January 3, 2008
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Winter HIts, I Order Ladies Long Underwear and Baron Thrives in the Cold
We finally got hit by real winter weather for this area. In fact, they said that it was the coldest weather they had here in almost 40 years. We woke up to 19 degree weather with very low humidity and a chilling 20 mph wind. I forget what the wind gusts were but the wind chill factor was zero. Now THAT is cold to someone that has only VISITED cold weather areas most of her life. I left Chicago for Florida in 1966 (yes, I know that gives you an idea of how very old I really am). Except for 2.5 years when my father-in-law was ill with cancer and we moved back to Chicago (my kids loved the snow….at first), we have ONLY lived in areas where it occasionally got chilly. Most of that time was in Florida but we did have 5.5 years in San Diego thrown in there for variety.
BTW….for almost perfect weather, you can’t beat San Diego. When we lived there (in the mid-70′s until 1980), you could still purchase a home for decent money. It was cheaper than Broward County Florida (that is where Ft. Lauderdale is located) and WAAAAY cheaper than the LA area. But that has changed now so, unless you have a high paying job, its a nice place to visit now.
I ordered some ladies long underwear for myself today. I bought some for the Beast during my Xmas shopping but they didn’t have any for ladies so I was forced to find some online. They should arrive at the end of the week or on Monday. I need them because we are going to meet up with the Beast’s brother and sister-in-law at their new home in southern Illinois. It will be much colder there than our weather normally is. In fact, they expect us to be back up into the 50′s by friday. *sigh* I expect we will find ourselves with winter colds and other maladies before too long.
The most unexpected thing that has happened is that Baron seems invigorated by the cold. This is the same wimpy dog that we had to force outside to do his business when it was much less cold than it is now. But he bounded around, happy as a lark, and didn’t want to go in when the Beast was freezing his butt off.
It’s also made him more demanding about us playing with him so he’s spent some *timeout* in his kennel when he got too demanding. He also did a real no-no by chewing up a pillow (another feather pillow bites the dust). When it was discovered, he KNEW he did bad because he headed right for his kennel and laid down in it and wouldn’t look at us. I locked him in and he stayed that way for over an hour. Damn dog. He started whimpering when he felt his *punishment* should be over so I DID finally let him out. I made him sit and stay while I opened the kennel until I invited him out. He IS learning but the lessons are getting tough on ME and our THINGS. We shall see how things progress. As it is, he’s proved he can’t be allowed out of his kennel at night to roam the house. We still can’t trust him not to chew up things. When we go to the Beast’s brothers house, the kennel will be coming with us. I am so glad it folds up or we would have to take the uncomfortable and gas-guzzling truck. Plus, Baron is too darn big for sharing the front seat with us in it. I wish he had bought an extended cab one like the original truck we owned.
Well, it’s late and the temp outside is already down to 21. It will probably NOT make it to single digits by morning but it will be VERY cold. I pray we don’t have to go out for anything in the early morning. Meantime, keep warm and snuggle up. Wear your warm jammies to bed and don’t forget the down comforters if you have them. Love you all.
