…and it has frozen over.

See that? The AMBIENT TEMPERATURE is -20.

Negative. Twenty.

Not even including windchill (see: feels like -47). I’m pretty sure even the polar bears at the zoo are miserable.

We got hit with snow on Monday, not a ton of snow, but enough so that the roads were pretty crappy in the morning (my car got stuck twice on the way into work**). Since then the temperature has been steadily plummeting and schools are closing because it literally too dangerous for kids to wait outside for the bus. I had to get gas on my way home from work today and my fingers were painfully cold because I had to take my glove off for a minute to run my credit card and use the touch-screen.

Wesley’s daycare is closed tomorrow (and probably Thursday too) because they have huge windows everywhere and don’t think they can keep everything at the required minimum temperature.  We were already planning on keeping him home tomorrow because it is so viciously cold just going to and from the car.  Unfortunately my job is considered “essential services” so I am expected to go into work (Matt’s staying home tomorrow and thankfully my boss is very understanding of issues that come up for parents)

The St Paul Winter Carnival is also going on right now… unfortunately it’s too cold for any sane person to leave their house.  Good news: it’s supposed to warm up this weekend.  Bad news: it’s supposed to get above freezing so we may have another year of very deconstructivist ice sculptures.

Aaand since I’m just rambling at the moment….we went out to a local brewery on Sunday. At 1:00 in the afternoon.  For Tot Time.  Seriously.  I also witnessed a 1st Birthday party and Baby Shower being hosted there. It was a little surreal, but kind of a cool idea. They have a bunch of toys for the kids and a kid-friendly band.*** It gives the adults a way to get out of the house and still feel reasonably adult (because it gives hard to feel adult when you’re constantly reading books that consist entirely of 1-syllable words and trying to figure out if your child is poopy or just farty).

 

*Actually, all of the upper Midwest.

**Both times in intersections where the plow had created a pile of snow at the cross street.

***This week was a friend of mine college and her husband. So that was cool.