{"id":21621,"date":"2022-02-21T09:06:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T16:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/?p=21621"},"modified":"2022-03-17T12:01:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:01:39","slug":"feb-21-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/2022\/02\/21\/feb-21-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 21 Coffee & Cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never trust anyone who doesn’t drink coffee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AJ Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am sitting in the fire room with the boy cats.<\/p>\n

It is less than five degrees in here, but I have a new fire blazing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I went out to sweep off the solar panels, bathrobe and snow boots. I didn’t stop to take pics. Too cold<\/p>\n

Feels like -45, at that temp it didn’t matter. It’s all just too cold.<\/p>\n

I had a long 2×4 and a 2×6 left in the fire room from foraging yesterday on the front deck.<\/p>\n

I put a fresh battery in the saw and cut those up. That would do till about noon. Then I would have to find more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 15 minutes, the temp has doubled in here. It means that the mass is still warm. A good thing.<\/p>\n

I remember the day I decided to leave the hospital in January 2015. I had been there long enough.<\/p>\n

I dumped the last of my opioids in the toilet. Got scolded by a nurse for that. What was she going to do? Give another patient used pills.<\/p>\n

I made a call to get a ride home. I had been in two different hospitals for a total of 45 days, had one spinal surgery, needed another.<\/p>\n

It was -45 outside. When I finally got home, it was -45 inside the house. I gathered enough wood for a fire. There were no cats, just cold. My living room was the open plan back then. My bed was in there.<\/p>\n

I dreamt of this moment every day and every night I was in the hospital in those uncomfortable beds.<\/p>\n

I had a 3-inch memory foam topper on the bed. With all the energy I had left, I flopped back first, onto solid cement. Memory foam freezes solid in sub-zero temps.<\/p>\n

I screamed, my broken back was fresh then. After a few minutes, I took all the blankets off, I layed with my head to the fire and set out to survive the night.<\/p>\n

It took 12 hours to get the inside to zero. Another 12 to get it to 20.<\/p>\n

The pain was hard to deal with, but I survived. The opioids the doctors had prescribed during my long stay in the hospital had long since stopped working.<\/p>\n

The next few weeks were more painful as I went back to chopping wood with a broken neck and back.<\/p>\n

It is up to 15 in the fireroom, the kettle I had on the woodstove boiled and now coffee is dripping through the cone filter beside me.<\/p>\n

The first load of wood that I used to start the fire this morning is gone, just some forgotten coals and ash.<\/p>\n

It’s time to pour the rest of the hot water from the kettle into the thermos and climb back under the blankets.<\/p>\n

After I put more wood into the fire.
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I decided the best place to be, was next to the fire, having black coffee. So I stayed here, finishing this.<\/p>\n

Later I would have to brave the cold again. There would be no gen today. I didn’t want chance damaging this one. I couldn’t afford another one.<\/p>\n

Wood got got, snow got got too. Pics were taken in bitey cold. Air so cold it bites the inside of your lungs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Decided to cut while I still had winter clothes on. Ready for the next -45 night, maybe.<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
Recorded in 1948.