Subzero

It's cold around here these past few days. It was fairly cold on Sunday, and then Sunday night the temperature got down to around zero. Yesterday I doubt the thermometer managed to creep up out of the single digits, and then last night... Well, last night I got up in the middle of the night (thankfully not my usual insomnia, overall I slept soundly last night) and I checked on the Internet, and here were some of the temperatures around here in the middle of the night:

• La Crosse, -1° F.
  
• Decorah, 1°
  
• Prairie du Chien, -6°
  
• Boscobel, -3°
  
• De Soto, -2°

De Soto is over on the Wisconsin side of the River from us, and up here on the Ridge it's reliably a few degrees colder than down in the valleys, so I think it's safe to say that it was below zero here last night. I don't have a thermometer outside— got one that I keep meaning to set up, though I never get around to it— but I don't doubt for a moment that it got below zero here.

In fact, at the moment it's four below up in La Crosse.

This is really strangely cold for this early in December. I mean, this is more like January weather. And of course the snowfalls we've been getting every few days since Thanksgiving just sit there on the ground and keep adding up, bit by bit. We haven't had a really big snowfall yet, but they do add up.

I can tell when it's going to be a cold night, because my house has dual heating, electric and oil, and when it's going to get really cold overnight, the electric coop switches my heat over to oil by remote control. Usually at the top of the hour, heading into the evening. The furnace kicks in, and for a minute or two you can smell this burnt oil odor in the house.

Fortunately I'm armed with plenty of wool blankets. On my bed I've got my trusty old Hudson Bay point blanket— heavy white wool with blue, yellow, red, and green stripes. In fact I've got that blanket on my bed year round; yes, I know it's weird, but I've always had a thing about genuine wool blankets. Heading into the winter, I've added on top of that a second heavy wool blanket, this one a big grey Army blanket, with a red stripe along top and bottom and a white cross embroidered on each stripe.

Downstairs on the wicker sofa, I've got a flimsier grey wool Army blanket. Have to look into getting a heavier wool blanket to take the place of that one. You can never have too many wool blankets. Especially in this subzero December weather.