Extra Report from the Frozen North

PHOTO NOTE: That was just one of many pile-ups around town this week. This one was near a friend's house and his church (also close by) opened up as a warming center. Not sure how many cars were involved but the church took in over 100 people between victims and emergency workers. It took hours to get medical help for those who needed it, to sort out all the vehicles and haul them away, the accident reports written, the highway opened back up and all the people picked up who’d lost their cars to take them home.

This has been a horrible week. For the first time in my memory the U.S. Mail delivery was even canceled for several days. Trash pickup too. All the schools and public buildings are closed and many/most private businesses and offices. But the scariest of all is the energy companies last night put out a state-wide urgent warning asking everyone to turn our thermostats down to 65 because of a fire at a natural gas storage place down by the state line that supplies 65% of the state's heating sources. They say if enough people don't comply we can face total gas line supply interruptions. Only people who heat with propane are exempt. It’s scary for two reasons one of which is the people who maintain the infrastructure grids like this have been trying to sound an alarm for several years about how vulnerable our grids are to terrorist attacks and yet we have a stupid president who not only jokes about how two hundred million people in this country are suffering in the polar vortex, he doesn’t listen to his own intelligence people on where our national security risks and threats are and---hint---building a wall isn't going to reduce the real risks.

On the good side, I’ve been following my township’s official message board and---knock on wood---I’m not having problems like some others. Water pipes in homes and in the street freezing and breaking, furnaces going out, furnace and dryer vents getting covered in snow which can be deadly dangerous, doors freezing shut---had that in the past; it's very scary---and people desperate to find someone to plow or snow blow their driveways. (I don’t understand people who wait until it snows to hire someone to plow but that’s another story titled, Too Cheap and Short-Sighted.) When the storm finally breaks it will be roof cave-ins to worry about with the heavy snow and ice lifting shingles up.

Also on the good side, the media has been asking people to check on the elderly and I’ve gotten my fair share of calls---both my nieces, the son-I-wish-I-had and even a blogger friend called. One of my neighbors snow blows my sidewalk along the street when he does his own and another neighbor helped me shovel a snow drift that was up against my garage door where the driveway plower can’t reach. Today should be the last day before we get a break in the cold but we’ll all still have a lot of shoveling to do because most people just shoveled enough to keep our places accessible in case of emergencies and I, for one, will have to widen out the paths to the doors and dog yard to make room to stack snow from the next big snowfall. Every day I’ve been out shoveling but I’m been following all the safe-in-the-fridge-cold rules. I shovel for fifteen minutes, then come inside for thirty before going back outside which takes all day long. I also remember to drink plenty of water and nothing with caffeine---one is good for your heart, the other is a bad combined with cold air and shoveling.

In the house I’m dressed in a fleece lined sweatsuit, fleece lined fingerless gloves with L.L. Bean hand warmers inside, a wool neck scarf, silk long underwear, heavy socks and leg warmers. To go outside I add boots, long gaiters, a hat, a scarf wrapped around my face and neck, a puffy parka and snowmobile gloves. At night I add a ‘bed buddy’ to my bed that’s been heated in the microwave to keep my feet warm.

I could keep going on but you get the idea---it’s not only cold here in the frozen north it's been a lot of work for everyone. Today's high: predicted to be three degrees. ©