cold

Oh me, oh my, it’s quarantine time.

/ Jo Redd / 1 Comment

I tested positive this morning.

I woke up with a sore throat, the only abnormal symptom I have. No fever, my cough, and sniffles are ordinary things, and nobody aches. I feel warm, experiencing very mild chills, and I am pretty tired. I feel like everything will be okay.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The doctor thinks I’m already close to being five days out, so really, I should be feeling better by Monday. All in all, I could feel a lot worse than I do, but I would prefer to feel better. It’s cold and gross outside now, so I already had zero plans to go outside this weekend.

Reasons why winter is awful: part 760

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

I realize that this is a reoccurring blog post, but as long as I live in the midwest, that’s just a part of life. We are once again experiencing record low temperatures. Kids have to stay home, businesses are attempting to remain open while customers and patients refuse to go outside, and there is no good reason for going out in this weather.

Every year I say the same thing, “It isn’t so bad as long as it isn’t snowing.” Then, once it begins to snow, I can’t help but turn into a negative Nellie. I hate winter, I wish I could somehow convince my entire family to move somewhere where the weather doesn’t turn so harsh in the winter months, but I know that will never happen.

My grandparents used to vacation in Florida every winter, but they haven’t gone in years, and I wish we could make that a tradition in our family. I just want to be able to go outside without a million layers on; I don’t want to have to worry about frostbite; I want my son to get fresh air without his cheeks turning pink from the cold. I just want the weather to be excellent for everyone.

Life in the Midwest

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

We are always privy to videos like the one below whenever the snow shows up. Thankfully, this kind of snowstorm didn’t show up until halfway through January. This is a common occurrence, typically, early on in December.

Life in the midwest is impossible without a snowblower. A big snowblower. When there isn’t anything to catch the snow, it sure does pile up fast. The first big snow can be the last one if mother nature deems it so.

#Iowanice doesn’t exist

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

As someone who grew up in Iowa and eventually came back to Iowa in adulthood, I can tell you that #iowanice is no longer a thing. When I was a kid, you could expect to have every passing car wave at you, we knew the goings-on of our neighbors, whether good or bad, and everyone was willing to stop and help a car stalled on the side of the road. Back in the 90’s people truly wanted to live up to the expectation that Iowans were more admirable than the citizens of other states.

Before turning 18, I was a rebellious child, and I fled the state for a more southern itinerary: Missouri. I thought I could find something great in the show-me state, and I was eager to prove that I was a hard worker. After ten years of trying my hand at everything I could find (and striking out at everything), I decided to return to Iowa.

The belief that Iowans are friendly is antiquated, and after years of young flight, the people left are rude and unhelpful. Take today, for example. I was able to free my vehicle from the confines of the snowdrift in my driveway, but upon entering the alley, I found myself stuck again. I was right in the middle, people couldn’t miss me, yet no one would help me out. All I needed was a push. One tiny little push on the back of my car, and I knew that I would be able to reach the road and I would be free. For an hour, I sat out there and watched as the cars rolled past. I live next to the post office, and it was pretty fun to watch the cars pull up, drop off their mail, look at me in the rearview mirrors, and then take off down the street. I watched a car pull into the other end of the alley, notice my vehicle stuck at the other end, and they turned around and went back out.

Finally, after admitting that I would not get my car out without assistance, I called my parents. They rescued me like they have countless other times. Family is where you can find excellent, helpful people. The idea that our neighbors are willing to help is no longer accurate, which is quite a sad revelation.

So Cold

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

The polar vortex is upon us and its giving me terrible cabin fever. The roads are dangerous because we keep getting snow squalls and with the low temperatures you can’t keep it from freezing, so I have been sticking to home. I’ve got plenty of books that I could be reading but I feel like I need to be going somewhere. I hate feeling like I am trapped, and I begin trying to make any excuse to leave.

Wind chills are -30 so I refuse to take my kid out in this, but that means we’ve had to come up with creative ideas to stay active in a very small space. We have a very cold entry room that we will occasionally bring a tub of snow into and I’ll let my child play with that for a while. He is very much into reading so we will spend a good chunk of the afternoon reading, and I recently signed up for this kid streaming service that is supposed to be more “wholesome” content. We’ve also started designing tents using different furniture pieces, a favorite of X’s. Those solar lanterns have come in handy for when he wants to “sit in the dark tent.”