here on the prairies and this week it’s set to get even colder. It’ll be like an old-time winter where your eyelashes, nose hairs, and then nostrils freeze together. It is nasty cold and there’s a wind chill to boot. I hope that the pine beetles can’t stand it.
I have been whining but then I remembered. Australia is on fire and people there have been killed, had to leave their homes, and have seen their countryside destroyed. Animals have fared even worse and though there are well meant attempts to save them, the majority have perished. Indonesia is flooding and people have been driven from their homes, lost everything, and died. In the Philippines, the Taal volcano is threatening with furious lightning in its towering ash column. Within hours or days, there will be a major eruption; people have been evacuated, the sky is full of ash, and there may be a tsunami. Manila’s airport has been shut down until it is safer.
In the United State, tornados, snow, sleet, and freezing rain have all been part of a nasty storm. Eleven people have lost their lives.
These are just the major on-going “natural” disasters and they make a system of cold Arctic air seem tame. This morning, it was -37 C or colder, depending on the source of the information. It is cold but we are lucky enough that with some caution, it isn’t life threatening.
Kudos to the workers who keep things more or less normal for the rest of us. The police, the electrical workers, the first responders, the firefighters, the oil and gas workers, the farmers (their livestock need more care than ever.) They make this stretch of real cold just an inconvenience.
By Monday, it’s warmer again. It has been just a week but it’s been a long one. I’m not whining, just observing…stay warm.
themildsidelinda 