Portable Snowmen

It's cold... Brrrr. Okay, so this is not the Yukon, or even North Dakota, but the cold here is bone-chilling enough to be blog-worthy!

It snowed today, the first time this season here in Jordan. People here don't have lawns. (Remember, this is the desert and most of Jordan is arid. Here, instead of a grassy lawn, you have sand or concrete.) Since people can't make snowmen on their lawns, some of them make snowmen on their cars. We snapped the above photo in the parking garage at the Carrefour in Irbid. We went there tonight for a few things. It is a newly-opened store and it was packed. Think Wal-Mart on opening day. Chaos. I have digressed. Anyway, we saw several snowmen on cars as we drove through town.

So, back to the cold. The problem with the cold here is that it is cold inside. There is no central heating system. I suppose only extremely wealthy people can afford such a luxury. Wood heat is out of the question also. The reason? There is no wood! Jordan is sand and stone. The houses are made out of stone, not wood. There are a few trees - mostly olive trees - but they are not used for building or heat. 

We heat with small propane tanks and small electric heaters. The propane tanks cannot be used at night. Since the tanks here are not up to code, compared to U.S. safety standards, it is dangerous to keep them on night while we are asleep. And the electricity in our building is limited, to put it mildly. We pop breakers almost every day. So we can't have a big heater that puts out a lot of heat. We have to make do with a little heater that does not require much electricity. 

The only room we heat is our bedroom, which also serves as our office. And our dining room. And our living room. We go into the kitchen, prepare food as quickly as possible, and bring it back to the bedroom where we sit on the bed and eat. We don't have a couch in the bedroom, so we sit on the bed when we want to relax or read or work on projects or use our laptops. Every room - including the bathroom! - is about the same temperature as the outside air, except our bedroom. 

So, yeah, it's cold. Not good for us humans, but great for the snowmen!  :)