As I was walking, neighbor D stopped her car to chat for a moment. She commented that it was going to get very cold – eleven degrees! That didn’t shock me, since I had walked a day or two ago at that same temperature. 11 F is -11.667 C. I said I would watch it and be ready to do my tap dance – dancing around the house setting all the cold water taps to drip water. Just a steady drip will prevent the pipes from freezing and bursting.

We never did that in New York, because our pipes were in the basement, along with the heating unit for the house. It wasn’t exactly warm down there, but it was never below freezing. In North Carolina there are vents scattered around the walls in the crawl space beneath the house. It could get quite cold, because the heat pumps are outside and not adding heat to the air. D said they will run a small heater in their garage under the house. That will keep their floors from being quite as cold as mine. I think a mug of pumpkin spice hot chocolate will be my reward after doing the tap dance.

I added the photo above just because it looks cold. Lise and Toke took it on the lawn at Biltmore.