Soggy and Foggy

 After the past few days of wet weather and the envelopment of fog, if I hear a weather person fuss about drought conditions in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, I think I would consider strangling him or her. I was walking in my side and back yard today and it was mushy; sink your boots down into the earth and water squish up the sides. It almost felt like I was walking on a sponge. Puddles of water were standing in the low areas, but even the higher knolls were soft and gushy. I’m not sure my yard feels that way because the ground below is still frozen and the water is unable to soak in or whether it has rained so much, it collects on top.

Since then, there have been several episodes of driving downpours and deluges pushed by whipping winds. The splattering sounds on my windows made me thankful that it was frigid enough to create hail, sleet, of freezing rain.

My furnace was on the fritz and managed to get by for a few days with a fire my wood burner. It kept the house toasty, but my sleep pattern was interrupted, fearful that the fire would die down and my house would grow cold allowing my water pipes to freeze and burst. That’s an ordeal no home owner wants to deal with. After setting my internal clock to waken every four or five hours, I would make the trek from my bedroom, down two flights of stairs to my basement, and fill the firebox with wood.

While I was already out of bed and awake, I would take the opportunity to make an excursion into the bathroom and relieve some bladder pressure. Sometimes, I can be forgetful, but that is one thing that an old man can’t forget or ignore.

I’m glad that I had a small load of firewood delivered in the middle of January. I knew there would be enough wood to last through the month of January, but I was just as sure that I’d need more to keep the home fires burning bright and cozy through February.

I am certainly thankful to be warm, snug, and dry with the rain today and the coming cold snap.