Is it Cold Yet?

The cold weather is back, sliding in through every crack and crevice of this old house, slipping in and seeping into my shoulder joints so that simple movements, like reaching up into the cabinets for a cereal bowl, are met with resistance.

For Willow it means be able to run and run in her pretty red fur coat. In summer we barely can walk around the block without her tongue turning blue from the heat, but today we played Frisbee so easily that she seemed to be that tireless, flexible puppy once again, ready to play all afternoon. But she chases the Frisbee with such energy that we can play only for a few minutes before we head back home, with her carrying the Frisbee the entire way.

To get ready for the Ireland trip next month, we went shopping today at an outdoor sports store, complete with its own ski slope inside and populated with frustrated Florida backpacker/explorer/skiers. Ireland is rainy all year long but is also windy and cold in March. I bought some thermal underwear, a fleece jacket and raincoat, and I may actually need them here, just to stay comfortable in this house.

I suspect that our new insulated Pella windows are doing their job to keep out the cold, but we have leaky old windows and doors throughout the house, like in the bathroom downstairs, where the curtains ruffle when the wind blows outside and where the toilet seat feels like a ring of frozen steel. At least, it feels that way to the touch--I'm not going to actually sit on it...

My dream project is to build new windows and doors for the house. No one, not even the extreme do-it-yourselfers on the web, thinks this is a good idea, especially not in hurricane-battered Florida. Which makes me want to do it even more...