I am repressed, suppressed and depressed!

This winter crap is getting the best of me I am afraid. I have learned that Heat Pumps aren’t the answer to the chilly maiden’s prayer, perhaps their musings but not their prayers. We have two in the house now, the first a 18K BTU Mitsibushi which warms the upstairs and the second a 18K BTU Panasonic to warm the downstairs. Both are supposed to work well below freezing and normally, here in Shelburne, our coldest days are well within their operational range but last night I found out that at temperatures approaching and below -150 C they start to lose their umph, especially the Panasonic. The Mitsibushi will perform reasonably well down to -25 but from -15 they start to taper off and at -27 they simply shut down. The Panasonic starts to lose the will to live at -10 and by the time you get to -15 it is thinking about giving up the fight. Guess what? Last night, the first night that we had the Panasonic installed it went down to -16! Not the best circumstances in which to try out the new toy. Why did we get the Panasonic? Well it was $2K cheaper and normally we don’t get days here that are that cold. So we’ll try it out and see. The installer has said that he’ll replace it with another Mitsibushi for the price difference so that could be an option but I’d rather not, especially as the other frustrating thing happened today. I happened to be down in the basement when I heard a hissing sound and after poking about I finally noticed that water was gushing out from the inside of the electric water heater. Great! Another thing to have to replace. Mutter! Mutter! Curse! Swear! Fortunately we happened to have one of the town tradespersons on site giving me an estimate for another job entirely and he is able to get a new heater installed for us this afternoon. I really wouldn’t want to go through this weekend with no hot water.

This weekend is calling for high winds, blowing wet snow in significant amounts, storm surge and high waves. Not a good time to be cruising this coast if you are brave enough to be out in a boat. As usual the weather witches are competing with each other to see who can put out the most confusing forecast and the local emergency measures coordinator is trying to make everyone realize that they should take precautions by making great sweeping statements about how serious it is going to be. Oh well. It will be what it will be. Not much we can do about it other than hunker down and bear it. Right now I am wondering if the power will remain on and if I will be able to use the electric snow blower or if I will be shoveling the old fashioned way with my own two arms and back.

Tomorrow we will be having a dinner party for some of our friends to cheer us up. The menu will be curries and rice and all of the condiments.

Oh dear. I do want to be back afloat and somewhere down south where my only decision will be which side of my carcass I want to brown just now.