Baby, it's cold outside

It's been hovering at about -5C today and while I love it, it does have some practical ramifications. The first is that here, like home, gets snow slightly differently from back east. The ground is rarely fully frozen so when the snow lands it usually melts and then refreezes, leaving a layer of ice under the powder. This doesn't matter too much when the temperature spikes right back up again like it often does, but when the temperature actually drops and stays dropped, the entire city gets coated in ice. So, driving is a bit treacherous, especially with all the idiots in SUV's who think 4 wheel drive makes them invincible (see previous post).

Anyway, this means that nobody is really going anywhere, and half the city has shut down. My appointment at PCC to get my travel signature so I can get back into the country was canceled because the campus is closed, and I'm starting to get a bit nervous about when I'll be able to get it. I've been emailing everyone there, so hopefully someone will figure out that they can't just forget about us.

Also, I am a brilliant person and left my cell phone at Rob's on Saturday. Normally he'd just drive it out to me, but he's stuck in town and I haven't fancied taking the bus, max, bus combo needed to get to his house and then just turn right back around and repeat.

Despite all of that though, the most pressing issue with the cold is my apartment. I'm living in an apartment that was built (cheaply) in the 70's, and it features very large single glazed windows with aluminum trim. In summer, I love them, but I was beginning to realize that I was going to end up spending the national debt in heating bills if I didn't do something about them. I walked over to Bi-mart this afternoon and picked up some plastic sheeting and sealed off all but the patio door. It's actually double glazed and I don't like the idea of sealing an exit, so I left it alone. I hadn't looked too closely at the windows since the cold snap so it was a bit of a shock when I went to put the plastic up that 3 of them were actually sealed closed with ice on the inside. Oops! No wonder it's been cold in here! Anyway, the apartment is looking a little less stylish, but hopefully it'll prevent Rob from keeling over from hypothermia when he finally does make it out here.

It's funny, this is the first time I've lived in a place where the insulation, or lack thereof, actually affected me. I have a feeling that whatever is in the walls is woefully insufficient, and my front door is a joke. Guess it's a good thing that I like the cold because to be honest, I hadn't thought the apartment all that uncomfortable, even with iced windows and the heat set at 60F (which it was definitely not achieving).

Nothing much else to report today. Being more or less housebound has meant a lot of knitting, cleaning and snuggling with cats. Minnow has a vet appointment for her rabies vaccine and to check her spine for alignment issues (being a tripod is bound to have some effect on her) so we'll get to brave the bus system tomorrow to get there. She likes traveling so I'll just wrap the carrier with towels to keep her warm and I'm sure she'll do just fine. She might bite the vet when we get there, but she'll be a total angel to every random person on the bus who wants to pet her. C'est la vie.