I'm failing the hermit test. This will be day four of being in the house. It's not that I don't like it, but I think I would be a much better candidate for a warmer climate hermit, at least then I could go outside and meander around the yard.
We all knew it was coming, this blast of Arctic air and snow and most people tried to prepare, as did I. I made sure that all the household chores were done, like laundry, in case we lost power. If you're going to freeze, it's always nice to do so in clean clothes.
I went to our small grocery store on Saturday to stock up on a few items, only to find out there were no eggs. Not only were there no eggs at this store, there were no eggs in the county. There are approximately 16,300 people in this county and they had cleared the isles of eggs. According to some brave souls who traveled to a neighboring town that has more than one grocery store, it was worse than Black Friday. I'm glad I stayed home, eggs or no eggs.
A Facebook buddy, who lives across the river on the wide open plain, and I had the same idea. This winter storm was a huge conspiracy between the grocery store kingpins and the big box store moguls to heighten sales after the slump from the holidays. It worked. I guess no one had any groceries before the storm.
Yesterday morning, when I arose, the temperature was -13 and the wind was blowing a gale. Those two factors made the windchill somewhere around -36. I have decided that anything under 70 degrees is cold, so it really isn't necessary to tell me the windchill temp.
As brutal as that was, I did have to make another trip to the store. I was out of cat food. I had bedded the cats down in my shop in the garage, with a small heater. Yes, I said cats. A new cat appeared about two months ago. He is a brave little critter because the Queen cat has done everything in her power to get him to leave. He has grown quite a bit from the small fur ball he started out as, so the Queen has quit knocking the snot out of him. Fur ball is my husband's terminology for the word 'cat', usually spoken with a snarky tone. She obviously made a believer out of him because all she has to do now is look his direction and he gives her a wide berth. They have been in the shop since late Saturday afternoon and haven't killed each other yet, perhaps they have been bonding.
Anyway, I go to the store for the cat food and some extra kitty litter. Whoever came up with clumping kitty litter was a genius. Now the store is not only out of eggs, they are out of meat, milk, and bread. Everyone must have been surviving on French toast. During the night, the huge freezer that houses frozen goodies like pies, TV dinners, veggies and ice cream decided to shoot craps and all that stuff had to be pitched. The shelves are eerily empty. Fun stuff, winter.
Not only was it a record setting 13 below zero, I had no internet service for over eight hours. I have come to the conclusion that the internet ranks right up there with oxygen.
No internet and no daily newspaper. The paperboy, of whom my husband speaks so eloquently, has quit. Can't say that I blame him, a bicycle with a milk crate strapped on the back doesn't fair well in this kind of weather, but it is boring with no connection to the outside world. So, no, I'm not a very good hermit.
Today the temp was only -8. What an improvement. No newspaper again today but at least the internet is up so I will have some idea of what is going on outside my four walls. It's supposed to rise into the mid 20's today and that will feel like a heat wave. I might let the cats out for a bit this afternoon, but since there is about eight inches of snow on the ground, they will not wish to stay out long. Maybe they will understand why they have been imprisoned for the last few days. I could venture out and try to build a snowman, but the temperature is to be in the 40's by the weekend and that will make for some mighty fine snow sculpting madness. Since I may be mad by that time, my sculptures should be interesting.
I guess I did accomplish one thing during this freeze-in. While I was cleaning the basement and finally putting away the Christmas decorations, I discovered a lot of empty boxes. These were boxes of purchases past. When I made the purchase the clerk said that it might be a good idea to keep the box, in case the item had to be returned and so I did. There were about fifteen boxes in all and since I've never returned an item in my life, I threw them out. It was like being cleansed, plus it cleared out a huge spot to put more stuff in.
Stay warm, be safe and if you happen to drive by, honk the horn.
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