Baby It's Cold Outside

As I write this it is 25 degrees outside and falling. The low in the park is predicted to be about 23. So much for easing into fall. Our little space heater is struggling to keep the temperature at 68 degrees and I am sure it will struggle even more when it hits 23 outside. We're dressed for the cold and already sitting in bed which for now is the warmest place around. I've got the heating pad on my ankle so I'm relatively warm. The heater we have is rated to 1200 square feet. We're only 308 (by my calculation) so the heater should be able to handle this weather with no problem. It's not. Matt says it's probably because we have no insulation in the walls. Could be. He's been putting shrink wrap on the windows and ceiling vents which seems to help. You can feel the cold radiating from the windows when you get close. Not good. We'll have to supplement the space heater with the gas furnace. That will keep us warmer.

Showering at this temperature can be tricky. There are 5 shower rooms that open directly to the outside of the bath house. They aren't heated so when you first go into the shower it's freezing. You can heat it up a little by running the hot water for a while before you get undressed. Once you're done you have to put on a lot of clothes for the walk back to the trailer. Not going to be fun doing that each day when it's 25 outside. It's all part of the adventure.

Things here at the campground are pretty quiet. The cold weather has eliminated most of the tent campers and the only campers left are in RVs. Our water hose is frozen so we're using water in the fresh water tank. It's located inside the trailer's shell so it doesn't freeze. We have about 3 days worth of water left so we need the temperatures to go up for a while. I'm not sure that's going to be the case. The weather reports are calling for possible show showers on Thursday. That will be fun.

My job last week was to clean the bath house. On Sundays one of the tasks is to disinfect the bath house with a spray on disinfectant/cleaner. You basically spray down everything, scrub, and then rinse with water. It takes about three hours to do the entire bath house. Sunday night when I was just about to start on the ladies room (which as usual was a total and complete mess) someone stepped out of the dark and asked if it was ok to use the rest room. In the dark, and not being able to hear well, I thought it was a man and I said the men's room was done but to be careful that the floor was wet. It turns out it was a woman. I was so embarrassed. In my defense she was dressed like a man, her voice gravelly from smoking, and it was dark. It reminded me of my time in the laboratory when I would assume big women were going to have babies and ask them if they knew what they were having. After making several mistakes I learned to keep my mouth shut and just draw the blood.

The Festival of Lights is scheduled to start on Thursday night. We've only seen parts of the display so on Thursday we'll get to see the entire show. I worked on some of the displays so I'm curious to see how they turned out. The festival runs to January 4th. One of our challenges is getting in and out of the park during the light show. Hosts who have been here through the light show tell us it's almost impossible to get in and out during the show since the roads all become one-way. To get out of the park you have to follow the light show crowd though the park and out the back entrance. To get back in the park you have to cut through the soccer fields and down a dirt road to get to the campground and miss the line of cars. This is going to be inconvenient to say the least. Driving up to the soccer fields in the snow will require 4WD which would be kind of fun, so there's that.

I'm taking Aunt Dee to see the lights on Friday. She is very excited. She had me write it on her calendar and has called me at least once to make sure we were still going. We're going to see the lights and go to dinner. A big outing for her.

Today was an interesting day for the state of South Carolina. The Fourth District Court of Appeals denied the state's request for an emergency stay to prevent marriage equality in the state. The court also said the state had to recognize marriages performed in other states. This is a very bad day for Nicki Haley and our buffoonish Attorney General Alan Wilson. Both of them essentially wasted the states money fighting a losing battle. I have a hard time believing that their fight was anything but a show to ingratiate themselves to the conservative evangelical right and to further their political careers. In this they have won. This wasn't about the right to marry, this was about politics. I'm happy for my friends who are in SC. They can get married now and those that are married are officially recognized. I'm also proud of my church, the Unitarian Church in Charleston, for actively participating in the fight and for openly welcoming those in search of a wedding venue in a place where they can make that forever commitment.

My friend Sarah Familar-Ragsdale is planning on marrying people on Friday, November 21st 2014 at Washington Square Park. If you'd like her to officiate your wedding you can contact her at Sarah@LiveTheElements.com, or 843-729-3635. If you like to keep up with her in real-time like Elemental Weddings - Wedding Officiant on Facebook or on Twitter at Live The Elements. If something happens and they have to move they'll update Facebook and tweet their location. When you get to the park you'll see their sign. Best of all they are doing this as a give-back to our community so it's free!

Time to snuggle under the covers and watch a movie. Baby It's Cold Outside!

Todd