Hot Baths And Herbal Tea

It was blessedly warm for a while today (if you can call 31 F warm) and sunny. Unfortunately, the warmth caused the roof over my sun room to leak. I heard an unfamiliar sound from there when I was in the kitchen this morning, and there was a long wet line on the ceiling that probably parallels a plank, and it was dripping along its length. I hurriedly put down buckets and a towel. Later, I went out and raked that spot on the roof to remove as much of the snow up there as possible. With all we've had in the past couple weeks, it's a considerable amount. An hour or so later, the dripping stopped. My hope is it will remain dry as long as I can keep that part of the roof mainly clear of snow. I'm sure it isn't done snowing yet though.

There was so much snow piled up next to the house from all the roof raking I've been doing that I could stand on top of the pile and touch the gutters.

The weather forecasters are talking breathlessly about how this February will be remembered for many years to come. A friend texted me that the average temp for the month is 13 F. When I checked a few weeks back, we were about 10 inches below normal for snowfall.  Today we're 11.5 inches above normal. There are two more polar waves expected this week. The first tonight, the second on Wednesday night. Just have to get through those two, and then it looks like the weather pattern will stabilize. For much of this month, my therapy has been hot baths and cups of herbal tea. The power of a hot bath to return me to a hopeful and energetic frame of mind cannot be underestimated. It is better than any vitamin or supplement, better than any other stimulant. The promise of at least some normal weather next weekend will be my motivation to soldier on.