A BOW TO WINTER

As winters go, this is a brutal one on a number of fronts right across the country, except BC I suppose.

In the Maritimes, we've seen extremes of cold on and off since the beginning of December with thousands of people without power over the Holidays because of an ice storm in the southern part of New Brunswick.  Here on the Baie des Chaleur, the season began with bitterly cold high winds before there was snow on the ground, and that made it difficult to keep warm no matter if you used wood, electric or oil for heat. It was like trauma to the buildings -- so much so fast.

Now that there is snow, three storms during the first official week of winter, we've woken up to minus 40 with the wind chill factor for the third day in a row.

All this is playing havoc with my intention to walk more, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I sure have enough on my to-do list to keep me busy. Oh! But I forgot to list I should take weekends off, lol.

Meanwhile, the cold can cause unexpected problems, such as natural gas or plumbing vents, as in my case, clogging up with ice. At least I can close the door of the downstairs' bathroom and control the methane odour! That cotton picken pipe is likely not up to code, as in too small.

Oh well, it is supposed to warm up beginning tomorrow and may even get to above zero by Monday, so hopefully the ice will melt. But there will be more very cold temperatures before spring and a possible solution might be to direct a fan heater at the problem. humm. Might be worth the purchase. Could be a long time before I can get a plumber to climb up there.

I will survive, I will survive. Remember that song?

Pat