Cold Shock

Winter looks to have reached Baker Lake, and I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. The snow that showed up a couple of weeks ago has stuck around and although there have been snow falls here and there, nothing new seems to be sticking to the ground.

It has been crazy cold though, and it scares me to think that this is only October so we're looking at about 8 more months of this progressively getting worse! The other day it was -22 with the wind chill when I was heading into work, and the sun had barely risen over the horizon (it rises later and later every day, and sets earlier and earlier each evening). There is a also a lot of wind here, and I know I've mentioned it before, but I don't think I'll ever get used to feeling the house move when the wind is blowing strong.

We have also been getting a lot of freezing rain in the mornings - that doesn't help on roads that don't get salted/sanded. There's an intersection at the bottom of the hill from my work that has stop signs for people going up/down the hill, but not for traffic going left/right...unfortunately it's one of the more slippery areas in town and there have been many cars who slide right through the stop sign (while praying no traffic is coming). I'm overly cautious when I'm driving, and the ABS on the truck still kicks into gear as I'm coming down that hill. Extremely scary!
The lake is starting to freeze around the edges, and each day I look at it, the ice seems to move a little further out away from shore, leaving more and more frozen lake in its wake. I once asked how deep the lake is, and someone said it was quite deep - so I can only imagine how cold and dark it is down there. Actually, truth be told, my imagination surrounding the bottom of the lake involves monsters and evil merpeople who want to kill you....but that's neither here nor there.

One of the things that the cold has brought is a crazy jump in produce prices at the store. Imagine my surprise when I went to get bananas, expecting them to be (an already high) $2.95/kg and now they're $4.95. Or one head of romaine that was $2.99 is now $5.95. Ugh. Makes me start wondering how bad scurvy can really be if I happen to catch it from not eating fruits and vegetables.

A funny (not in a ha-ha way, but in a sad way) story: last week the store had cases of mandarin oranges for $13.99 and I was flabbergasted but so wistful, because I love mandarin oranges. This week, they're on sale for the "low" price of only $7.99 a case and I was ecstatic. My poor husband thought I was going crazy because I was *so* happy that they were $7.99. Granted, these would be about $4 at home, but I wanted them so badly. I think I ate 4 in one sitting that afternoon, I was so excited!

Someone told me this week that they appreciated my glass-is-half-full attitude (because I said "yes, it is colder than -20, but at least the sun is shining today and it's not freezing rain!") Guess you have to be or you'll drive yourself crazy. And no one likes a crazy person. :)

-L