Wintry Woes

Schools are closed. Government offices are closed. Freezing rain is falling. My toes are froze, and my nose is froze, and we won't see the sun until the weekend.

Got two more kittens their rabies shots, so they can go to adoption day this weekend. The weather being so cold may put a damper on adoptions, but since it is supposed to be sunny by then, maybe some people will come out and adopt a nice, warm, fuzzy friend.

Because we expected the kids' school to be closed on Friday, we went ahead and cleaned the church Thursday. Talk about dust! Refinishing the wooden floors and the dust was thick, especially right there in the kitchen entry. We used almost every one of our washable cleaning cloths, i grabbed a fresh one every other minute it seemed.

This was a good thing, in that we don't have to go get out on the roads today. Sweetie, though, may not be so lucky. His boss has put them on standby. He will call if they have to come in. Why they would need to be there, when the university is closed, i don't get, but somehow the man seems to feel guilty about not having people on the work site when scheduled.

This weather gives me a new appreciation (as if i needed one!) for those who live where the two seasons are winter and road repair. Do your feet ever get warm? Are you ever able to kiss your SO without him/her yelping that your nose is cold? Really, if i were a dog, i'd be so healthy it would be ludicrous.

It is impossible to go outside without preparing for what feels to us like Arctic cold. Yes, it is above zero, but for us it is more than enough cold to present a challenge. There aren't enough clothes to keep you from feeling frozen through and through by the time you get to the car. You have to be prepared to scrape ice from the car windows, and you know wherever you are going, it may be closed when you get there because they couldn't come in because of the weather, either.

Of course, we are never really ready for this sort of thing. Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, had his heater go out. He took our space heater that Sweetie uses for his music room. There isn't one to be bought in stores for love or money.

This is one year where i hope that Punxsutawney Phil is right. We could all use an early spring.


Today is:

Biezputras Diena (Porrige Day) -- Ancient Latvian Calendar

Create-A-Vacuum Day

Give Kids A Smile Day -- for Dental health!

General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Day -- Poland

Halfway Point of Winter

Homemade Soup Day

Independence Day -- Sri Lanka

King Frost Day -- London (Celebrated yearly until WWI, in remembrance of the frozen River Thames in 1814.)

Liberace Day

National Stuffed Mushroom Day

Quacker Day

St. Andrew Corsini's Day (patron against quarrels, sudden death)

St. John de Brito's Day (patron of Portugal)

Tapati Festival -- Rapa Nui (Easter Island) through the 12th

Thank A Mailman Day

USO Day -- US

World Cancer Day -- International


Anniversaries Today:

The University of Wisconsin is established, with one classroom and 20 students, 1849


Birthdays Today:

Natalie Imbruglia, 1975
Oscar De La Hoya, 1973
Lawrence Taylor, 1959
Alice Cooper, 1948
Dan Quayle, 1947
George A. Romero, 1940
David Brenner, 1936
Betty Friedan, 1921
Ida Lupino, 1918
Rosa Parks, 1913
Clyde W. Tombaugh, 1906
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906
Charles Lindbergh, 1902


Today in History:

The Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta, 211
The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries, 960
Maximilian I assumes the title Holy Roman Emperor without being crowned, 1508
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler meet for the first time near Prague 1600
In Edo (now Tokyo), The 47 Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) after avenging the death of their master, 1703
The worst earthquake in 8 years in Calabria, Italy, leaves 50,000 dead, 1783
The first Anglican bishops of New York and Pennsylvania are consecrated in London, 1787
George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College, 1789
The French National Convention proclaims the abolishment of slavery, 1794
An earthquake in Quito, Ecuador, kills 41,000, 1797
J.W. Goodrich introduces his rubber galoshes to the public, 1824
The Mormons of Nauvoo, Missouri, leave to go west, eventually settling in Utah, 1846
The Codex Sinaiticus is found at the Greek Monastery of Mount Sinai, 1859
The first rolling lift bridge opens, in Chicago, 1895
The first Winter Olympics games close at Chamonix, France, 1924
The first tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks open, in New Orleans, 1930
Radium E is the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically, 1936
The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops, 1941
Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft, 1967
After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections, 1997
Facebook, a mainstream online social network, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg, 2004