The range of our electronic indoor-outdoor thermometer is not quite adequate for an Ottawa winter; it bottoms out at -30 degrees Celsius. We've gone off the gauge twice this winter, on the Monday before Christmas (-32C in still air, God knows what with the wind chill) and yesterday (-30 in still air, -40 with the wind chill). Today it's merely kinda cold at -19, but a major snowstorm has hit us from the southwest.

This morning (as often happens in January) I came down with a bad case of fantasizing about living somewhere else. Ireland seems good -- not cold (by our standards) in winter, not hot in summer, and people read a lot and play music in bars ...