Whistling, Smiling Hand of the Hangman, 56th Day of Hagwinter, 525 M.E. (Aldebaran): It's cold out. 

Yesterday reached a high temperature of 70° F, 13° above normal, and I was able to walk a 7.1-mile Jackson. But temperatures plummeted overnight and it is expected to drop down to 19° tonight, with a wind-chill factor of 14°. 

By midweek, the temperatures should be back up into the 60s. 

Last summer, I was following the on line dispatches of two woman explorers, Ellen Hibbert and Tamara Klink, who were each separately solo sailing through the usually ice-blocked Northwest Passage. However, all that open water absorbed more heat than does the ice which usually reflects the heat away, and the Arctic warmed more than usual. The heat and warmth (by polar standards) caused disruptions to the polar vortex, the ring of winds circling the Earth's pole, which in turn disrupted the jet stream, which migrated south in large, meandering loops bringing cold Arctic air down with it. Which is all a long and probably not completely correct way of saying that, yes, this shockingly cold evening in Georgia is the result of global warming. I can already hear conservative minds explode over that last sentence.

This drafty old pile of bricks up on a hill that I call "home" isn't well equipped for these temperatures. It certainly isn't insulated against the extreme cold. It will be a chilly night, and an expensive one as my furnace runs non-stop all night, but I already have a big stack of blankets on the bed to keep me warm overnight. I'll survive, but I may not be getting out from the bed very early tomorrow morning.    

If the power goes out overnight, I'm fucked.