OF.L

Can you say cold?

At around 8:15 Wednesday night the phone rang. It was the neighbor ... the one that lives five miles down the road. Caroline picked it up and I heard her say, "Math Team practice?" Garrick then piped in, "Oh, yeah we have Math Team practice in the morning." Colby, whose mother was smart enough not to want to get up at 5:45 am to drive to Greenville, needed a ride. Math Team practice starts at 7:15 so that means we have to be out of the house by 6:15 to get the snowmobile going ... now using the pull start as the aluminum shaft on the electric start busted last week, not because of my fabulous jump but because someone continued to turn the key after the machine was already started, and the only way to get it fixed is to ride it the 20 miles to Greenville on the ITS trail or borrow a trailer, from the mechanic in Greenville, and buy a new ball for our hitch as our current one is 1 7/8" and the mechanic's trailer goes on a 2" ball, so we have resorted to using the pull start for now ... ride out to the truck and get that going for ten minutes to warm it up and then drive the almost 20 miles south to school, with a slight detour to The Wilson's Camps where Colby, aged 12, was having his morning coffee while waiting for his ride. The temperature when we left the house was -17.3 F, before windchill. Most places across the country were cancelling school ... we were still having Math Team practice at 7:15 am!

That afternoon, we had yet another opportunity to venture out as Thursday is Open Gym day in Rockwood. By 2:30, the temperature had risen to a balmy -3.8 F. As we hopped off the snowmobile and into the truck, Caroline remarked, "Wow, it feels really warm now, almost like it's 20!" Guess it is all relative.

When we climbed into bed last night, the temperature was already lower than it had been that morning ... -17.8F. When I crawled out of bed at 3 am to feed the fire and glanced at the thermometer it read ... OF.L! Now I don't know how exactly you'd pronounce that but I think it would come pretty close to AWFUL!!! Apparently, digital thermometers cut out at around 20 below. When I crawled out of bed at 6:15 to start the day, the thermometer still read OW.L. Unfortunately, I was again not awoken by the phone ringing with the recorded message from my computer friend Mrs. Brown announcing that school was closed ... or at least delayed. So Garrick and I got ready. Fortunately, the snowmobile started up and when I turned the truck on to get it warmed up out at the bus stop, it did start ... although it really didn't want to. George and Millie showed up just before the bus arrived. (I think they must have some sort of arrangement with the bus driver as they always seem to get to the bus stop 'just in time'.) When I asked George how cold it was he said that his thermometer read -35 F!!! When I mentioned that my thermometer had shut down, he said, "Oh, so you must have a digital thermometer." Guess I'm not in the know! He also mentioned that the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales converge again at -40 so for those of you across the ocean who don't use that crazy Fahrenheit scale, you can still appreciate exactly how cold it is.

Well we're off to Boston for the weekend to meet Paul (and warm up ... I'm even thinking of throwing in a pair of shorts). The thermometer has finally recovered ... it now reads -18 F!

Hope you're spending your weekend somewhere warm too -

Karyn