Eden Pure lap dances and hugging a space heater.

Y'all, it's been cold.  Now, while I don't disclose my location, I can tell you that I'm in this mix:

Daily record lows broken today in the Midwest (old records in parentheses): 

-11 (-7) in Cleveland; -11 (-5) in Akron-Canton, Ohio; -12 (-7) in Mansfield, Ohio; -14 (-6) in Toledo, Ohio; -12 (-6) in Youngstown, Ohio; -7 (-5) in Columbus, Ohio; -9 (-3) in New Philadelphia, Ohio; -8 (-3) in Zanesville, Ohio; -14 (-5) in Detroit; -14 (-10) in Flint, Mich.

The lovely Arctic cold snap has left our kids on extended winter break.  They earned themselves 2 additional days off, with some (not ours) on a 2 hour delay or canceled for tomorrow.

Brrr.

When I went to bed last night, it was -12 F and that wasn't in the end of it where the thermometer reading would reverse.

I was up at 2 AM to start the cars.  I'm not kidding.  I got up, started and ran them for 15 minutes while I snuggled up in a warm blanket on the couch, watching That Metal Show.  I came back to bed to a less-than-thrilled sleeping spouse who was not wanting to share his accumulation of heat.

He isn't a pleasant sleeper.  I'll give him that.

I weaseled my way in anyhow and later, he decided that my intense heat production had returned and he would take advantage of giving me a hug to steal my warmness.

I might add that the furnace in the building I work in has been out for over a week.  Now, it isn't because my bosses are too cheap to fix the furnace.  The gentleman who was repairing the furnace didn't seem well versed as each time he replaced something, something else would magically come up broken.  The temperature has been anywhere from 50-65 F.  The 65 F was on days that were warmer and I might add that those have not been recent days.  We have space heaters.  We've been running the faucets.  We've been leaving the halogen lights on to give some supplemental heat.  We've been managing, but we've been working with our coats, hats and many layers on.  We've been getting things accomplished, but it has been slow going.  Today, our highest temperature was 54 F.  It isn't -12 F, but I can tell you that it is rather chilly.  We have a coworker who was kind enough to lend her Eden Pure heater to us.  There is a little space heater, about the size of a sheet of paper, that we keep on the counter.  It blows hot air, makes my hair full of static, but I was hugging it yesterday.  I'm thankful for the supplemental heat.

Turns out that I wasn't the only without heat.  Hubs' work was without heat, too.  They maxed out at 54 F.

Brrr.

It could be worse.  The temperature is only up from here.  We were actually colder last night than the temperature recorded at the South Pole!

Chilly willy puddin' pie!  We'll survive!