Walking in a Winter Horrorland

This morning, I watched astounded as a mountain (okay, what amounted to about two inches) of snow came down. It was the best kind of day; snowy, but at a perfect temperature for walking. I just got in from a brisk stroll.

But the snow was a non-event compared to news I got this morning from my colleague's husband: an extremely cold front is moving in, bringing in temperatures that haven't been seen here in at least a decade. Check out this graph, courtesy of theweathernetwork.com



The white line marks average temperatures. The yellow marks projected temperatures. It is well below the white line. We're heading into a week-long stretch of weather in the minus teens to minus twenties. That's the high minus single digits for you Americans.

There is no way I can properly prepare Miranda for that kind of weather, not with the resources available to me nor the resort restrictions on what can be done to the exterior of the rig. I can mostly only pray that the forecasts are extremely pessimistic.

My colleague's husband suggested I get a rigid PVC pipe in which to run my sewer hose so that it can be propped up at an angle. He even measured how much I would need. The first hardware store didn't have any pipes left in stock, but the second one did. Slight problem, though. I can fit up to 8' lengths in the car... but I needed 10'. I wound up sticking the extra length out of the passenger window. According to eye witness testimony, it looked like my car was equipped with a canon! LOL

When I got home, I unloaded the pipe and went in to have lunch. When I came out, my pipe was gone! On a hunch, I went around the rig and there was my pipe, all nicely installed by my colleague's very nice husband.

I went back in an installed insulation in the cab, which is already making a difference (!). Tomorrow, I need to work on the front door and get a new space heater since the first one I bought conked out on me (over use, perhaps?).

How I plan to ride out this wave of cold weather is to run both electric heaters on max AND have the furnace going. I will leave all cabinet doors and that to the bathroom open to let the warm air circulate.

I'm especially worried about my holding tanks. I'm going to call a few RV places tomorrow and see if they have the special heating pads.

What a mess. I feel like I'm in the movie The Day After Tomorrow!!!

In happier news, one of my best friends never ceases to amuse me. She sent me this: