Chillin'

The parties never look good in a primary fight.

No argument from me on that one, Uncle Ken.  Look back a few years to all those folks that ran in the 2016 Republican primary; some of them weren't half bad and Trump wasn't given a snowball's chance in hell of winning.  Maybe the Democrats will find their own unqualified and incapable candidate who can win and take home the marbles; they have plenty to choose from.  And it's not impossible that Pelosi runs as the incumbent with Trump and Pence having been shown the door because of the fallout from all the Mueller hoopla.  Keep your scorecards handy, folks.

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I haven't heard the term Chiberia before but it's a clever play on words and apt this season.  Yes, it's cold but what do you expect in the winter?  The Chicago River freezes a lot, so does the lake, but maybe people have short memories.  I had to go out yesterday to the T-Mobile store to add money to my "pay-as-you-go" phone and I thought, Yep, it's cold!  But it was only (!) half a mile, I was warmly dressed and found it quite tolerable as long as I was moving.  All for naught; the store was closed because of the cold weather.

I tried again today with the other T-Mobile store near me, a half-mile in the opposite direction, and had success; they were open.  Today was supposed to be colder than yesterday but it didn't seem like that to me but yesterday was windier.  Once you start getting below 10F it all feels the same to me, it's just cold.  Another ten or twenty degrees lower don't make much difference to me as long as I can stay warm.  Uncle Ken asked if food tastes different since I've given up smoking and I can't tell yet; my tongue had a tingly feeling for a while, though.  But I think that my blood circulation has definitely improved; no discomfort at all in my hands or feet wearing the same boots and gloves that I always wear in the winter.

And is there anything more satisfying than returning to a warm home after a frigid foray?  I mentioned a while back that my apartment's windows were replaced with insulated ones and, by golly, they are doing the trick.  Even with a couple of windows cracked open an inch the indoor temperature is 80F, a little too warm for my taste.

I've been monitoring the temperature with a dandy IR thermometer I have.  It's pretty accurate (according to the manufacturer and I have no reason to doubt them) and the lowest I've measured was -31.2F very early this morning.  I'm not checking the temps that often but they are always way different than the reported temperatures on TV.  And none of this matters since it's supposed to be a lot warmer (or less cold) in the next few days.  But fun while it lasted.