Living with the winds of winter
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- January 22, 2024
- 585
The last few nights and days have been rather unsettling. The winds howled
all night, making me, our house and our little dog nervous.
We keep hearing about folks without power, and at temperatures below freezing, that can be a danger to life and limb. Our present abode is all electric, so just the thought of losing connections is super scary, wondering if it's really possible to freeze solid.
When a strong wind blows against frozen tree limbs, those limbs break and can, of course, wind up falling on electrical lines, but by that time, it's too late for us. Why is it we never give a thought to installing a generator until the threat of losing power looms large?
Many years ago we lost power during a storm, and it took an afternoon and that night before it was restored. Fortunately, that house was graced with a wood-burning fireplace, so without power, we gathered around the hearth, wrapped ourselves in blankets and actually spent the night right there. Sleeping on that living room floor wasn't the most comfortable night we had ever spent, but the room stayed relatively warm. The next morning the lights lit up, our furnace roared into life and our poor house took the rest of the day to warm up.
Recently, our house had to endure a mixture of icy snow pounding on her roof and siding, even invading her porch. The sidewalks look innocent enough with a light cover of snow, but hiding under that white stuff lurked a layer of ice. Our poor little dog has had to venture into that terrible cold when nature called, but to her credit, she took care of her business in record time and was back inside in record time.
Winter is really punishing us humans, our dogs and, yes, our houses this year. The only thing we can do to defend ourselves is to try and keep everyone and everything warm.
To complain about it is to call attention to our suffering. Perhaps it will make Mother Nature feel sorry for us and she will ease the frigid air and the high winds. Just don’t count on it.