02:04 - 28.11.06
Freezer Burn
Oops. The one thing I missed in my preparations yesterday for this morning's commute was resetting my alarm clock for my schedule. As you may have guessed, I did not wake up in time. In fact, I woke at the same time I am normally boarding the feeder bus from my community to the train station. Bother. In between pulling on various and sundry layers of clothes - after a very quick shower - I was speed dialling two of the cab companies I usually use. Both lines were busy. I learned later that there was a minimum two hour wait, so just as well.
I caught the bus in my community 45 minutes after my regular leaving time and so went the morning. I did see a lot of people I usually travel with when I work downtown, but with the frigid temperatures no one was feeling particularly social. That included me. The wind was very brisk. Risking freezing my lungs because of flapping my gums was just not appealing. When the train arrived downtown, I hustled over to the connector stop hoping one of the express buses that are my alternate routes would be there. No deal, but the one bus I used to take regularly was just pulling up. The express busses stop running once their peak travel time is up, so I decided on taking the sure thing as opposed to gambling that the others might show up within a reasonable time. The train had briefly frozen to the tracks on the bridge over the Bow River and then the connector bus got stuck in an icy rut along it's route. That extended the journey somewhat. The upside was that my feet, which had started to chill dangerously even with all the extra layers, had time to warm up fo the walk to my son's home. As I walked into his house I heard the tv weatherperson state "and with the windchill the temperature is now feeling like -40 C". Ow.
My grand-daughter was happy to see her grandma and didn't want to sleep at her regular nap time. I had missed her too, so we just played until she was ready to rest. Her teething has eased off and her diaper rash was almost completely cleared up too. Much happier girl altogether. Once she was settled in her crib, I grabbed my coat from the cupboard and curled up to sleep too. You see, I was still quite chilled from my commute. I didn't really start to feel warm until the early afternoon. Normally frigid weather makes most people want to eat more to compensate for the rapid loss of body heat, but I couldn't be bothered. Cooking and eating demanded way too much energy. In the afternoon we watched Cinderella as she played.
Both my daughter-in-law and my son stayed late at work, so it was after 7 before supper was done. I still wasn't hungry, but enjoyed a light meal anyway. My son had been quite calm about my late - by 45 minutes - arrival in the morning. The traffic was so backed up because of the icy roads that leaving at his regular time would have meant sitting in gridlock anyway. Ditto for the drive home. At these temperatures, the heat from the wheels of the vehicles melts the snow for the time it takes to pass over, then it freezes immediately making sheer patches of ice the norm on the roads. Only the major routes are consistently sanded because there just aren't enough sanding vehicles to cover the thousands of miles of roadways in our city. The drive home was a bit tense, but fortunately, only people who actually had to be out driving were, so the roads were very empty.
Once I had napped yet again upon arriving home, my youngest made another light supper for me. Common sense dictates that one eat for the weather conditions, but I'm still too tired to bother on my own. He had had the day off and had been fussing with his electronic toys, so his energy level was much higher. A reverse of yesterday really. My oldest wandered in about an hour ago while I was still trying to locate an owner's manual on-line for my stove. I really wanted to get the oven working but still had not located the fuses. The manufacturer seemed to make it as difficult as possible for a non-mechanical person to access their information. Having dealt with this brand before I had seen the fuses placed in four different locations, but that was still not the answer for this model. One had to have the model number first. Apparently that is located on the back of the stove, in the corner, in the dark. Yes well. I must admit that since I've been looking after my grand-daughter I have gained some very nice muscle definition to my triceps and enhanced the biceps as well. However, it still isn't enough so that I have the strength to wrestle a heavy appliance out of a very tight fit in my little pullman kitchen. Installed with a shoehorn, don't you know. If the manufacturer really wanted to allow their clients access to information, they would put things like model numbers on the front of the appliance in an easy to locate - and read - place. Anyway, my oldest opened up one other panel that hadn't been tried and, voila, there were the fuses. I had found the correct new fuses yesterday when I had been treasure hunting, so it took no time at all to replace the one that had burnt out. That means tomorrow we can have comfort food - roast or lasagna or something similar - after another day of arctic weather. Maybe this weekend I can even get some baking done. Sugarplums dancing in our tummies instead of our heads. Good night dear diary.
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