Coldest November in Norway in 91 years, says the local newspaper. I can certainly believe that, although I cannot remember that far back. Neither can my father, for that matter. That year was roughly similar to this one. Apart from that, none since people started to write down temperatures in this country.

I have pretty much given up on the living room. I keep it above freezing, but not enough to stay in. I try to keep my study warm enough for sitting, the bathroom warm enough for shitting, and the bedroom warm enough for sleeping. That’s pretty much it, and it is hard. I think the heat pump may be leaking, there is a weird smell when I use it that has not been there before. If it still works tomorrow it is probably not the heat transfer liquid that is leaking. I am not running it tonight though. The computers should keep the study safe from freezing.

The optimistic news is from the meteorologists, who say that Saturday afternoon the weather will change completely, to several degrees above freezing. They have said this for several days now, but they did not predict the sudden deepening of the cold tonight. They still think it is -8, but it is below -12 now (10 degrees F) and probably still sinking, as the sky is fairly clear. It looks like the winter is digging in before the battle…

It is not what I would have prayed for, but the truth is that I have not prayed for the cold to go away either. God surely has other things to consider as well. One should be very careful to not pray egotistical prayers, for they might be heard by someone other than the intended recipient. I will pray for my life and limbs, for I hope with them to still pay back some of the gratitude I owe this world. But luxury and excessive comfort is another matter. If God thinks I have too much of that, it may well be true. It is easy to get uppity when everything works like a charm the way I want it.

In the Norse mythology, one of the signs of Ragnarok -the Apocalypse – was the Fimbul Winter, three winters with no summer between them. But still worse than the cold upon the land was the cold in the hearts, where “no man will spare another”. From that kind of cold, I pray God save us.

“A person’s destiny can’t be seen, you might die tomorrow.” Japanese proverb, roughly meaning “don’t postpone till tomorrow what you can do today”. (Which is a Norwegian proverb, I have no idea what you say in English.) Anyway, I did not die today either, just barely.

Today was my first day at work after my NaNoWriMo vacation. My boss called me and welcomed me back. (She has office in a different part of the country.) She also congratulated me on something I had forgotten: Today I have been employed by the Norwegian state for 30 years! Not necessarily a badge of honor for a conservative, but I am not an ambitious person in this world. My coworker was sent out (by my boss) to buy me a plant to commemorate the event. Also talked a bit with him after having talked with my boss. My second coworker was home with a fever, talked a little with him as well.

It may have been the talking, or a creeping cold, or the C vitamin tablet I was sucking, but just as I should go home, my vocal cords locked up. Just plain locked up! I could not breathe neither in nor out. Scary! It stopped fairly quickly, probably less than half a minute, but there was a period afterwards where I frantically tried to clear my throat and couldn’t. There wasn’t anything obvious there, it was the throat itself that somehow locked up, far as I could find out.

This has happened a couple times before, and it remains just as scary every time. I have survived every time, but since I don’t know what it is, I have no idea whether one always survives or I just have struck lucky so far.

I believe I was eating a C vitamin tablet when it happened one of the previous times as well, and at least once with a semi-medical throat lozenge. That does not mean eating these things triggers it. It could be because I eat these things when my throat is starting to get icky from an infection, and the infection may also be the reason for my throat locking up. The mechanism of this is unknown to me. But the expert who looked at my throat this spring / summer did not see anything peculiar about my vocal cords.

It is strange to think that literally we live only one breath from death. Or one heartbeat, for that matter. And yet most of us live for many decades, and not a few complain about boredom and wish for a more exiting, dangerous life. Some to the point of bringing about their own end. If only they could have given those years to me. I love this life, and I wish I could help y’all share that love somehow.