow

As much as I hate the snow it really is pretty out right now.

I'm a lousy photographer so these pictures don't do it justice. We had this beautiful snow fall today and surprisingly there really wasn't any wind so the snow piled up on even the skinniest of branches. It also wasn't terribly cold, a perfect night for ice skating; if only there was some ice.
L

12 Degrees

Picture it... -46 degrees outside, 12 degrees inside.

The oven is on, the door wide open, a big pot of water boils on the stove. The shower is running scaldingly hot as steam pours out of the bathroom. We’re quite proud of ourselves as we watch the temperature rise from 12 to 15, all the way up to 20! Success! Comfortable heat success.

The ice on the inside of our windows starts to drip and melt and us, feeling very proud of ourselves head to our cozy bed that we’ve made with two quilts and cranked the heated mattress pad.

It took about 15 minutes to be back down to 12.
Please make the cold spell end soon. I wasn’t built for this.
L

Unprepared

I’ve lived in Southern Alberta all my life so I’m fairly used to our winters but yesterday really took me by surprise. Physically I was mostly prepared for my walk home in -25 but mentally it caught me completely off guard, I had forgotten just how cold -25 really is. Halfway home I started considering my options and realized I had none but to continue on; I couldn’t very well just stop and freeze.

It took a long hot shower, some caramel hot chocolate, a robe, a blanket and a good hour to completely warm me up.

I’m a little better prepared for my walk home today, the better scarf and long coat will be helpful.

Here’s to the first of many, many cold walks home.
L