Contemplating drops of water

What does one do when one has a day off?

  

It is cold outside and you are bound to stay inside? 

Clean, cook, read, or what?

Gaze out the window.

Watch the water droplets 

make their way down the window pane.

It is actually interesting

if you look closer, 

turn it upside down, 

you will see that the droplets are

 reflecing the outside: blue sky,snow, trees.

they are chasing each other,

 melting into another
on their way down the glass.

Clear like diamonds.

Time ticked away

and I realized something else!

The sun set has moved towards the north!

I used to set right behind that 5-wheel,

now it is to the right of it.

January 10
We are definitely going towards SPING! YEEAAA!
Molly thought that all was:
a case of ZZZZZZZ.

My guess is: You probably think the same.

I had this "problem" already as a child, in school.

Nature would capture my attention and

keep me from the paying attention.

That got me some remarks like:

"Beatrix is easily distracted, 

she is watching the clouds!"

Maybe it was the teacher's fault?

Didn't make the lesson captive enough.

OR?

Grouse or what?

I have seen the signs in the snow.

Small foot prints or wing marks. 

They seem to walk all around the campground

 and forage around the shrubs and trees where

the snow cover is thinner and seeds/berries are 

to be found.

 One of these days I scared a whole bunch 

of them out of their hiding place from under a dwarf pine, 

when I approached the bathrooms early in the morning. 

Frrrrrrr, frrrrrr sounded their wings when they took off.

I guessed that it must be some kind of chickens.

Today, when I walked Molly, I suddenly saw them.

A flock of chicken like birds on the ground 

about 40 m (43 yards) away. 

Of course, no real camera handy.

But, I remembered my cellphone.

So, I got some photos of them, but the

built-in camera is just a joke for long distance shoots.

I guess they were some kind of prairie grouse.

They took off before I could get a closer look. 

I would have run too, because that approaching "monster" 

looked pretty scary! Laugh!

-18 C (WC -34C )

For BETTER and for WORSE

NO, I did NOT freeze during the night. That's the good news.

The bad news is: I did not sleep much.

After a while it actually got a tad to warm, 

and I struggled with the covers. 

That made me wake up and realize that something was wrong.

A clicking noise, another clicking noise...

UGH! At 11:30 PM (23:30 h) the furnace quit to work! 

My first thought was that the propane may have frozen solid. 

Horror.

I got up, dressed quickly, put my head light on 

and ventured outside, into the glittering, starry, 

bitterly cold night, to investigate.

No, the propane was not frozen, 

but both bottles (20/30pounder) were EMPTY.

I yanked two full ones up and connected them; 

a not so easy thing to do, because the lines 

were nearly frozen to sticks.

Safely inside again I started the oven - 

flames were burning there. GOOD!

Now the furnace. 

It clicked and clicked and clicked. 

FINALLY the pilot flame ignited, 

and soon warm air streamed again into the living area. 

Good. GOOD.

Back to bed, back to sleep.

Not so easy. 

I was constantly listening:

Was the furnace still running? 

When Peter left for work at 5 AM I thought: 

NOW I could snooze, but no, 

Molly started to whine. UGH! 

A sure sign that she has to go out for business. 

Up again, and letting her out the door. 

Alone.

This time I stayed inside. 

There would be nobody out there anyway.

After a few minutes she was back at the door, 

and I back in bed.

NOW I finally fell asleep !!

But the adventure was not over yet. 

When I got up, I checked around. 

No ice on the walls, 

but: in the corners, 

along the window's aluminum frames.

Ice in the corner behind the chair

WORSE, the temperatures inside 

had not risen above 10C (50 F)! 

Even with the furnace blasting warm air at full tilt.

The reason: outside temps still -28 C (-18F) 

with windchill of -42C (-43.6F).

But relief is in sight!

The TV NEWS showed that: by the end of the week 

we will be back to "normal" temperatures of -2C (28F) 

for daytime high temperatures!

All temperatures in Celsius.

That will feel like summer temperatures, compared! 

Layers is the magic word!

Now I know how an "Eskimo" might feel like.

Brrrr. Greetings from our

IGLOO!

Yes, and our water is frozen too, but that is not a surprise. 

I suggested to drain and winterize but hubby had

his own thoughts about that.

For Better and Worse!

They said.

I was not knowing what I was getting into....