A Cold, Cold Winter

If you’re newer to the blog, this is our first winter in a house of our own. We are learning how much colder it is here than our prior apartment a mere thirty minutes away.

For one, we get more snow. Eleven inches over a couple days. The other factor is the house itself. The windows are old, and plastic covering only helps so much. We’d love to replace the windows through the entire house, but can only afford a couple right now. And we won’t bet getting those for a couple more weeks.

We replaced the filter in the furnace, which improved efficiency, but we can’t keep it running all the time. A portable heater in the family room has done wonders, but I still have a hard time keeping my hands warm.

Last week on the first cold-cold night, most of our hot water pipes froze. Saturday, my husband ventured into the scary attic. After discarding junk such as old pants, clothing gift boxes, old metal pipes, and empty shotgun shells, he found the naked pipes and covered them with the unopened(!) bag of insulation also discovered in the attic. We found a big reason it’s so cold here: the attic insulation is three inches at its thickest. It should be at least eight! No wonder we keep getting sick.

I know the cold contributed to my dwindling numbers during NaNoWriMo last month. Once the temperature dropped considerably, my fingers got cold, wrists stiff. Hard to type! Also, it’s harder to think when my body is focused on getting warm. I was planning to finish my NaNoWriMo novel Race to 100 Deaths by the end of the year, but between the cold and the Trinity Coven chapters I promised my husband (and of course Holidays!), I see the chance of that happening to be… well, very small.

Hopefully we can get this house in warm shape soon. In the meantime, my goal is to figure out the warmest time to write. Maybe just after lunch, after the heater has been on. I’ve been writing this in spurts, so my hands aren’t out of the blanket for too long.

Chores are so neglected… as I limit my visits to the colder rest of the house. Now I must venture into the cold to change laundry loads.

Wishing you all warmer weather. Or if you already have heat, you’re welcome to some of our snow!