Apparently I Am a Slow Learner

Hey, Friends.

You know how you are supposed to learn from your mistakes?  Or the ever popular saying, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."?  It's a very good point and a good lesson. Screw up really badly once, and you probably won't do it again.  Look at how horrible some things in our collective human history have been and make sure that you do your part to keep it from happening again.

Apparently I am a very slow learner when it comes to one thing, because I keep making the same mistake over and over again.  I'm not talking about something hugely important in the grand scheme of things -- more like a highly annoying lapse in common sense.

I'm talking about the weather, Friends. I seem to have a blind spot when it comes to taking the weather into account beyond a brief passing thought.

Call it a flaw, or a habit....maybe a personality quirk would be the nicest way of phrasing it.  I get it in my head that I want to do something, and then I just do it.  I don't stop to put a lot of planning into it. I like to consider it being impulsive, determined, or goal-oriented.  Stubborn or stupid could also be applicable, depending on the circumstances.

Let me give you a recent example that demonstrates what I mean.

Always check the weather, kids. This was a bad choice to wear on a hike when it's 90. #summer #poorplanning pic.twitter.com/caWtKNghlk

— Tammy Myers (@tammyshampoo) September 7, 2015

Yeah.  Going on a hike when it's humid as hell and 90 degrees outside isn't the brightest move in the first place.  Deciding to wear black?  That was just incredibly stupid on my part.  My great decision making process: looking out the window of my house, deciding it was too nice to stay indoors, and heading out.  I didn't bother to check the weather or the temperature before I left.  The window says it looks lovely.

I was so dehydrated after that, folks.  I swore to myself that I was never going to be that dumb again. It takes all of about 30 seconds to check the weather forecast. From now on I was going to slow my roll long enough to take that into account.

And it worked, for a little while.

Then there was the time I had the day off and decided to go hike over in Minneswaska.  The park was beautiful, as always.  And I only got rained on a little bit.  Yeah.  I knew the skies were overcast here when I was leaving, but I went anyway without checking the weather.  Why?  Because I wanted to and it probably wouldn't rain....at least not too hard.  (In my own defense, the sun did come out for a little while.  And I was not the only person silly enough to be out hiking at that time.)

Which brings us to today, Friends.  Third time in less than 6 months I did the same. damn. thing.

When I say I am a slow learner at this particular lesson, Friends, I mean I am sloooooooooow.  This was yesterday.  Yesterday!

Going for walk seems like a great idea until you are out there for a bit & realize how cold 32 starts to feel.

— Tammy Myers (@tammyshampoo) January 17, 2016

What the hell is wrong with me that I could not get it in my head to check the weather before going outside again today?

I have the day off.  I looked out the window, decided it looked nice and sunny, and thought it would be a good day to go and wander around a bit, take some pictures.  I vaguely remembered that it felt colder than anticipated yesterday, so I made sure to bring some gloves this time.  It is winter, after all. Did I stop to check the temperature before I left?  Of course not!

Friends, I would not blame you in the slightest for thinking that I am a complete moron at this point, or a gigantic airhead.  I would agree with you at the moment.  I'm beginning to think I have some sort of serious mental block when it comes to checking the weather.

I got to my destination and realized it was a bit chillier than I had assumed.  Then came the wind. Holy shit!  This was going to be the briefest of excursions because I had not realized how windy it was outside.

Do you know what the temperature was, Friends?  Of course you don't. -- and why would you.  I do now, because I finally decided to check the weather app on my phone when I was done and got back in the car:  26 degrees, "feels like" 11.  Eleven fucking degrees, and I'm out frolicking about, taking pictures and thinking that I really should have dressed warmer.

I'm hoping maybe the lesson has been learned and has sunk in this time.  I'm going to share the pictures I took today so that my little bout of insanity feels like it had a point.  You can look at them while I sit here drinking coffee and attempting to thaw myself out.  Or not.  It's a free world -- you can do as you like.

Either way, have a nice day folks.  And remember to check the weather before you go outside. Maybe at least one of us will learn a lesson from all of this.

Morgan Lake is starting to get icy.

Geese, who apparently think nothing of hanging out in frigid water.  Maybe they are doing their own Goose Polar Bear Plunge.

