Going Stir Crazy

Dear George,

Everybody in our house is losing their minds, including dogs.  We’ve been living in single-digit temperatures (or worse) since last weekend, and the local public schools and the university have been closed the entire week.  It was minus eight last night, and the forecast is for minus thirteen tonight.  Needless to say, we’re pretty cooped up. Dog walks of less than half a block, a couple of forays to the drugstore (one block away), one lunch outing at the Latin American restaurant (also one block away).  I don’t know if our cars will ever start again, and I’m hesitant to try.  The dogs don’t seem to mind being housebound.  At their advanced age, they tend to be couch potatoes anyway.  When the rest of us are upstairs, Mike has taken to standing at the bottom of the stairs barking endlessly.  When I go down to try to help him on the steps, he goes wild and pulls away.  Eventually he makes it up by himself.  Katja reads her French book and takes naps on and off.  She is worried that our furnace is broken, since the upstairs temperature never gets above 62, though I claim that it’s doing the best that it can.  When I mentioned the minus thirteen forecast this morning, Katja wondered if we should go to the shelter.  I didn’t think we should at this point.  However, if we need to in the middle of the night, I have no idea where the shelter is.  Or even if we have a shelter.  We watch a lot of TV in the evenings, but, aside from Downton Abbey and Grantchester, that gets boring and vacuous.  Because I fractured my ribs a month ago, I haven’t been to the fitness center or my line dancing class in a long time, and I worry about becoming a sedentary blob.  Due to a rippled retina, I don’t read a lot of books normally, but I’ve finished Dave Barry and David Sedaris during our cold spell.  They’ve cheered me up a bit.  I’d like to write something amusing, but I can’t find a topic.  I guess writing about going stir crazy is all I can do.  I remind myself that I grew up in the Great White North and that I’m accustomed to extreme weather conditions.  That’s true, though I haven’t been there in midwinter for a long time.  Saturday it’s supposed to go up to the thirties in Cincinnati.  I’m sure it will feel like Jamaica.

Love,

Dave   

G-mail Comments

-Gayle C-L 2-19):  David,  I totally  get it !!  I cant take this cold whether anymore either... We didn't get to -8 but we did get into the very low digits...  Its too cold and too icy!    I've been out with clients in this weather and my body gets so cold, it feels like my limbs are going to break away from my body....  I can't imagine being stuck underneath the snow... :(

Maybe you could write about what its like to go stir crazy  with the cold weather! ... :)    

So    stay warm,,, the warm weather will come !