The cold is stunning. Even the two winters that I spent in Chicago I don't think were ever this cold. Last Friday the temperature dropped to a low of -6. Mostly we've been staying in at night, but Aidan and I needed something from the grocery store that night. People were running from their cars to the store as if it were pouring rain. Wes isn't spending much time outside and the cat doesn't venture out at all. You feel so vulnerable in this weather, it would be so easy to freeze to death. I am comforted by the thought of all of the tick death that is surely going on. I even took Wes' tick collar off - and realized how much it had been inhibiting me from showing him affection.

I don't really mind the cold and am getting used to the temperature in the barn. I think having the heat set so low is actually keeping us a little healthier - the air is not so dry as it is in a thoroughly heated house. Hey, I have to look on the bright side, don't I?