Starting the year off right.

Right cold, that is! This city, and surrounding others, are expecting snow and rain-and-snow mixes for the next four or five days, and on top of that we're under a wind warning, too. "Potentially damaging wind gusts", says the weather channel, "forecast for Saturday night."

I can't say I'm looking forward to that.

This weekend might be a good time to bundle up under many blankets, with mugs of tea and hot chocolate located conveniently close by.

My biggest hope is that the winds don't break the window in the back room of the apartment. Right now that room is so crammed full of old junk and things that need to be sorted that getting to the window is a tough job. If it breaks, well, even arranging a temporary cover is going to be a challenge, and then cleaning the whole room up so that a proper replacement window could be put in.

Have I mentioned that the back room has no insulation? It's technically supposed to be this apartment's second bedroom, but since it's only fit for using during half of the year, we just use it as a storage room instead, and Rachel and I share a room until we can get another apartment.

So yes, cleaning and sorting everything out in an uninsulated unheated room with a broken window sounds particularly hellish. That's why I hope it stays unbroken in the high winds.

The winter here has barely begun and already it's been a hard one. Snow on the ground for almost the entire month of December, and normally we're lucky if there are a few piles of slush around on Christmas day. Two instances of absolutely bitter windchills, dipping down to near -30 degrees Celcius.

It isn't surprising, really. We had a cold year in general. July was unusually rainy, and we had a cold snap in the middle of August that sent temperatures down near the freezing mark. Once that happened, everybody began predicting a hard winter, and so far those predictions have proven accurate.