So it’s been very very cold here. Really cold. Day after day where the low is in the minus teens and the high doesn’t reach zero. Gradually the streets have emptied of runners and dog walkers. It’s too cold to walk dogs; their poor feet will freeze. And most people, no matter how crazy they are, don’t run outside below -10 or so.
We’ve been running humidifiers in our house this winter, and on one hand it’s been great. No cracks in my fingers, no dried up noses. But gradually, as it got colder and colder, we started getting ice inside our windows. And then more ice, and more. I started to worry that it would damage the woodwork, or cause mold to grow inside our walls.
I started researching it online. At first all I found were articles about old houses and bad windows. But our house is brand new, and tight, and our windows are great. Finally I found an article that explained what was going on and how to fix it.
When it gets really cold you have to lower the humidity inside your house, because the dew point on your windows gets lower, and the condensation will freeze. That’s what was happening to us. When it’s below -10 we have to lower our humidifiers to 25%. When it hits 0 they can go up to 30%, 10 - 35, and finally once it hits 20 they can go back to 40%. I turned them down several days ago and our windows are much better!
I also discovered that we need to keep our window treatments open as much as possible because they are preventing the warmth inside the house from helping to melt the ice. So now I’m opening the window shades as soon as I can after the sun comes up, and I’m opening all of them, even the ones in the bathrooms. That’s helping too.
There’s always something new to learn about living in the north. Before it got so cold we were going to the Arboretum to go snow shoeing, and one day Sarah and I took Leo to learn how to xc ski. But it’s just too hard to do things like that when it’s below zero. In the next week it’s going to warm up for at least for a little while, and then maybe we can get outside again. Maybe the dogs will even get to go on a few walks. They would be thrilled!
In other news Lee and I have gotten our first Covid Vaccination and are scheduled to get our second one March 4th. Then we wait a couple weeks. Then, slowly and cautiously we will start to return to the world. Does that mean we will suddenly be going to restaurants and concerts? Well, no, not at first. But it does mean that we will plan a trip to California to see Daniel and Kelsey, because, drumroll please, they are engaged! Daniel proposed on the last weekend in January and she said yes! We are so happy! We love Kelsey and she already seems like part of the family. We’ve had an email exchange with her parents and hopefully when we go we will be able to meet them too.
Daniel and Kelsey just acquired a puppy. Its name is Rossy. It is an Eskimo-Poodle mix, so its an Eskipoo, lol. We’ve seen pictures and a little video. Its a really, really cute puppy and it already seems smart. It will be fun to watch them learn to raise it. They will be very conscientious puppy owners, I can already tell.
Meemaw and Peepaw daycare continues. Leo’s powers of logic, conversation and persuasion seem to increase daily. Yesterday we had a long talk about how everyone has been a baby at some point, even the dogs. We tried to talk about how his mommy and Uncle Dan were MY babies when they were little, and that his daddy and Auntie Kris were Meemaw H’s babies when they were little, but that is actually a pretty big jump in understanding for him. We kept circling back to “but Sarah is MY mommy”. Well yes, yes she is.
Kirby has developed a deep seated need to GO. That baby wants desperately to explore. He can be entertained for awhile in his new bouncy seat, especially if there are cheerios and maybe some blueberries in the little bowl, but what he really wants to do more than anything is get down on the floor. And (of course) he mainly wants to go see things he’s not supposed to play with, like the dog dishes, and the fire place, and the window shades. So if he’s on the floor I pretty much have to follow him around, and redirect him occasionally. He also loves to play with the dogs, and the dogs love to play with him. They play ball, they share toys. Yesterday, Kirby and Harper, head-butted each other (gently) across the living room floor. Kirby would bump Harper’s forehead with his head, Harper would back up, Kirby would crawl up to Harper and bump her again, over and over. Amazing!
