While I shiver in my bedroom, waiting for the space heater to do its job, I think back to episodes of M*A*S*H* when the gang from the 4077 endured temps frigid enough to keep plasma without a fridge. I remember Hawkeye complaining that if he fell asleep he wouldn't wake up; or that the pain of the cold would keep him awake until Summer.
I have felt cold enough in the last three years that I thought I would never feel warm again. I thought that this year would be the worst because I know there isn't enough money to buy propane yet. But thankfully there is plenty of snow to insulate the bottom part of the house. When I can run heters it is warm enough for a while. When I can get the wood stove working it will hold heat nicely. And that takes me back to the Winter that Dad and I spent Saturdays drywalling the house while brother and sister were bowling.
Until Dad was at the point in which he really needed my help, my job was to light the fire and keep the house warm so that the drywall would cure properly. It snowed a lot that Winter. There were several Saturdays that we had to walk in from the road. This year, ther is just as much snow on the ground as there was then. I got pretty good at getting the wood stove to burn hot and keep the heat. There were several Saturdays that we were expecting to find frozen joint compound but the house was still a little bit warm. I know I can do it again if I can only manage to get into the damn house.
Until then... my teeth will chatter like I am sleeping in a tent on the Korean plains.
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