Cold Snap

We all knew it was coming...our unseasonably warm temperatures of the past months now seem like a distant memory. It is currently -28 degrees Celsius but it feels like -39 with wind chill. Alvin has stepped out to work in this madness for a couple of hours. I could think of nothing worse.

We've only had a couple of days of this but I've had the furnace blowing full blast & it seems that I constantly have a pot of tea on the go. I feel like I have a mild headache- on the verge of becoming full fledged due to all the white noise. Inevitably it made me think of power cuts in Lusaka. All the humming from refrigerators, TVs, radios- shutdown; I remember smiling in the dark of my former apartment. Hearing the neighbours conversations loud & clear from behind the wall- no interference from any electrical hums or buzzes. How easy it is to think the grass is greener. And I have forced myself to remember (when praying that my '98 Rav4 will start in the morning, when I can't breathe from the shock of the cold, when I want the furnace sounds to kick off) the mad scurrying of the cockroaches when the power went out. Aiming the flashlight in the kitchen was like a scene from a horror film with the monster roaches running for the dark corners. I am not saying that I prefer this cold...but I'm reminding myself that the joys of shorts & t-shirt weather everyday, anytime of day or night, come with tropical insects...Here's to staying optimistic in 2012!

I had to include this photo of Tom- I don't envy his job as mailman these days*grin*

(Hope ya don't mind Tommy- such an amazing photo).