Baby it's cold outside!

It's late morning with the sun already high in a clear blue sky as I write this, but the temperature is in the 20s. While that counts as a mild day in Minnesota, it's frigid in eastern North Carolina, especially when combined with a brisk, biting wind. Meteorologists say we're in for the longest sustained period of freezing temperatures in decades over the next several days. It's a good time to huddle in your home and do some reading, watch a movie on the DVD player or just catch up on napping. Outdoor activities are too painful to contemplate, and, fortunately, there's little gardening that needs to be done this time of year. I won't be raking leaves, mowing grass or planting annuals this month. My most sustained outdoor activity might be walking the dog, whose thick, furry coat makes this her kind of weather.

This persistent stretch of cold nights could have a positive effect. Sustained freezing temperature discourages some insect pests and bacteria and can kill some invasive plants. But few of us are thinking about the benefits as we shiver our way from door to car. My own car, well into its 16th year and 140,000-plus miles, doesn't care for the cold. The radio refuses to work in the cold. (I'm told that the problem is probably a poorly seated circuit board that contracts in the cold and fails to make a good connection, but it's not worth hundreds of dollars for a technician to find the problem or the $100 or so to replace the whole thing.) Whenever I'm greeted by silence when I crank the car, I know it's cold.

Bitter cold like this is usually bad news for fire departments. People will go to great lengths to stay warm, but sometimes those lengths involve hazardous practices. Space heaters are often the problem as unattended heaters ignite nearby flammable material. Refilling kerosene heaters is the cause of many fires, and open fireplaces or wood heaters can also cause fires. As you stay warm, use caution. Shivering in the cold is bad, but a house fire is infinitely worse. Be warm, but be safe!

Here's a little distraction from the cold, courtesy of Dean Martin: