Sissy stuff to keep warm with during the "VORTEX"?

[Betty]

They're predicting snow melting temperatures by Friday around here, & a rainy 53F for Saturday. With all that snow melt & rain, I'm sure there will be flooding in parts, or at least lots of mud.

[Spankypants2]

 Yesterday the temperature here in the Chicago area was up to +16. After experiencing the sub-zero temps on Monday and Tuesday it was downright balmy. This last cold spell reminds me of January 1982 when we had successive weekends of -20 with wind chills of up to -80. I feel as if we're returning to those cold, snowy winters that were so common in my childhood.

When growing up I was a bed-wetter and was kept in night diapers until I was almost 14. For some reason I used to have control problems in the daytime if it was extremely cold outside--I'd dribble pee and couldn't help it. Naturally if you keep on dribbling you can become very wet. As a precaution (up into 6th grade), my mom would take the precaution of putting a diaper and plastic pants me before I was allowed to go out and play in the snow. Once diapered, I had to wear a pair of corduroy pants over them (no front fly and they had an elastic waistband-very childish). I also had a heavy coat, mittens, a hat with ear flaps, and a scarf. But Mom also made me wear snow pants and for some reason there was a stigma associated with wearing them past age 5 or 6.  I was worried about the other kids discovering I had diapers on, but then I wound up being teased about the snow pants .

[Angela M...]

Hey Betty,
so sorry to hear about your troubled night, it must have been a lot of work for you to clean up the apartment, wish I could have helped out.
I found the fleece tights at the local Home Hardware store in basket by the checkout. They were $9.99 and I bought black and brown pairs last year and this year they were there again so I bought grey and black pairs. They are made in China but still pretty good quality and nice and warm in this weather. I saw them again before Christmas in a basket at the local drug store for the same price so someone in the area was distributing them I would bet, perhaps having bought a truck load for maybe $ 1.00 or $2.00 a pair. I would do that in my working days selling stuff to co-workers that I bought cheap somewhere and it was a nice little sideline for awhile.
Hey Spankypants 2 I had days like that when I was 11 or 12 and had to walk everywhere in the winter doing papers and errands and always needing a bathroom before I could make it home. I resorted to wearing 2 or 3 pairs of my sisters thicker cotton panties and cable knit tights under my clothes with plastic panties under the tights in case of an accident. When that did happen I had to hide the evidence until after school and I could wash and dry the things before everyone came home. Sometimes when I was out sledding or skiing I would wear my sisters snowpants if there were not too many people around. It made me feel like a little girl and I liked that feeling.

[BillieJo]

Monday and Tuesday we were down around -20 degs. F. Monday was very windy and after being outside for 30 seconds one could feel their face becoming very painful. Since the business across the street was closed both Monday and Tuesday I was able to venture outside to get the mail in without anyone seeing me while I was dressed. That was a thrill! They were talking wind chills of fifty to sixty below. Today we are about 32 deg F. Go figure.

[Betty]

The arctic vortex returns to freeze the balls off the people in a significant portion of the USA & Canada. Currently 3F (-16C) this morning here in the cccold & crispy Allentown Arts district. Fortunately the wind has calmed down, so it won't be dangerous to your heath to be out there just a few minutes. All the snow melted over a week ago during a thaw that lasted several days, but we got more snow a few days ago. Only a couple inches here, but some of the suburbs & nearby towns got more, but nothing serious.

They're expecting a high today of 9F (-13C), & a bitter low of -2F (-19C) tonight. I hope the property management figured out that some of the pipes in unheated areas of my building must be kept warm enough not to freeze & burst by now so the disaster we had during the last vortex doesn't happen again.

Won't be wearing any thin light short dresses or other light sissy stuff today. I want to stay warm & be dressed in case we get burst pipes again... lots of people all over the place running around frantically in the middle of the night last time.

I left the heat cranked up a bit last night, so when I got up, it was already a toasty 52F (11C) inside. I usually let the place go down to the 40s F (40F=4C) overnight because I'm nice & warm under blankets cuddling with the kitties. But last night I couldn't feel warm enough, so I left the heat in the 50s. Ran out of sugar Friday, so maybe I have less calories to burn to keep warm. But 50s inside feels toasty now, dressed in heavy sweatshirts & jeans.

I have COPD, so have a hard time breathing when traveling outside the house or far in unfiltered polluted air. Breathing is even worse or impossible if I'm carrying heavy stuff, like groceries. I sold the truck after the fire, so I'd have to walk to the store. Fortunately, I find I can get many grocery items cheaper online delivered to my door, than I can buy them locally, esp. dry goods & non-perishable (non-refrigerated) items. The trick is to watch for free or cheap shipping offers. You don't get what you're out of, that's on a list, you buy what you can get a deal on shipped cheap & stock up on it, if it's something you use.

So I am getting sugar, cat food, & kitty litter, among other things delivered sometime today. But to get any decent deals, you buy in bulk & store it (as long as it's storable). With the very large bag of cat food, litter, & stuff, it'll be around 60lbs of stuff I'll still have to carry up all the stairs with COPD. The last time, I had to remove the heaviest stuff out of the boxes, & carry them up separately to make the boxes lighter. I had to stop to catch my breath for about 5  minutes every trip up or down the stairs.

Once it was all inside, I had to sit & rest another 10 minutes before I started putting it all away. With COPD a simple task like getting groceries up the stairs & all put away can take a long time.

