Blizzard

Nope, I'm not talking about Dairy Queen's yummy ice cream treats. It's much much too cold to be having one of those right now! ha!

Last night we were hit with a "blizzard". You know, really REALLY REALLY cold temperatures, high winds, and of coarse lots of snow.

15 years ago I would have been very excited to be in the midst of a blizzard because that meant that when it was over, I could go outside and play in the snow. But now, I'm not so excited. In fact, I dread it.

You see, to most people around here, winter isn't a very big deal because they have tractors and plows, 4 wheel drive, and more importantly, a well insulated home. We have... none of the above.
We live on a mountain where we are assured to get lots and lots of snow, and our driveway is north facing, and it's steep, so that means I have to constantly clear the driveway and throw sand down. By hand. I don't have a tractor or plow.

Our home is poorly insulated. Heat goes through the windows, walls, and ceiling real fast. So in order to stay warm, we have to either 1) Spend $350 a month on propane; 2) Heat the house with 15+ cords of wood (just for winter); or 3) Use the horribly expensive and useless baseboard heaters.

Seeing as how it's hard enough to make rent and pay bills, it's probably obvious that we don't pay $350 a month for propane and paying an extremely high power bill is most likely out too. So we use wood. My husband and I spend spring, summer, and fall getting firewood in and ready for winter. It's pretty tough considering that my husband is a truck driver and is only home a few days a month. So gathering wood is an ongoing process for us.

So, the house is poorly insulated, which means we constantly have a fire going in the wood stove (in both wood stoves if it's very cold, like now). But wait!! The wood stoves are ancient and rather inefficient, so it can be extra daunting to keep the house warm during extremely cold days and nights.

All this just to keep the house ( and it's not even the whole house - just the living room) barely at 60 degrees.

So you see, when it's cold, and I mean very very very cold, I dread it.

I know you're thinking, "Why don't you move? Any sane person would move." Easy answer...we can't. We can't afford to and my husband's ex has made it almost impossible just to rent the place we are in now- but that's another story.

So while everyone is dreaming of a White Christmas (or Thanksgiving), my mind is thinking of a nice warm tropical island and cabana boys bringing me drinks with those little umbrellas while I lounge away on the nice white sandy beach. I guess we can both have a "White" Christmas! LOL