Still Here, Still Cold.....

Only a moment to post this morning, and that because my car wouldn't start, so Scott's gotta warm up his truck to take me in to work. Anyway. It's still REALLY FREAKING COLD! I mean, it's not abnormally cold for our area, but it IS cold nonetheless. (Don't get me wrong, I'm no saint. I'm sitting here thinking Hawaii sounds really freaking good right about now.)

Anyway, it really hasn't warmed up much at all. I think we had about -35 the other day, but pretty much it's stayed at about -45 and colder. We had -50 here yesterday. At least one NP-er has reported -59 at their place. The closer you live to any of the rivers or sloughs, lakes or ponds, the colder it gets. I imagine the inlaws, living between a flight-pond/gravel-pit and a slough are sitting about -55 or so right now. Sucky. Of course, one of the other Dad's from Tay's team (and a guy that Scott has worked with at a former place of employment) was complaining yesterday that his place got down to -30. The coldest he's ever seen it at his place. I kinda snarked "let me cry you a river, it was -50 at my place this morning!!!" I know, it's "all relative", and there are places that this past week got down into the -70's, but, dude..... In the fairbanks area, when the rest of us are sitting in the cold bowl of the river-valley, don't whine at me when your place gets down to -30!

(Those of you in Minnesota or Maine that get down to -30 can whine to me, those of you in Alaska, suck it up! *wink* Those of you in anyplace south of the Mason Dixon, if it gets colder than -30 at your place, then we can probably safely assume that I'm esconced in a cube of ice this far north and whining to me about your cold temps will do NEITHER of us any good as hell will have officially frozen over. *wry smile*)

Anyway, doing our best to stay warm, and drive safe. I think that honestly, the driving is probably the worst thing about the temps dropping this cold. The ice fog is miserable to drive in, and not only does it make the driving dangerous, but it's that much worse if you DO have a breakdown or an accident, because then just being in a cold, un-heated vehical can kill ya.

Ok. Other than that, New Years didn't go QUITE as well as Christmas. The older nephew wound up at the ER because he stepped on a toothpick, driving it into his foot by 1/2 inch. His mom took him to the ER to have it removed and cleaned out, and it didn't even phase him after that. (She would have taken him to a regular ped. but this was after hours on New Years Eve, the ER was the only option open.) Anyway, that put her in a foul mood. MIL was in a foul mood as well. (MIL had "control" of the younger nephew and had brought the niece and SIL's boyfriend over to the inlaw's house for supper. But when they got there, they found that the diaper bag had been left at SIL's place, so MIL and the younger nephew went back for it. She really didn't have any excuse for being in a foul mood, she just was.) Anyway, Dan (the boyfriend) helped FIL make the crab, and everything was going well till SIL and MIL came back from their respective excursions. Then they sat at the table stuffing their faces and yelling at everybody and everything.

Tay got reamed because she DARED get a little peevish when she asked for the scissors for a fifth time before being listened to. MIL started yelling at Tay for DARING to get snarky, when Tay'd just asked NICELY 4 times while the MIL completely ignored her. SIL got pissy with those of us who dared to chastise her children for rolling their toy motorcycles over the table (where we were trying to eat) and the walls of the house, not 5 minutes after she'd yelled at them for the same thing. Then SIL sat there and was pissy with her older son all evening because of the toothpick, treating him as though he'd purposefully driven it into his foot just to inconvenience her, and lavishing affection on the baby and the younger nephew.

Mind you, both boys can be pills, but honestly the older of the two is less so at this point. And you could see the hurt on his face a couple of times when he was yelled at for something (asking if he could have more crab) while his younger brother was being praised for the same, or griped at for that un-planned trip to the ER. (Is a trip to the ER EVER planned???) I gave the kiddo a couple of extra hugs just because I could. And besides, I honestly like him better than his little brother at this point.

Anyway, so I could have done without all that on New Years. Well, then we left the inlaws early because FIL had to work the next morning. Scott and I came back here and sat watching hockey games all evening till the last 3 minutes of the New York Square countdown. Stayed up till 2, watching more TV before heading to bed. Tay spent till 1 am over at her best friend's house, shooting off fireworks. We all slept in the next day, but Scott did have to go in for almost a whole day of work. It just started later than normal, and ended later than normal.

Other than that, the weekend has been pretty much normal. Cold weather, a lost hockey game, a friend sleeping over last night, some cabin-fever-ish dogs, lots of hockey watching on TV, a decent movie or two......

Ok. Gotta go get dressed for work.

Have a Blessed Day!