Crazy Cold

Can you see the temperature on that thermometer? It is crazy cold. I was shooting through two panes of glass with a zoom lens. That explains the muddled photo.

I was NOT opening the door to get the shot. That would be crazy.

Seems to be the theme for the day. Crazy.

__________

I had to run a few errands yesterday. It was crazy out there. I made a stop at a local building store and ran into several strange situations. The first was I was backing out of a parking spot. I was about a third of the way out of the spot when a mother and small child literally stepped right in back of my vehicle. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them. I don't think the mom saw me moving at all.  She certainly didn't seem like she was paying attention to her surroundings. I know they weren't there when I started moving because I looked both directions a couple times. I'm super paranoid about backing up so I look multiple times each time I have to do it.

After they went past me, I successfully got out of the spot and headed for the exit from the parking lot. Four people, two men and two women, were walking in the middle of the road. Looking up at the sky, at the big sign, at anything other than the road. The middle of the road. Where they were walking. They looked like zombies, wandering around, unaware of their surroundings.

It made me think of flies in the fall. When colder weather starts to set in, flies get very slow and sluggish. They get stupefied. You can catch them with your hands they are so slow. And they walk around, not even bothering to fly.

That's what these people reminded me of and I had an epiphany. They were stupefied by the cold. Just like the flies.

__________

Once I got past those four, I decided to go to the car wash and clean the car. It was filthy from all the road grime from the past few storms. When I got to car wash, I was the fourth car in line. There was a car in the wash bay, the four of us waiting, and people coming in behind me. 

We waited and waited and waited. And waited some more. It took forever for the wash cycle to end and the car to drive out. The next car went in. It was a large SUV. It pulled in and I could see the green "pull forward" arrow blinking so I knew the SUV wasn't properly situated on the tire track.

I don't think the SUV knew it. It just sat there for a while. Eventually the driver realized they were going to have to move the vehicle.

Back up. Move forward, turning the wheel a little bit. Back up. Move forward, turning the wheel a little bit more. This happened about a dozen times. And the little green arrow just kept blinking.

It took about ten minutes before the SUV was properly situated on the track and the door to the wash bay closed. The wash took a very long time. A very long time. So long that I started wondering exactly what was going on in that wash bay.

The door started shaking. I've been through this car wash before and the door doesn't shake. Something was definitely going on in there. The fellow in front of me got out of his truck and took a look at the wash bay door. He stood there for a little while and then got back in his vehicle. The woman who was next in line for a wash got out of her car and went back to talk to the fellow in front of me. They spoke for a few minutes and then looked in my direction. He nodded at something she said and then she came to talk to me.

"The SUV is stuck in there," she said. "They're crashing into things trying to get loose. I want to back up and leave," she added. 

"Okay, I'll back up as soon as the car behind me backs up," I told her. She took off to talk to the woman behind me. She had to make this speech several times because we had a line of seven cars waiting for this wash bay. It took a little maneuvering but I finally got myself out of line and drove off. No car wash for me.

Side note - When I went by the car wash today the bay door was still closed. Yikes. I wonder if they're still in there?

I was very happy to get home and away from all the cold craziness.

I've been making homemade hot cocoa the past few weekends. We had some New Year's Eve because it was crazy cold that night and my father and uncle wanted hot cocoa when we got back from dinner. I'm not a big fan of the packaged cocoa so I thought I'd try my hand at making my own.

I started out with milk and hot fudge sauce. That was okay, but as my niece said, "It tastes like chocolate milk."

Can't have that, can we?

So she looked at a few recipes and we tried one. It was pretty tasty. Everyone seemed to like it.

We had some friends over last night and I tried it again. But I couldn't find the recipe. I found one similar and modified it a bit.

Homemade Hot Cocoa

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
Dash salt
1/3 cup boiling water
4 cups of milk
1 cup of half and half
Miniature marshmallows or whipped cream for topping

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add boiling water and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in milk and half and half and bring to serving temperature. Do not boil. Remove from heat and enjoy!

*I find this to be a pretty sweet cocoa mix. I think I'm going to try cutting the sugar next time. Or I may add more milk/half and half.
__________

Stay warm and stay safe. It's crazy out there.