Brrrreezy Columbus!

So in case you have been living in a hole in the ground the past month (perhaps useful, to avoid the chill) you've heard about the Arctic chill that has been making its presence known across the Midwest and East Coast.

---Actually, can I pause for a moment and just point out that I am currently listening to EFY music from the late 80's?  Yeah.  Who does that?  I apparently do.  I was playing some of these old songs on the piano tonight and got a major craving to listen to this old CD that I somehow own.  (I was not at EFY at this time, obviously--I was 6.) Anyways. It's really not all that weird, as it has songs that remind me of songs we'd end up singing as the music died down around the campfire at Whiskeytown. Maybe I just am missing that campfire right now... because IT'S COLD! (A perfect "back" into the topic at hand, thank you very much.)

Yeah, so it's been pretty cold.  The day I got back to Columbus from home was -9 degrees, with a windchill "real feel" temperature of -37 degrees.  Yeah.  That's like 50 degrees below what it was in Utah.  (I hate wind, p.s.) But what I know you are all really interested in knowing is how I honored such weather through the decorations I put up in my apartment at such a time, right?  Well, let me tell you.

First, I started with closing all the blinds and blocking out the sunlight.  (Mood-lighting, you know?) Nice. I was going for my opposite self, because usually I'm all for as much sunlight as I can get. Then I proceeded to do classy things, like taping up towels in front of my bedroom window and piling them down around the bottom.

Classy.

Hmmm...what next?  Well I figured it was high time I properly display the honorary Red Cross blanket I was given for all my work there as a volunteer.  But the problem was where to put it?  Finally, I decided on the best place---hanging from the curtain rod over the front-room window!!  Perfect.  A stunning win in interior decorating just happened.

Not to be outdone, my car wanted in a little on the action, so I decided to put some old wool socks over the windshield wipers to keep them protected from the ice, but mostly to look cool.  Actually, I had been doing a lot of spring cleaning--in winter, mind you--that's the crux of this post--winter--and I came across some great old socks without their partners that it was finally time to part with.  But, I wanted them to be put to good use!  Who wouldn't?!  I owed it to them.  I found an article online that talked about things you could do with old socks, and this was one of them, meant to keep your wipers from freezing to the window and having to deal with ice.  What those dear authors of said article forgot to mention was: if it snows, melts a little, and then re-freezes, your socks become solid blocks of ice. Every fiber of those darling little things--ICE. Like an ice coffin for windshield wipers. I had forgotten about them, not having driven my car in a week or so (too busy decorating), and so when I came out to clean the accumulated snow off my car before running errands with my roommate, I was at first pleasantly surprised to discover them buried beneath the snow--like an archeologist digging up a find, I was.  That was until I realized I'd discovered petrified ice socks.  Freezing hands, a lot of pulling, tugging, squishing, hacking at with an ice scraper, and finally an extension cord and blow-dryer later, the socks came off.  It only took us 30 minutes.  Seriously.  I want to say never do this to your car, and yet even as I try to type it I am trying to think of ways to make it work. Sigh. Some socks are just worth it.

Dat's right--that's a blowdryer attacking a petrified ice sock.  It was like solid stone.

Even after we got them to slide off, they were still so stiff they could be used as swords--ice sock swords.   (That's pretty original, so go ahead and think it's cool.)

Sock swords.

Other than that, life has been going on as usual.  Except that it hasn't because the weather has been trying to dictate all we do.  Going out tracting with the missionaries in -10 windchill is hardcore dedication (more about working with them, later), so we did it.  Having church cancelled today because of the snow and bad roads was also a new experience.  A sad one, to say the least, but we made the most of it by watching the Joseph Smith movie online, and visiting with friends who could get here without much driving.  One day we actually had normal winter weather and perfect packing snow, so it was a perfect night for snowball throwing and walks and sliding down the middle of the street.  

Left this message on a friend's door. 

I'd like to say we are out of such freezing cold weather, but looks like Tuesday is a high of zero, with crazy cold wind warnings again.  Perhaps they'll again cancel school for fear of frostbite and hypothermia (as they did my first two days back), but we're not counting on it.  At the end of the day, what really matters is, who wants to wait at the bus stop with me?  

Actually, it should be: what more can I do to decorate?  (Did I mention my roommate stuffed toilet paper into the cracks in our doors to help block the drafts?)

Here's to the cold, my friends.  Stay warm!