Not you too, swan!  You all need to head to warmer climes.  You're making me worry that you will freeze to death!

For real, guys.  The ice is starting to encircle you.  That can't be a good thing.

This Might Be a Problem...

Well, there isn't really a might be -- it most definitely is a problem.

It's been a cold winter.  It's very cold now.  Just looking at my phone makes me want a cup of hot cocoa.

Feels like -20!  And to rub it in, an igloo picture.  Nice.

I've noticed that it feels cooler in my kitchen than the rest of the house.  I haven't really paid much attention to it.  I have an older home, and I don't think there are as many heat vents in that part of the house.  I figured it was one of the quirks of an older home.

Tonight, for whatever reason, I forgot to turn off the light on the back porch. Nothing major, but it led to a rather interesting discovery.

 I had been in the kitchen getting a drink.  I turned the kitchen light off on the way out of the room, and that was when I realized the porch light was on.  I started to cross the room to turn off the porch light, and I noticed that the back door looked a little odd.

I couldn't figure out exactly what it was a first, and then I realized that I was seeing light through cracks in the wood of the door.  Well, shit.  That can't be good.

To be fair, I think the door has always had these cracks since I bought the place, but they had been sealed.  I'm pretty sure the door is original to the house since all of the woodwork matches, so circa 1935.  I have never seen light shine through the door before.  I forget to turn the porch light off all of the time, so I would have noticed.  

I tried to get a picture of it, but it didn't turn out well enough to show the light in the cracks.  This is what the door looks like though:

See the cracks in the left panel?

So, I'm thinking that the now-open cracks are why it feels so much colder in the kitchen.  I'm guessing that the prolonged, very cold weather has made the wood contract and the cracks have widened. 

Now I'm going to be paranoid all night that the door is going to crack in half, or splinter.  What do you think will happen?  Imagine your own worst-case scenario, then assume it will probably go through my mind at some point tonight when I am trying to sleep.

Silver lining: it's so freaking cold that no one is going to be out tonight, so very little chance of a criminal randomly deciding to kick-in my already weakened back door to rob and/or axe-murder me.  (Yes, that is the way my brain works.  There wasn't a particularly high chance of either event happening in the first place, but it's even less thanks to the frigid weather.) 

On that happy note, I'm off to try and get some sleep. 

How many days until Spring arrives? 

And Now The Exciting Conclusion (Hopefully) of Our Drama

This is, I hope, the last installment of the Parental Power Outage Saga.  If you need the background details, scroll back a few posts.  Start here.

So around 6pm I checked the status report again, hoping to at least see an estimated time of restoration.  No such luck.  

A few minutes later my mother calls.  She had tried calling the house, and she got the answering machine!  The power must be back on!  She was pretty stoked, no lie.

I volunteered to go over and see if the power was really back.  They had already gotten the house as warm as they could, then headed out for the evening. I was also kind of hoping to see if the crew was still there, to thank them for the hard work, and to see if they were local or had traveled from afar to help.

No sign of the crew when I arrived.  Who knows how long the power might have been back before my mother tried calling the house.  There was definitely light, however.

The outside light is on!  

OMG the power is really back on!  I went in to turn up their heat a bit so it would be warm when they returned later, but also to make sure the furnace would start.  I also had to check and make sure the oven was off.  You see, my mother has been worried this entire time that because she had the oven on when the power went out (trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner), that it was going to come roaring back to life when the power was restored.  It did not, but I did call her to tell her that.

I'm not sure what exactly the problem was, but they had obviously done some work at the pole at some point.  All of the snow was neatly cleaned off.

Pretty clear pole, and the trees look sparkly with ice

I am so thankful that they got their power -- and more specifically their heat -- back and functioning! It is getting freaking cold out.  

Feel like 16!  And it is only going to get colder!

A great big, enormous thank you to whichever crew got the power back on!  I would buy you all coffee and hand warmers if I knew who you were!  I am so relieved that their power is back on before this super cold night.

And just for the record...

We are finally in agreement, Central Hudson. 

*I'd like to think this is because you realized there was an error in your system somewhere and made haste to correct it.  However, it is possible that it is because I was a bit pushy a giant bitch.  I'd apologize, but I'm really not sorry.  Nobody screws with my parents.*