Coming Down Sideways

Day 78: Quite literally, it is coming down sideways. We had another power outage overnight, but fortunately, the temperature had risen from 22 at 9 PM to 26 by 2 AM, giving me less cause for concern that my pipes might freeze. There are a lot of factors involved in the "worry threshold," but if daytime highs approach 32 degrees, the plumbing is generally secure to a low of 19 as long as it doesn't occur before midnight. Over thirty years of living here, my judgment call is now made largely on instinct based in a subconscious evaluation of conditions. That said, I've been wrong a couple of times and have paid for my error. Only once have the pipes frozen to the breaking point, and that was in my first year here when we had record-breaking cold over a prolonged period. For an introductory winter, though, it compelled me to question the wisdom of being a homeowner at the foot of a heavily glaciated Mountain. Don't get me wrong. I love the snow, even when it's piling up against my doorframes as it is this morning. It's the cold I find myself unable to appreciate.