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

[Bertha]

Hello to everyone suffering the extraordinary weather you are experiencing. I have been viewing the snow and ice deposits in New York and Boston via the BBC website, and am simultaneously enthralled and saddened by what I witness. It must be nigh on impossible to conduct your day to day business and the elderly and infirm must suffer greatly. Here in the UK, we rarely encounter weather extremes, be it freezing cold spells or insufferable heat, so I can only sympathise and pass on my hope that you have respite soon.
My only advice is to keep on wearing the flannel jammies!

[Betty]

Last winter after the beginning of January was the coldest in a very long time. This year it was much worse. If they continue to get this much worse every year, next Feb. the area will be uninhabitable. 25 dead & $5 billion in lost economy so far this year due to the cold. Schools & businesses continue to close every day due to the cold. The ones that stay open don't get many people showing up to them. Anchorage Alaska is currently 30 degrees warmer than we are. Sunday it's expected to be warm & rainy there, having weather similar to much of the UK.

Our high in my neighborhood today was 1F.

The poles & glaciers are melting while we're getting Frost Quakes.

Now 80% of Lake Ontario just froze over.
http://5dot4.com/psk/index.php?topic=30.0

[Betty]

Niagara Falls is still running, but it's slowing down as it begins to freeze.

More (with pictures): http://5dot4.com/psk/index.php?topic=31.0

[Betty]

Hey Bertha. You might get a kick out of pix of our November Storm. I was lucky, I was just on the outside edge of the storm so didn't get as much as they did in the southern part of the city & just about everywhere just outside the city where they got 3-7 feet (1-2.3 meters) of snow.

Check it out. Some of it looks very pretty too (lots of pictures). It kind of worth it to go through all of them when you have the time on a quiet night. It's actually quite spectacular, & I threw some extras in there for comic or cuteness relief. They say if you lived your whole life here you can break a brick with your hands even if you're a 90lb girl or sissy... were they talking about me?

http://unclegadget.com/BettysPubs/community/index.php?topic=716.0

I'm reading a clear 3C (37F) at night in London right now. Looks like 10C (50F) by Tue. or Wed. Nice for winter! Thank that warm ocean Gulf Stream that surrounds you.

[Bertha]

Hi Betty, they certainly are spectacular, but as I was scraping a covering of frost off my windshield this morning, (Saturday),  before I travelled to work, I was thankful I did not live in you vicinity!

Best wishes from Bertha

[Bertha]

Oops, I owe you an "R".

[Angela M...]

Well I was outside for three hours this morning with the snow blower and it still kept snowing. Cleared my walk and driveway and that of my two neighbours as well as the walk for a block or so in both directions. I also remembered to clear around the fire hydrant in case it was needed as the city plows give no regard to any of these and just cover them as they go by. Of course they need to be on guard for all the vehicles parked on the road blocking their progress. You would think people would park on only one side of the street as the signs indicate but some don't care. They are always the ones to bitch about getting a ticket though. I guess you can't cure stupid.
I was toasty warm though wearing my fleece lined tights under my pants and a nice high waist panty girdle to help keep my back in good shape. Sure hope Spring gets here soon as I am running out of places to pile all the snow, it is five foot high on my lawn in front and back and only a narrow path at the side of the house to get by with the snow blower.

[Betty]

North America satellite photo of snow & ice. This with the clouds removed from the picture, so all the white stuff is snow & ice, not clouds.

[Betty]

It was such a nicer day at 5.5C (22F) & sunny. It was hard to believe it will get back down to -10F (-23C) tonight. It's already a breezy 9F now, & falling. A 13 degree drop in 4 hours. High of 0F (-18C) expected Monday.

Here we go again.

Antarctica returns!

[Betty]

Brrr. 20 water main breaks in the city over the weekend. They had to call in outside contractors to keep up with it all.

I fear my heat & electricity will add up to almost what my rent does just to keep it in the 40s & 50s F inside this month. Work has been extra slow since this unusual super-cold set in, so I don't have money to run all this extra heat. When it gets this cold my small gas wall furnace can't keep up & I have to use electric heaters to help it it. If it gets in the mid 20s outside I need to run heat much less to keep the place bearable. This extra cold takes a lot more energy to keep the place habitable.

No fuzzy sleepers anymore. I'm wearing tights, & 2 sweatpants under loose jeans. T-shirt, 2 sweatshirts, under a hoodie to keep comfy inside. And I go under the blankets to sleep that way too. I feel like I'm camping, but do keep warm this way. I have more heaters to get things warmer if I have to, but they'll cost me even more money to run. So I'm keeping the place in the 50s in the day, & 40s overnight when I'm warm under blankets.