Baby, It's Brutal (Cold) Outside

It seems to have snowed all night.  It seems to have gotten colder.  The wind is blowing the crisp little snow grains--ripping into any skin you have exposed.  G is cleaning snow from the daughter's driveway and then will come do ours.  We aren't going anywhere.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night---  the furnace was running through the zones almost constantly.  $$$$'s is what I was thinking.  Last bill was over $500 for 30 days.  This one?  Not worth thinking about but I did.  Almost all night.  The snow you see out there is knee high or more in the drifts.  And at the bottom, rutted solid ice.  That wreath (60 inches) hangs (with two others) in the porch arches along the length of the porch.  See the wind blowing the ribbon?

But....... not as bad as one winter we spent in our little blue ranch house in the suburbs of Chicago.  The wind chill was minus 85.  Really. I found it hard to believe until I went outside.  And the metal on the car (G took our son to a indoor soccer match) groaned and creaked.  Any exposed skin--bad!  The little furnace in that house ran, without stopping, for three days.  We were all wrapped in all the clothes and blankets we could find, and still freezing.  That was before I started buying linen sheets and down comforters which do the job of keeping us very warm no matter how cold the house is.  And I also make sure none of the water pipes are on outside walls in any future houses we buy (!!!).

I remember going out the front door of that house and to the top of the driveway to go get the morning paper.  Last thing I remember.  Slipped on ice and knocked myself OUT!  Had to roll onto the lawn and then crawl back into the house when I came to.  G was in Europe.  All I kept thinking was--I could have frozen to death out there and no one would know until my kids came home from school.  Hours and hours later.  I didn't break anything, but I was pretty sore.

We had fresh Italian sausages, potatoes fried with onion and sliced cucumbers in sour cream and dill sauce for dinner last night.  I cooked.  It's been awhile since I could say that.  The last time I made anything was the 23rd of December.  I made three batches of pierogi.  Traditional for us to eat on Christmas Eve (but we didn't--we didn't eat them until much later when G reheated them for dinner when I worked retail).  Oh, and I did make Christmas Burritos on Christmas Day. The ham I bought is still waiting to be baked and served.  Someday.

I have never selected a word for the year.  I saw this word and it seemed to speak to me.  Simplify.
I don't think I even have to say any more than that, do you?