Frozen

No, I'm not talking about the movie "Frozen"...I mean it was freezing all day yesterday.  By the time I had crunched through the thick layer of frost to let the chickens and goats out in the morning, I literally could not feel my face.  Stove picked a heck of a day to get cranky.  Ordinarily I give him one block of fire starter and he lights right up.  Yesterday he gobbled three and still gave off just a feeble heat.  I was not happy.  I needed to warm the house for the kids in the house as I had to go to town and it wouldn't have been kind to leave them in an igloo.

Going to town wasn't the odious task I anticipated.  Truck has a good heater and it was the first time I was warm all day.  Stamps were on the "must get" list.  With my usual exquisite timing, I missed the window of time.  Our little rural post office closes for lunch between one and two and I hit right in the middle.  Drat.  Of course I forgot that errand on the way home.  Double drat.

Back home, I was doing this, that, and the other thing when I noticed that the kitchen door hadn't shut completely, and I was another kind of frozen.  Oh no!  Where were the cats?!  For a minute, I couldn't move.  A wave of relief swept over me when I saw Ralph, but where was Celeste?  I raced through the house calling her name, but no Celeste.  Oh, please.  If I was afraid for her, she must be terrified.  I went out on the deck to look and said a prayer of gratitude when she came racing, as my dad would say, like she had turpentine under her tail.  She beat me back to the door, and the look I got.  She stuck to me like a limpet the rest of the day.

The evening sky might look like it was on fire, but it was a cold flame.  Before putting the kids to bed, I needed to take the trash down to the road.  Bessie usually gets excited when I gather the bags.  Next to a trip to the cookie store, taking the trash away is her favorite outing.  Yesterday, she came when I opened the door, stuck her nose out, and said, "Thanks, Mom.  It's too cold out there and I think I'll pass."  I tried to tell her about the heater in the truck, but she wasn't having any of that.

I'm hoping for a bit of a thaw today.