My 4 year old son would be absolutely terrified if there were a moose anywhere near him. He has whatever the phobia is for moose…mooseophobia? 
Stay warm, Jerry! It was a whopping -15 when I got up this morning. I’m hoping you’re a bit warmer than that where you are.
Wyo, can you please send some of that my way? Pretty please?? Just a little bit of it. A day above zero would really be nice.
Supposed to be coming by late Saturday, early Sunday. I can’t even get my truck started this morning.
djm
Oh great…I haven’t even checked the car yet. Bleh…is it almost Spring yet?
Don’t you have a plug in engine heater or oil pan heater in your car? We used to when we lived in the Great White. Certainly be on my list of things to get asap when or if we ever get to move back home. Robins were actually singing here the other day, full length territorial songs, quite unusual here for January.
I think you are referring to a block heater. They are so normal here that I didn’t even think to specify it when I ordered this truck back in '94, so naturally, it didn’t come with one. It would require disassembling the engine to have one installed now. Way beyond my budget, I’m afraid.
Fortunately, I am in the Great Lakes basin, so it doesn’t get as cold here as it does farther north and west. Out there, you need a block heater, a battery heater pad, plus a seat warmer (the vinyl is so brittle in those temps that it shatters when you sit on the seats, so they have to be kept warm).
djm
It’s a good thing your son doesn’t live here! Someone had a baby moose fall into their basement last week:
Moose crashes into N. Spokane basement bedroom
Rich Landers
The Spokesman-ReviewA 375-pound moose calf that crashed through a window into the basement bedroom of a north Spokane home near Franklin Park looks at Washington Fish and Wildlife Department officers Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, as they prepare to tranquilize and remove the animal.
Tony Mantese reported the moose-entry incident around 4:30 p.m. from his home on Stevens Street just north of Francis Avenue. The moose apparently had been taking advantage of the shallower snow around the neighborhood buildings when it fell into a deep window well. As is struggled to get out and rejoin its mother and sibling, it kicked through the window and fell into the house.“I got the call around 6 p.m. that there was a moose in somebody’s basement,” said Woody Myers, a Washington Fish and Wildlife Department biologist trained to tranquilize big-game animals. “I said ‘You’re kidding’ and the officer quite sternly said, ‘No I’m not.’ ”
Myers, a 32-year veteran with the wildlife agency, is the region’s go-to-man for tranquilizing moose and other big game. He said this is a first.
“I’ve had episodes that appeared on Animal Planet, including the moose we darted at Five Mile Shopping Center that tried to run up over a fence, but fell back and plopped — and stayed— on the top of a car as the drug took full effect.”
In this case, the moose was confined to the bedroom and took its medicine quietly.
“It just flinched (when the dart was shot into its rump) and walked around for a few minutes before lying down,” Myers said. “It went very smoothly.
“Five of us used a tarp to take the calf up a narrow stairway. It weighs about 375 pounds, but there wasn’t really room there for a 375-pound moose and four men, so we just had to heave-and-ho a foot at a time.
“Then we had to take it through the kitchen and load it into a pickup.”
The work wasn’t over after the moose was trucked away.
“There was quite a mess in the bedroom,” Myers said, noting that the moose had relieved itself liberally. “I felt sorry for the family. They had done a nice job of finishing the room.”
The calf was taken to veterinarian Luther McConnell’s wildlife rehabilitation quarters off the Newport Highway and kept overnight.
“I didn’t think it would survive in these winter conditions if we just took it out and released it that night,” Myers said.
This morning, agency officers tracked down and tranquilized the free-roaming mother and sibling, reunited them with the break-in calf and trucked them out near Mount Spokane for release.
A moose breaking into a basement bedroom was just the latest among the region’s weird wildlife encounter related to recent winter conditions.
•On Tuesday, six wild elk perished after they had taken refuge from deep snow and a storm under an old hay storage barn that collapsed under the weight of snow.
•A moose that fell through the ice at Priest Lake was rescued by a group of residents sliding boats onto the ice, dropping a rope around its neck and hauling it out. Deer have been reported breaking through the ice at Lake Coeur d’Alene.
•The number of moose, deer and elk being killed in collisions on railways and roads appears to be soaring, area wildlife biologists say.
“Tough winters will force wildlife into places where we don’t normally seem them,” said Chip Corsi, Idaho Fish and Game Department Panhandle Region manager.
You can probably retrofit an oil pan heater for 100 bucks or less, no disassembling required. Even in Wisconsin a battery pad is a good investment
the vinyl is so brittle in those temps that it shatters
You mean like my wife’s XC ski boots? While sking? Been there! 
Best snow angel she ever made!
Mooseophobia=Alceophobia a sub-disorder of Agrizoophobia.
Typically, the only people around here that have them are those with diesel engines. Regular unleaded gasoline tends to be alright so long as it doesn’t stay too cold for too long. I’m not sure with this snap, though. I should have started the car yesterday, but I forgot all about it
You should record the robins for me, so I can live vicariously through you. I"m sure I won’t be hearing them this way for at least 3 months.
That’s crazy! I told him about it and he wanted to see a picture. I’ll have to see if I can find one at some point.
It totally sucks. I have acute bronchitis and a nasty lung infection. The doctor told me to “stay out of the cold” but I have a 20 minute walk to work and class 6 days a week. It’s really miserable weather. We’ll see how long this lasts…
Here’s a little ditty I learned from hearing Rosalie Sorrels sing it years ago. I always sing it when a cold snap has been dragging on and I’m getting sick of wearing so many heavy layers:
I’m tired of wearing my clothes
I’d rather go naked, God knows
I just want to wear
A rose in my hair
And sit on the curb 'til I’m froze
God knows
I’m froze.
However, I’ve missed my chance to sing it because it has warmed up by about 80 degrees (F) here in the last few days! We had a couple weeks of 40 below, and now it’s about 40 above. Wow!
Unfortunately it’s too cloudy for sunbathing.
When going out for your walk, bundle up your whole body (including head and hands) in loose layers (that you can open up a bit if you think you’re starting to perspire) and wear a mask or muffler over your face to warm the air before you inhale it.
Thanks. I do that. I keep safety pins in my scarf to keep it on. When the wind blows really fast it still hurts my lungs though. I was planning on moving to Alaska in the next couple years. I will never do that now that this cold spell is here.
I LOVE this! I’m going to go around saying it all day now
Do your children try to avoid being seen with you in public?
Ummmmm…maybe?
I don’t know how long the local paper will keep it online, but here it is: http://www.spokesman.com/photos/2009/jan/09/66969/
Ooh, and it’s got the Evil Eyes of Death! 
He said he wasn’t afraid of that one because it doesn’t have big horns Thanks for that, Charlene. You just made his night