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Coldest Night at the Yurt: Film at 11

Submitted entry: What a difference a day makes. I had an absolutely great day which I attribute almost exclusively to the fact that I didn’t have any syrup on my pancakes. After all, we very rarely let Paul have sugar - do I really think that I have different metabolism than he does? Does sugar only make children behave differently? I should think not.

It’s bitterly cold outside tonight. The coldest night we’ve ever experienced since moving to the yurt. It’s in the single digits now outside and might hit 0 degrees F by morning (don’t roll your eyes, Andrea - it’s cold to us*grin*). If that’s not enough, the wind is really howling outside which is meant to get the wind chills down to thirty below. How is the weather inside you wonder? Heck, everyone wonders I think. “Are you staying warm?” is the most asked question about yurt life we receive. Theanswer is it’s beautiful. I’ve been feeding the stove every few hours and as a result the temperature inside is about 70-75 most of the time. I’ll probably set the alarm to get me up in the night so I don’t sleep too late and have the stove go out in the night. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but waking up at 5:00 AM to a 20 degree yurt and needing to start afire from paper and kindling wouldn’t be my idea of a good night. It’s beautiful outside, though. I just went out a few minutes ago. Because of the cold the air is so clear. All the stars are out and the moon is as bright as ever. The chimney is putting out a storybook plume of smoke and the golden glow of the oil lamps makes it look as cozy inside as it really feels. (And now I hear some geese running late honking their way south. I bet they feel motivated to get moving quickly now!)

People in this area really don’t do winter well, though. This weather that will probably be par for the course when we head north next month is a shock and will probably set records. The funniest, though, was when we got a dusting of snow last week. I swear the people in Springfield drive worse when it snows. Get this. Springfield got 1 1/4 inches of snow. We turned on the radio to hear reports of two tractor trailers overturned and power lines knocked down. The traffic reporters were talking as if they were in a war zone. And the tally for accidents that day? Between 6 and 2:30, in a city of160,000 or so there were 36 accidents reported to the police. What’swrong with these people. Sage wrote a cosmic on the subject…

Tiny snowflakes are drifting down in Springfield, Missouri. If this were rain, it would be called a drizzle. The town falls apart. Six car accidents by 5:30 AM, power lines down in the streets, and Canada moves in with a brilliant coup and takes Springfield over. “We were defenseless!”screams the mayor, “It was SNOWING!”

I am back in the mode where I can’t get information in fast enough and my eyes are being the limiting factor. I have several books I want to read: The Unschooling Handbook, Real Boys - Protecting Our Sons from the Myths ofBoyhood, Unjobbing, three programming books and two or three travel books. A week ago I felt like I had nothing to read. I have to remember to write these books down and get them a few at a time instead of having a big haul from the library of books I won’t be able to read in the time allotted. That, or buy them. I think I might want Real Boys- it’s utterly fascinating. I did buy the Unschooling Handbook,Unjobbing and one of the programming books so that’s something. But the thing is I want to actually know what’s in all the books now. That never happened to me when I was working - I never had time for more than one book at a time.

Speaking of working I am going to get going soon and go to sleep - I have work to do tomorrow to wrap up one project and then I have another new, and fortunately small, project that I want to finish before the holidays.

BOOM!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.