Virginia Snow

I hate cold weather. I'm not particularly fond of really hot temperatures either, but I can tolerate the heat better than I can the cold.

Years ago our travels took us to Virginia and I was completely thrilled with the prospect of experiencing winter and the possibility of snow with my children. 
Ah, the sweet memories I had of my childhood winters in N.J.; the glorious early morning sound of the fire station whistle blast signaling school closure due to snow, opening the drapes to a sparkling, pristine carpet of white, racing across the street to go sleigh riding with my best friend Sue, ice skating at night, snowball fights, forts and snowmen, steaming hot chocolate with marshmallows.... deep sigh.
I was so excited I could hardly wait.

  We were renting a tiny two bedroom house in the woods while we looked for our own piece of property or farm when we experienced our first Virginia snow.

 It was glorious! Bob built the kids homemade sleds and we spent hours playing in the winter wonderland.

But, it wasn't long before the fun ended and the real cold began. When we got our first $300. electric bill we realized that there was only baseboard heat in our little shack and no insulation on the house, so we decided to turn off the heat. Instead, we used a  catalytic heater attached to the top of a propane cylinder to warm ourselves. It was a fine line between carbon monoxide poisoning and hypothermia and it was then that I decided that I no longer liked the cold.
Now, this is how I see myself in the cold:

And this is one of the reasons why today we live in Florida.
Nevertheless, this morning's temperatures were in the low 40's with north winds blowing, chilling down the house, and tonight is expected to drop to the mid to low 30's, so I lit the first fire of the season.

Don't you love the smell of a wood fire burning?!
As lovely as our fireplace is, I've found that the warm air does not circulate very well.  I spent too much of the day camped out right next to it last winter so this year we've decided to warm the rest of the house with this....

The weather forecast is calling for a warming trend for the rest of this week, bringing our temperatures back to near 80 degrees by the weekend. Good. That will give Bob time to finish building the pineapple house and cut a hole in the ceiling and roof of our home to set up the new little cast iron, wood burning stove in time for the next cold front.
Hopefully, it will also give us nice, warm weather for our all-day Ironman Run Station on Saturday.