When sub-zero weather is more than just a lot of cold.

I'm not sure how to begin telling tales about the most recent events. I’m not sure whether to say the most difficult part of the past month was the extreme cold, the car that wouldn’t start in the extreme cold, or the sickness that has worsened and hung on because of the extreme cold.

I’ve had bronchitis for the past 3 months. It’s been up and down. At times I’ve wondered if I should simply go on short term disability at my job because of the absolute dehabilitating symptoms and the other bugs I’ve caught while trying to battle this thing. I’ve gotten little more than the basic things accomplished at home: clean clothes most of the time, to work and to daycare, while trying to rest enough to do it all over again. But when the weather takes a dip like it has this past week everything goes to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.

Tuesday was just such a day. It started off warm. But by the time I got to my car in the evening, it was too cold to start it. I had about 1 hour to pick up the twins at daycare after this discovery. So, I embraced my only available option: bus transportation. I got to the daycare in time to bundle them up in their boots and snowsuits, heading out the door to catch the bus back toward downtown. I was standing there with two toddlers under my arms, carrying them like firewood, when I spotted the 63 just a block away, as it prepared to breeze on past me because I was across the street from the bus stop, instead of standing there at it. Thankfully, the driver ascertained that I wished to get on and stopped while I hurried to cross the street and board. He held Gracie’s hand while I struggled to persuade Glory, that she did want to board with the rest of us, and wrangled the fare out of my purse.

The ride was warm but short compared to the 4 block walk we had ahead of us in the -10 degree cold. By the fourth block, the girls no longer wanted to walk and were crying in protest, saying, “Owie!” with snot running down their faces as we trudged into the wind. We waited at the 2^nd bus stop for a few minutes in front of the Burger King, trying to catch our breath, preparing for the next 4 blocks we had to walk. At this point it was 7 pm and very nearly their bedtime.

Then some African American lady in a junky van pulled up beside the bus stop and offered us a ride. I accepted gratefully, knowing it wouldn’t be too much trouble since we lived only 8 blocks away and that I had no idea how I was going to persuade these toddlers to walk into the wind for 4 more blocks. We got home and I thanked the lady profusely. The twins however, were too upset to be grateful. They screamed the entire time it took to heat their bottles of milk. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to feed them dinner because they were too upset and at least an hour beyond their dinner time, therefore bottles was the only option for sustenance. Gracie fell asleep from exhaustion, while I snuggled with them both in an attempt to soothe them. They didn’t seem to mind the coughing fit I was having as a result of the exposure.

After I got them to bed, my sister helped me go out and rescue my car from the bus stop I’d left it at. It started but I decided I’d park in on the hill beside the house because I knew it wouldn’t start in the morning if the cold lingered. My plan was to start it by rolling it down the hill and popping the clutch the next morning. However, the next morning, that plan failed and I was back to bundling up the girls and again walking to the bus stop in an attempt to get to daycare and work on a day when the state had closed all public schools so that kids much older than my own could avoid the very scenario we were in. Thankfully, we were intercepted at block 4 by a good Samaritan who offered to drive us to daycare. Again, the twins were inconsolable by the time we got to daycare. And I was having another coughing fit.

It seems the worse the cold the worse all situations. My health. Their well-being and positive disposition. My transportation and lack there-of being directly proportional to how low the thermometer dips in a day.

Life continues. And it revolves solely around getting to daycare, work and back home then sleep, forget the eating, then there’s the waking up and doing it all over again with belabored effort. I absolutely would not have survived this past month had I remained at my previous job in Minneapolis. I’m so grateful I have the job I currently have and that it is a permanent hire. I’m certain I’d have been dismissed if this wasn’t a permanent hire and if the commute was more lengthy, making it a nearly impossible feat for a car-less single mom on days with sub-zero weather.