Saturday, January 4, 2014

Soul Crushing Cold

The temperatures are plunging again, which makes us wonder about that annual Polar Bear Plunge they have in Lake Lanier this time of year.  Turns out with a bit of research, it was actually a few days ago - and that's a good thing for participants.  Each year, for charity, they jump in the lake and apparently swim somewhere or something.  If they did that today, many would come out pretty sick.  And if they did that Monday morning, half of them might die!

It's windy and cold, but everyone stayed inside for much of the day.  Daddy stayed at work, helping set things up until the wee hours in the morning.  Madison and Mommy stayed home, continuing to straighten the house, removing all signs of December.  It does appear as if her Winter Break will extend into Monday slightly, as the weather is menacing tomorrow night.  The cold alone is - to quote a recent report we read online - "soul crushing."  We're not entirely sure how a soul could be crushed by the temperature, but it probably sounded cool to the reporter and he went with it.  Seriously, it's hard to resist a phrase like, "This Polar Vortex will be soul crushing cold."

We're supposed to see a possibility of snow, but likely we'll see just cold.  That's our luck here.  It actually rains tomorrow, despite all this soul crushing cold.  So it warms up just enough to give us cold rain, and then it drops down in temperature enough to crush our souls.  We'll try to dress up in layers and so forth.  It's not like it used to be living up north, where we'd have those massive snow suits you only see in "A Christmas Story."  Yes, Daddy remembers those, and the snow that got caught in the zipper that lined the thing from top to bottom.

It's been a few years since we've seen that kind of snow, and for some reason, we're all anxious to see it again.  Just once more, please - a big snow storm to shut things down for a time, and throw a party.  Do you want to build a snowman?  Yes, we do!

So we're here at church building a castle for tomorrow's services.  With a dragon too.  All that will be on stage by tomorrow, and there'll be skits, music and a message too.  It should be a great day - and of course, it's the start of our church fast.  We had our "last supper" today, a meal at Steak n' Shake.  We probably could have chosen better, but Daddy had a gift card for that place after Christmas, and why not use it there?

We're tired - it was a harder night to sleep last night for some reason.  But some good news is that my health has greatly improved, and breathing seems to be easier.  Raspy breath and lung issues are no fun, but that's what happens this season.  Fortunately, Madison has been okay.  It's been a tougher season than most, with all sorts of viral yuck lurking about.  We've seen bits and pieces of it, but haven't experienced any full wrath.  For that, we're all very grateful of course.

Tomorrow afternoon, we can rest a bit once more.  Post-service is always a time to recover a bit, and enjoy that "day of rest."  Although Daddy and Madison do have a building project to get started on:  we have an appointment to build a Lego Dolphin Cruiser, with a couple hundred pieces.  It should be fun, and a bit time consuming - but we can't wait to see the end product.

Madison has been sweet lately, saying "I love you" to both of us - with no apparent further motivation. She's been jumping in bed with us each morning, and we'll all snuggle for a bit.  Until one parent braves the "getting out of the blanket," and ventures forth into the rest of the house.  It's not that cold inside, but there's nothing like the warmth of a big blanket, is there?  Monday morning is going to test our resolve, certainly.  Especially with the daunting nature of soul crushing cold menacing outside.

She still does her "scare you" thing too.  She hides when she hears you coming.  And though it's always the same hiding place, she'll jump out and say "BOO!"  It's automatic - so much so that we don't mention it here.  It's just as common as her eating dinner or saying her prayers at night.

Speaking of which, we've been reading each night too - still reading our Christmas books, actually.  These are the ones she got for Christmas.  One is a collection of Marvel stories, which Daddy was pretty pleased to pick up for her.  More Marvel history to learn!  If only there were some villain with ice powers who crushed souls.  He could have a doctorate in soul crushing, and be called Dr. Soul Crusher.

Or not.  Anyway, we've been reading these picture books - which have more words than usual, by the way.  We'll pick up some comics soon enough.  Daddy has plenty of those to go through, and soon enough Madison will be an X-Men fanatic like he was.

Tonight, however, there was no story before bedtime.  Daddy is still here at the office, and working late again.  This is part of the routine though:  we'll get this set done late, and have everything up and ready for tomorrow.  It'll be a great day tomorrow, despite all the soul crushing cold.

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