Surviving January: Tales from a Cold and Challenging Month

Posted on by Melissa Gerdes Zapanta

January has been a tough month, dear friends. It’s not just the state of our union here in the U.S., which is just awful. We’ve personally had trial after trial this month, which is why I haven’t done my usual musings. I’ve had many opinions about what is happening, just not in a coherent way that is not ranting. However, I have had to manage what is in front of me.

We spent most of the month without our furnace working, relying on space heaters in the bitter cold and the blizzard that rolled through. I’m grateful that we had the space heaters, but they definitely were not enough to do the job during the bitter nights. We both ached snuggled together beneath our heated blankets night after night, not telling anyone until this past week.

My sister was beside herself and scolded me, really both of us, when I finally said something to her. But these economic times are what they are. She had good points – just ask for help. But I know everyone else is in the same boat as we are – price hikes on everything is ridiculous. I make a decent living for better economic times but we are where we are. We had just paid our big monthly bills and were broke until my next payday.

I’ve been doing pantry prepping over the past year, following the advice of @SuttonsDaze and a few others on YouTube. Check out her channel. She has a lot of good advice that reminds me of my mom and mother-in-law. Both children of the depression, they grew up with making everything stretch. So because of pantry preparedness… we had everything we needed until the damn furnace broke. Our pantry was set for the impending storm. We just needed to keep warm.

Chris is disabled with a heart condition et alia. He is on blood thinners and other meds that make him freeze even in the middle of summer. I’m still recovering from the main breast cancer treatment. I’m also still on cancer meds with yuk side effects. Treatment has led to new health issues that I can talk about another time. I know we both often don’t think about aging and its accompanying health issues. I’m reminded of this when I attempt tasks that I can no longer perform. I’m not quite accepting of a new normal and I’m fighting to get back to where I was before diagnosis.

To add insult to injury, I had my routine colonoscopy on the 16th and the nurse who did my IV was sick. So guess what? I ended up sick for a week.

Then along the way we also discovered a faucet leak in our utility sink in the basement. The shut off wouldn’t turn so we had to call a plumber. He fixed it, or so we thought. The following day I went to the basement and discovered the fix was leaking. When I turned on the washer, water flooded out everywhere. We can’t win for losing.

So then snow-mageddon dumped nine inches of snow on us. Thanks Fern. We couldn’t get a plumber back out here for almost a week. I positioned a paint pan to direct the water into the utility sink until we could get someone here and proceeded to clean up the mess.

But wait there’s more.

Then last Friday night we had a massive water leak in the bathroom that flooded not only the bathroom but through the baseboards and vent into our basement. We were up the entire night cleaning up the mess in the basement in the house with limited heat. It became our entire weekend project. Fucking January. It was freezing in the basement and I wanted to keep Chris warm, so it was me. And from all the lifting, pulling and crap that I did, the cording from my surgery site is back from my sternum to my armpit with spasms from the bottom of my ribcage up. Yeah kids, are we having fun yet!?!

Still, my mom raised me with grit, so cold, in pain, and generally feeling crappy with no sleep. I’m still working every day and figuring this shit out, usually not telling anyone how I’m physically feeling. We all have problems.

Angie, my sister, reminded me to not hide what’s going on from family. When we were young and she was broke and hungry, I was broke too only making $3.86 an hour at the time (mid 1980s), but I showed up with groceries several times. It’s hard for me to be the receiver instead of the giver. But this is a humbling reminder that family and community matters. My tribe matters.

The plumber finally came back out yesterday. It took him about 10 minutes to fix the problem. So far it’s holding. On tenterhooks, I started the wash machine before work this morning. Crossing fingers and toes and whatever good juju I can muster. Yes, prayers are welcome.

Last night, even under an electric blanket, my joints and bones ached so much that I could not sleep. I was hating this old house and mulling our escape to someplace warm. Yes, I live in a 114-year-old house with beautiful, natural hardwood floors, crystal door handles, and an original transom over my back door that is literally 10 minutes on surface streets to downtown. Our little house is charming and convenient. The price is dealing with the problems that arise inherent to owning one.

I can report that finally this afternoon the HVAC dude said… let there be heat and now there is heat. I’m feeling relief that the water is off when it’s turned off and that the house is warming up.

I know my problems are minuscule in the big scheme of things. I feel for the people in Minnesota and all over the country right now. In my little corner of the world helping family, friends, and neighbors and taking care of our tiny house on our humble road is what I can do. We’re built for this – GenX and Gen Jones. We have grit to make it through. Keep doing the next right thing.

I’m hoping February is going to be better for all of us.

winter struggles, home repairs, furnace issues, chronic illness, breast cancer survivor, GenX life, prepping and pantry, old house living, resilience stories, personal essays, January reflections, family and community support

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Published by Melissa Gerdes Zapanta

Blogger. Writer. Digital Creator. Published author, essayist, and poet. (Former journalist.)

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