The winter of 1977-78 was very cold. The bay froze over. People were walking across the bay under the bay bridge. The northeast experienced shortages of salt (for the roads) and coal (for electric power plants). For Baltimore, ships couldn’t get up the bay to deliver supplies. There were plenty of supplies in the railroad yards, but the hopper doors were frozen shut. They had to build fires to melt the ice so they could unload the cars. This understandably slowed the unloading of supplies. It’s not that cold this year yet. But it will be if low temperatures continue. Lows are well into the single digits. Highs are below 20. Icebreakers are patrolling the bay. Our furnace is not quite capable of meeting demand. It turns on at night and runs continuously, leaving the house at 65 — 3 degrees lower than the set point. Today there’s plenty of sunshine, but we’re still 2 degrees short of our desired temperature.

The temperature has a profound effect on our electric car. Last Sunday was a 5th Sunday. We took the Leaf to Miss Shirley’s Restaurant for breakfast, in the Inner Harbor. As we drove up towards Baltimore, it became evident that the Leaf has 1/3 to 1/4 the range it has in the summertime. We made it home fine, but we decided to turn the heat off and use that electricity for a little more driving range.

There were a few more niggles this week. On Monday, I hurt my back while lifting my razor. It’s a Gillette Trac-3, with 3 steel blades. I just might be the first person ever to hurt their back while lifting one of these babies. I spent a couple of days hobbling around the house.

Yesterday, I got a “blue light” treatment for my face. The doc says this kills off precancerous growths. It feels exactly like a severe sunburn to me. But I’m just a lay person. My face is so sore I won’t even think of getting into the shower. And I’m not lifting that Trac 3. I’m not allowed to be in sunlight for two days. Danita and I can go out for Sunday breakfast, provided we get back before sunrise. (That’s pretty easy for us.) But I won’t be able to go to Church. Our church is having a dinner Sunday. Danita and I usually volunteer to serve. I’m staying home and Danita is going just to eat, along with a few other people from the neighborhood. They’ll bring me a take-out meal for dinner.

Monday it’s my turn to bring donuts to Men’s club. I plan to get the donuts early in the morning, drop them at the clubhouse, and come home. Technically I can go out Monday if I’m wearing sunblock. But my face is quite sore and I’m pretty sure I won’t want to walk back and forth to the clubhouse in the sunshine.

All the Christmas decorations are put away. We’re blissfully tracking plastic pie tree needles around the house. We should have the last of those picked up about the same time the house gets up to 68, in a month or so.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.