Baby it's cold outside!!

Last night it got down to 14 degrees. Fahrenheit. Wow. For Austin, that is COLD!!!! 26 degrees below normal, to be exact.
The temperature plummeted on Friday and I don't think it's risen above freezing yet.
Of course, Thursday night was the night our furnace decided to go out. Naturally.
So Friday we did lessons in coats and hats, cuddled up next to our fireplace, and thankfully by 6:30 PM we got a new furnace installed plus a fancy new programmable thermostat. Our furnace was the original in the house, about 26 years old, so I guess it was time for a new one. We also had to get a new air conditioning coil thingamajig, so it wasn't a cheap day, let me tell you. But ya gotta do whatcha gotta do, I guess.
This afternoon the boys went outside and broke pieces of ice from the top of our pool cover, turned on the hoses and watched "ice snakes" emerge and otherwise had fun in the cold.
I really love winter in Austin. You never know what you're gonna get. It's freezing cold now, and it would get pretty annoying after a while, but by Thursday we'll be back up to our normal 60's for the high and 40's for the low. It's kind of fun to have freak cold spells once in a while, as long as I know it'll be over in a few days. :-)