There is nothing more annoying than a frequent blogger who has nothing to say.
I'm not talking about myself, of course.
I was really surprised to discover that there was a total lunar eclipse last night. I've been so immersed in my own little world of problems lately that I wasn't particularly concerned about lunar occurrences.
I happened to find out about the eclipse on YouTube, which had numerous channels providing live-stream eclipse coverage.
Red Moon Eclipse. Blood Moon Eclipse.
Wolf's Blood Eclipse.
The titles for the event were very intriguing.
Since it's nearly always cloudy, rainy, or foggy here in the wild forests of Tennessee, I knew that my chances of seeing the eclipse were probably Zero.
But......
despite the fact that it was only 10 degrees (Fahrenheit), I stepped outside.
Incredibly, the night was clear and the moon was directly overhead! And it was already halfway obscured in shadow from the eclipse.
The moon was yellow - not red - and there was a faint ring around it.
It was far too cold to stay outside and gawk, but I did manage to go out several times during the duration of the night to glimpse the progress of the eclipse.
I had to stay up until dawn to keep a close eye on the water pipes and make sure they didn't freeze.
I kept all the faucets on - - running at a fairly steady stream. If you just let them drip there's a good chance that they'll still freeze.
By dawn the temperature dropped to 8 degrees, but I was so tired that I (reluctantly) crawled into bed.
I got up again at around 9:00 a.m. and was horrified to discover that the hot water pipe in one of my bathrooms was frozen.
Ironically, it was the only faucet that I didn't keep running.
One little-known fact:
for some scientific reason that I can't explain, hot water pipes usually freeze more quickly than the cold water ones.
Anyway -
After my panic attack subsided, I got a hair dryer and worked on the pipe. I finally got it thawed, then I wrapped the inside pipes with an old blanket.
This frigid weather is expected to continue for (at least) the rest of this week - and next week - so I'll have a lot of sleepless nights....
.....not to mention astronomical heating and water bills.
Last winter my water bill doubled because I had to keep the faucets running so often.
I've heard rumors that spring is somewhere in the distant future.
