just when you think the weather can’t get weirder

…. it gets WAY weirder. Last week was horrible — the temperature dropped down into the teens on Monday night and stayed there till… Saturday I think. Complete with howling winds. That went on all week and  we couldn’t even make it to work Friday. The forecast was for an "icing event" to begin around noon, so we planned to go in and then head for home as soon as the "event" started…. then it started pouring snow before we even left for work. Pouring snow and pouring ice and pouring sleet. So we said forget it and stayed home. Over the weekend it was slightly better – like all the way up to 35 maybe. Ick. 

So. This morning I start out the door and slip all over the place- there’s ice all over the front stoop. There’s also ice all over the Fit so we end up thinking maybe we better drive in together (the Civic is old and beat up and has snow tires so it’s the Snow Car). We start off down the road in our development, and about halfway to the main road, right before the big steep hill we have to go down, Baker B starts sliding all over the place. We couldn’t get turned around to go back and we were afraid to keep going, so we ended up pulling as far off the side of the road as we could get and walking back to the house. And waiting for a couple of hours for it to warm up and for the ice to melt, because the forecast WAS for it to get up in the 40s today. Quite balmy compared to the teens. And better yet, SIXTIES tomorrow. And of course more snow and a temperature plummet on Friday, just in time for the weekend. 

Anyhow, we wait around till about 9:45, decide it’s warmed up enough, and we go on in. There was still ice all over the place, but it was mostly melted off the roads. 

Okay. This is the really bizarre thing. At 10:30 it was about 35 degrees. An hour later, it was… 55 degrees. FIFTY FIVE DEGREES, which is, SERIOUSLY, a heat wave. For this place, in January. Not that I mind, I am quite excited by this— other than the fact that I am burning UP. Because I am, as usual, dressed for my frigid office, where even with my illegal space heater roaring away it rarely gets to 70 degrees. It’s been around 62 when I come in lately, which is basically meat locker temperatures. 70 is much too cold for me; hence the sweater, t-shirt and down vest. I have shed the vest — it is 77 degrees in here and I have my window open.

Yes, we could not get to work this morning because we were iced in, and now, a few hours later, it is so hot that I have my window open. 

It’s like living on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. 

In other news…. I’m too wiped out from the weather to come up with any other news. We are still working on Exciting England Plans…

Which, OMG, actually DID get even more exciting since last I wrote… Baker B is going with us! Well, MAYBE Baker B is going with us. I think Baker B really will go with us, because Baker B came up with a very cunning plan involving him not spending the first week in London with us and getting acclimated to being WAY out of his comfort zone without ruining OUR trip by being overwhelmed by London and melting down into a puddle of fury and anxiety. His plan was always to go hike in the Lake District at some point in the distant future- probably just him and me, probably years down the road since it’s not cheap, this going to England thing– but a few weeks ago he came up with a great idea. Kim and I had already planned to spend our second week in Wiltshire- we want to go back to Bath and Avebury and maybe to Salisbury Cathedral and see more of the cool mystic stuff and white horses and maybe even some crop circles since Wiltshire is Cool Mystic Stuff and Crop Circle Central, and is also apparently not quite the vacation hotspot that places like Cornwall are in the summer– SO Baker B decides that he will go to Wiltshire too. And he’ll spend the week that we’re in London in Wiltshire by himself. Hiking and visiting all the Cool Mystic Stuff. Oddly I almost immediately found him the perfect spot through AirBnB (the site we found our London Host on, the one we’re staying with again because it was so perfect) – a room in Devizes, which is close to Avebury, with a New-Agey sounding guy who had very good reviews and is renting his room for a great price. We’ve already booked it, and then he will come stay with us in Marlborough the next week, where we’ve also booked a place that sounds great and is reasonable and hopefully neither of them will be run by crazed serial killers. 

The main problem we’re running into is how Baker B will get around. He is all for renting a car, but we are not so sure that’s a great idea. He is on the nervous side (obviously) and will already be stressed out by the looooong overnight flight and although Kim and I survived renting a car on our previous England trip,  the first day  was, ummmm, a little on the nightmare side. At least it was when we got off the M1 and hit roundabouthell and were exhausted and lost and…waaahhh!!!! It was fine later — after that day suddenly I turned into SuperDriver and had no problems at all — but I’m a little afraid of Baker B taking off on his own in a car in a strange country where everything is on the opposite side of what we’re used to. A train may be an option, although he’d have to switch somewhere – there’s no station in Devizes, I don’t think. Buses may be too, if we can figure out the schedule. There is also the option of us renting a car for one day and Kim and I just driving him over to Devizes, dropping him off, and coming back to London and turning it in, and THEN going on to Stratford. Which would be exhausting but also fun since we’d see where he’s staying. It’s a little over an hour from Heathrow to Devizes, apparently. He can take buses while he’s there— or maybe even rent a car there. We’re also worried about him coming back to London to get us if he does have the car- we certainly don’t want him getting in the Heathrow or London traffic coming in. 

Anyhow, I’m sure we’ll figure something out. It’s exciting to contemplate, at least. I am SO glad he wants to do this — that’s one reason I know it’s a good idea. Instead of being filled with the dread of taking Baker B The Horrible Traveller to England, I’m thrilled! He just needs to do a LOT of preparation. And quit losing stuff. And focus. 

And now I need to get back to work. I’ve had eleventy zillion problems crop up since I started this, so I suppose I need to go focus on my job.