Could someone please turn up the heat?

So far, this winter has been pretty mild.  We’ve managed to avoid the ten-plus inches of snow that hit Chicago this weekend, and the temperatures have been nice overall.  There was the Sunday before Christmas which was miserably bitter, but a week later we were in the 60s with thunderstorms, so it’s hard to complain.  And then this week comes along… I just hope the City Bus can start in -10F.  Three nights this week have a low forecast below zero.  I’d understand this if I lived in Duluth or Missoula, but I don’t.  I live in central Indiana.

The Sunday before Christmas was the coldest day I can remember.  The wind chill never got above minus 20.  Fortuntely, I never had to go outside that day.  Maybe I should just take the whole week off.  The last time temperatures got this low, Martin University in Indianapolis suffered several million dollars worth of damage from a burst pipe, and Fark.com was chock-full of stories about people who burned down their houses by trying to melt frozen pipes with a blowtorch.  Please don’t do that.