Shiver me Timbers

The temperature this morning was -17F at my house, with an overnight low of -18. It would have been colder, except that a cloud layer moved in overnight, which helps hold the heat in. Tonight, they're forecasting even colder weather. We could break the big two-oh.

We have a goofy tradition where I try to pick the coldest night of the year to invite folks over for a barbecue. Since we have a birthday party for the twins on Saturday (they're two), I think that will be the magic day this year. Folks in southern climes may find this surprising, but grilling outdoors works just fine in the winter. You just have to get the food inside fast because it gets cold quickly.

The tradition started when I lived in a highrise apartment during my college days. One of the amenities we had was a set of gas grills for resident use, the kind which is permanently mounted to a post and burns gas from Minnegasco instead of a propane tank. My window overlooked the grills, and one year I got to musing about whether they shut off the gas to the grills in the winter or not.

After trudging through the snowdrifts, I discovered that the gas was not, in fact, shut off, and the grills worked just as well in the winter as in summer.

Thus was born the midwinter barbecue. She Who Puts Up With Me (at that time she was merely She Who Puts Up With Me On Weekends And Over Vacation) thought this was sufficiently silly as to be worth doing on a regular basis.