I really had the urge to dress up the past few days, but with this cold, risk of frozen pipes again, & a delivery expected, I won't be able to for a while.

[Betty]

A lot of America is turning into Antarctica!

It's windy & freezing outside. There goes my heating bill again. Can't turn the heat down inside any more without the kitties or I getting sick. The heats running a lot as I see dollars going up the chimney.

They're closing schools because of the cold. They never closed schools when I was a kid no matter how cold it got outside. Only if the buses couldn't run, or half the school staff couldn't make it in did they close schools.

I remember waiting at bus stops as a kid of 10 y/o in below zero weather for "late" buses for an hour. Nobody cared that we were freezing & couldn't feel out toes anymore.

It looks like I won't be wearing thin short frillies this week. Brrr!

[BillieJo]

You are right Betty, they never closed the schools because of the cold when I was a kid. In 1963 we had to wait up to half an hour for the buses to arrive and once they did we hoped they would be warmed up. There was maybe a 50-50 chance of that happening. By the way 1963 Jan - Mar was one of the coldest winters on record. The great lake where I live was almost completely frozen over. Farther to the north it was.

I still remember fondly all the girls waiting at the corner with us fellows. In those days the schools still had a dress code and the girls had to wear skirts or dresses. They got very cold and I can remember looking at them with extreme jealousy because that was something I wanted to experience as a girl also.

[Betty]

Ah yes. The girls froze their legs off. All the schools wouldn't allow pants or jeans on girls, but unlike the older days, nobody wore dresses down to their ankles anymore either. Even if they did, the hems of a dress would have been soaked in salty, muddy slush. Their coats were no longer than the dresses... above the knee in the 1960s.

Most schools are closed again today. So most haven't opened all week.

[Betty]

We didn't start "forced school busing" in my town until 1967. That's where after the 1960s race riots, they made "affirmative action" & integration laws to try to get everyone to get along. They bused kids to schools from nice neighborhoods into bad areas, & bused kids from bad areas into nice neighborhoods.

In my neighborhood, it was a mixed neighborhood. Blacks, hispanics, native Americans, & whites all mixed together. We all got along fine... all the kids played with each other. There was no riots in our neighborhood in the city. We were all friends. Before "forced" busing we all went to the same school & church together.

We didn't understand the riots. We were all friends. Why smash & burn your own homes, businesses, vehicles & neighborhoods in a riot? It didn't make any sense. Those were thriving nice neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods never recovered from the riots in my city. The hardworking black people were the first to move out & abandon them. Many got out during the riots. It seemed any black person who had a job or owned a car was being attacked for being an "uncle tom".

Forced school busing was a disaster. It ruined the cities & most neighborhoods. City kids were forced to go to school with kids who had at least 1 parent or older sibling that did serious prison time. Then half those bad kids were now bused to nice neighborhoods, smashing rocks through windows, vandalizing things, breaking into cars, houses, mugging people, & throwing garbage everywhere on the way to & from school.

Massive amounts of people moved to suburbs to get away from all that.

In the schools, those bad kids had their way with anyone smaller & weaker with them. There was a 2 year period where I got beat or robbed or both almost every day in school. This wasn't regular bullying like today. These were hard core inner city street gang criminals who hated everyone, & were out to do serious damage & harm. Because it was just after the riots, they really hated us white kids too.

They used to rob my lunch money or lunch every day. If they didn't like the lunch I packed they threw it in a toilet. Swimming class meant attempted drownings. Gym class meant getting slammed in the face with a basketball so hard my nose bled, or getting kicked in the balls or ass. For 2 years, I didn't have lunch.

I started kindergarten at 4, & skipped the 4th grade. So I was a couple years younger than anyone else in my classes. I was born premature, so was very small for my age too. So I was much smaller than anyone else in my classes. The kids in my classes stood a foot or more taller than me.

Before & after school I had to get on the bus with those criminals to get beaten & harassed by those gangs some more. These weren't yellow school buses, these were regular city public buses I had to take through the ghetto. I had to take 3 different city buses to get all the way home or to school. So I had to stand in the cold & wait 3 times for a bus every day to get to & from school.

Eventually I figured out a short cut on railroad tracks, through fields, parking lots, behind warehouses, abandoned buildings, through bad neighborhoods to walk miles home. Passing hoods, bums, muggers, addicts, & alcoholics on the way, it was still safer than taking a bus with those kids. So I stopped taking the bus & walked miles in all sorts of weather instead.

A few months after I started walking all the time instead, a good friend of mine was stabbed to death while riding the same bus I would have been riding if I didn't walk. The story goes, that they tried to rob him. When the kid tried to get away the gang dragged him to the back of the bus & killed him.

[Betty]

Up until a month ago we had about 1/2 dozen squirrels rummaging & playing around in the back yard, & walking around on the tops of the wooden fences. 2 weeks ago we only saw 1. For a week now I've seen none. I only see 1 bird every couple of days. I think all this cold has wiped out a lot of the local wildlife. I haven't seen any outdoor cats wander through in over a month either... not even the big orange one who used to pass through several times a day for years. I hope those kitties are still alive & staying inside warm somewhere.

You know it's bad when they find rabbits frozen solid huddled together http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2014/01/09/killer-cold-takes-toll-on-wildlife