Brr. can't wait for spring to arrive. We've had perhaps 4 days since mid December where temps have been warmer than -15C. We've had days where temps have risen to about -10C or so during the day and have falled to about -22 to -28 during the evening. Today was fun. I woke up to -19 Celsius at 8 AM. Two hours later, the temp was about +5 with the sun shining on it, and now it's back to -20 again.
We're seeing ice breakers patrolling the Oslo fjord so that the ferrys can get from Norway to Denmark. Island communities are isolated and are receiving helicopter shipments of food. You can almost walk from Denmark to Finland on the ice these days.
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One car died on us Dec 19th and it took 7 weeks for it to get repaired. Reason: Plugs, dynamos and parts for diesel cars have been out of stock in all of Europe due to the cold weather where hundreds of people have died. Our dealer fixed most of it on warranty, but i had to get a new battery. Cost: 2500 NOK or around 500,- canadian or australian dollars, thats excluding the tow truck and costs related to that.
For the 7 years that we've lived here, we have used perhaps 1000 litres of wood (full cage) for an entire winter. Now we've almost burnt two full cages and its still two months left of winter. Our power bill is hmm.
Our other car that didn't die is having exhaust problems due to the cold so it's been running on emergency program for a few days now, meaning that it just has 10% of the available power to it which makes it an interesting drive to say the least. We're driving it over to Sweden this weekend to get them both fixed and serviced. We're selling them both this spring since we really need a larger vehicle.
Diesel cars have the fun little thing about them where the fuel itself is starting to crystalize at about -22 Celsius. When almost every day is like that, starting them up is not the greatest thing you do when you don't have a garage. It sounds like one is killing them when you fire them up.
The car that did die hasn't been washed since the week before it died either. It's simply too cold.
Our house is mostly warm, but the popping sound our house makes in the cold doesn't sound too good. It's probably just the outer panel adjusting, but still it sounds like someone is throwing a rock at our walls.
Nathalie is done fine though by the way. She has grown 4 centimeters and has gained 1 kilo so far. She hasn't been out much due to the cold, but we do try to take her out for a stroll when the temp is not too "omg, i am going to die" cold.
I am really looking forward to spring and summer. I just hope we get more sun than the weekend we got last year, and thats not an overstatement either. We just had one good weekend with sun and warm temps last year. sigh.
