New Decade

As I am writing this, the weatherbug on my computer says it is 8 degrees outside. Now the windchill is probably minus 10 - yippee, winter in the Poconos! We are getting used to this - we may not like it, but this is not an unexpected event. This weather is why they sell insulated underwear and warm sweaters and coats. The usual - dress in layers, warm the car, stay out of the direct wind - oh, and the wind is whipping out there at a constant 20 MPH, with gusts up to 50 MPH. Good thing we used bungee cords and wire ties on the Christmas decorations! And we gave up on the inflatable balloon things - seen too many of them laying deflated on the ground because to inflate them is to invite them to travel - maybe to the next county!

It is nights like these that shows how little insulation is in the walls of this house built circa 1930. Back then they probably heated with coal, which was cheap , and an air-tight house was not necessary. I feel the breeze coming in in places that I thought we had covered already.

This week we are going to be visited by the county home energy program for three days to winterize our house. They are supposed to blow in insulation, wrap windows, replace some storms doors, and give us a new refrigerator (the one that came with this house is an energy beast - I wish they gave new ranges too.)

Being under-employed can work out sometimes, as we meet the income guidelines for this free service. Yay/Boo. Still, I am so looking forward to this and I wish we could have had this done before the cold hit. We had to wait for PA to pass their budget, then we had to wait for the materials to be ordered. Still, I am not complaining - really. We wanted to do this on our own, but if someone offers their expertise, who are we to say no?

This cold makes me very happy that we cleared a spot in our garage for one of the cars. Not real warm in there, but out of the wind. Of course it is my car, not my husband's - my car is more finicky about the cold, being a Toyota. Wish we could put both cars in our 'supposed' two car garage, but the one bay is really too narrow. Never noticed the difference until we fixed the doors. Guess we need an even smaller car? We could pull the car in, just cannot open the doors (oh, shucks). We needed workspace anyway; to stand out in the cold, but out of the wind.