that gave me a wind chill of -14°F (that's -25°C for this playing metric). at first everything was okay, but after a few minutes i could feel my fingertips freezing. a little bit better than my prior gloves+mittens combo, but not by much. maybe today was just too cold. by the time i arrived in belmont, my exposed cheeks hurt so much that i went to the bathroom to check if they were bleeding. my fingertips were stinging.
my mother made some egg pancakes for lunch. my sister wanted to take the dog out for a walk in the forest again but i convinced her to wait another day since it was too cold and hailey might get frostbite on her big ears (instead they took a walk around fresh pond). a labrador-hound mix is not a winter dog!
i tried watching the 1:00 houston-baltimore game but it was obvious that the ravens were going to win. so it's decided: next sunday 3:00 baltimore vs. new england. the ravens are not the broncos and the patriots will have to face a serious opponent. but if new england wants to get into the superbowl and win it all, they have to show they're the best, and what better way to beat baltimore?
in the afternoon i helped my mother clear out one of the bookshelves in the computer room and turn that into a yarn wall. "i can't buy anymore yarn," she said after seeing how much she had. she even added some yarn she got back in the late 80's early 90's from local department store ann & hope. the thing she figured out today was the importance of getting yarn from the same dye lot, after examining some of her skeins and seeing some didn't match even though technically they were the same yarn.
4:30 was the giants-packers game and i was rooting for new york because they were the underdog. at a certain point i realized, hey, the giants might actually win! this seemed inconceivable as defending champions green bay was all but certain to be going to the superbowl once again. it felt like deja vu. the 2007 new england patriots team were in the same position against the giants, with the winningest record (actually undefeated up to that point), victory seemingly guaranteed. at least the packers lost in the playoffs, which is less painful than losing at the superbowl.
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after dinner, i watched the game until it was certain that the giants were going to win. my father gave me a pair of old ski gloves and told me to try them with a pair of smaller liner gloves on the inside. what i really need is a pair of motorcycle hand mitts that fit over the handlebars. this is all new to me since normally i would've had my motorcycle in storage by this point and don't have to worry too much about winter riding and keeping my hands warm.
the temperature when i left belmont was in the single digits. the motorcycle felt sluggish, like the engine wanted to sleep instead of work, and was slow to accelerate. the ski gloves + liners combo worked up to a point; by the time i was 2/3 of the way back home, i started feeling my fingertips getting cold. when i finally got home, my fingers were hurting and it took me a while to remove my glove with frozen fingers so i could get the key to open the door.
i watched the golden globes awards. it seemed sort of lackluster, nothing exciting happened, and i had no vested interests in who won or lost. it was cool to see peter dinklage win for game of thrones. maybe one surprise was kelset grammer winning best male actor in a drama; did nobody see bryan cranston in breaking bad? what always amazed me about the golden globes is how it ends on time, right before 11:00. why aren't other award shows like this? (i'm talking to you, oscars!)
it got cold enough in my house that i turned up the heat for the first time since i last had a roommate (almost a month ago). my heating (gas) bill has been very low this season due to the unusual wintertime warmth. the bill for last month was only $80, when usually it's around $200.