Cold Snap!

Here it comes! Like the freezing, invisible (except for its effects), rolling wave of cold from The Day After Tomorrow, we have been enveloped by a cold bubble. It went from a balmy -1 degrees celsius yesterday evening to -21 this morning. I did not let the cats go outside last night for fear they would get caught by it and rightly so, for what did I see outside my window this morning? A small song bird, frozen in mid-flight, suspended in the air, its wings halfway through the upswing. It must have been trying to make it to its nest under the hood of the electricity junction on my roof and left it just a little too late.

I survived my 10-minute walk to work, though my nose was in a lot of pain by the time I got there. Now I look out my windows and see a bright, still day with a thin blue sky. Steam, smoke and vapour pouring from rooftops in thicker clouds than usual is the only indication of the cold. This thing is supposed to last at least through Saturday, so I worry a bit about the state of our building. The differential between the inside and the outside could become so great that I envision windows exploding, concrete flaking off in great sheets, beams cracking.

I'll try to keep posting but I'm hearing that in the eastern parts of the city, where the pipes aren't well insulated, the internet has frozen down to the point where it's like using a 14.4k modem.

And for God's sake, don't lick anything!