And it’s only a couple days before summer.

I don’t know how cold it got last night, but I had to put on 3 heavy blankets to stay warm.

There was no way I was turning on the furnace in the middle of June.

Holding back the cold.

I shrink-wrapped my front door.

Yes, you read that right.

My house is 100 years old, with front doors that are very likely 100 years old also.  Energy efficient they are not.  Single pane of glass, door frame as tight as my size 13 shoes on size 7 feet.  Yes, I’ve put weather stripping on.  Nothing seems to work.

But I don’t want to get rid of these doors, they were made back in the day when doors were ornamental, not just a pre-fab rectangle made to keep the heat in.  They’re classics.

But I’m really tired of my living room always being cold, no matter how high the heat is set.  So with the leftover piece of window plastic I used to insulate the back porch, a couple of days ago I wrapped my front door.  Tight as a drum.

Yeah, that means it is useless for the winter, but that’s ok.  I have a second front door in the spare room that I can use to get the newspaper and mail.

And now my living room stays toasty warm.

1 Dead Duck

Got up this morning and it was a little bit chilly out.

But I decided to go out and get some pictures of the Westminster construction, despite the cold, because of the new snow.

Then I went over to the park and saw the hill alive with sledders,

the birds flying,

the water flowing,

and the “High Water” sign still up, despite the level being well below normal.

I noticed the Animal Control vehicles driving around the park and finally meeting up in front of the pond.

I was hooked, curious about what was going on.  I watched as one guy grabbed a net and headed out to the center of the pond with a police officer.  The officer remained on solid ground,

while the animal control guy waded out into the muck and water, coming real close to slipping and falling a couple of times.

He reached out and scooped up a dead duck,

headed back to solid ground,

met up with the police officer,

and headed back to the vehicles.

What the deal with the dead duck was, I have no idea.  Why it took 3 Animal Control vehicles and one Police Officer, I don’t know.  I was freezing by this time, so I just headed home.

And saw this idiot driving up 1300 East on the way.

Seriously, dude.  You could have spent the extra 60 seconds and cleaned off your back window, it wouldn’t have killed you.

And I still have tomorrow off from school.  Nice day.

Summer solstice, summer sickness.

.... Started feeling it last night. Which should have, but didn't, stop me from taking a late night ride on the motorcycle.  New seat, perfect temperature outside, I couldn't resist. 

.... Summer colds suck.  I woke up this morning feeling like crap, nose all plugged up, mouth all dry.  It's past noon and I just barely got up out of bed.  I was going to work on the house today.  Put the roof back on the porch before it rains again this weekend.  But nooooooo. At least I don't have to drag my sorry butt all the way down to school to get someting together for a substitute.

.... Well, back to bed, little more rest and see if the green tea I just drank does any good.

A beautiful winter poem....

' WINTER '

by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre

Shit It's Cold
The End

Thank you Nikita

So, how's your week been?

Mine's been, uh , interesting. First of all, it's over for those of us in education in Utah. It's UEA (Utah Education Association) weekend. Oh, wait, sorry. The Legislature spent valuable time on passing a law that makes it illegal for schools to have a holiday in the name of any organization. So, now we have "fall break" instead of UEA weekend, and "Washington & Lincoln Day" instead of President's Day. Yeah, good thing they concentrate on the important things up there.

For those of you who are not in the SLC area, our high on Monday was 45, Tuesday was 54 and today is supposed to be around 66. Nice cold start to the week, a week that the boilers in our school had broken down for. Monday we had no heat in the building anywhere, except for the 2 rooms next to me that had their own heating system (they were added on sometime in the 60's) and the home ec. teacher who had her oven on full blast and open. Even with my big class of some 35 students in my room, I still had to teach with my winter jacket on. Tuesday was every bit as bad, although the heat came on sometime around noon - for some rooms - not mine. The rooms right next to me got so hot that they had to open windows to cool them off. I thought about banging a hole through the wall between my classroom and the one next door, until I realized that it used to be an outside wall, and I'd probably hurt myself trying to get through. Today started out just as bad, worse even because I was tired of freezing. I ended up spending my Tech and prep period hanging around "working on computers" for the teachers who had heat. At least it was tolerable when the students were in the room, it's amazing the amount of heat human bodies put out, and for 4th period with me and 30 students it was warm enough to take off my jacket. Yea! I'm spending this long weekend wrapped up in a blanket watching CSI Season 8 set that came in the mail today. With my heat cranked up around 80.