Day six.

It was quite a cold one last night, and the cabin is still pretty chilly. The thermometer read -15 when I paid a visit to the outhouse around 11 PM, and, while it's gotten warmer since, again breasting the zero mark, it's still incredibly cold. I had kind of a fitful sleep because of that, and was forced to turn on the baseboard heater during the night to stop myself (and the dog) from shivering uncontrollably.

The good news is that last night was probably the coldest night I'll have to suffer through. The forecasts for next week have temperatures edging into the high 40s, and consistently so. It appears spring is springing on Winnie, but you wouldn't know that by how goddamn freezing it is. The lake is also bustling today; it looks like the road on the ice has been plowed and there are a good number of ice-fisherman out there, which seems odd, since it's the middle of the week and because it's got to be just brutally cold out there. My guess is that they're drunk.

It was kind of a spooky night, too, completely clear and with a big cold moon that lent a bright and otherworldly glow to the woods and the fresh snow. My trip to the outhouse was a little bit nerve-wracking, and I found myself craning my neck looking for wolves. Or, you know, ghost-wolves.

I dropped a heavy Maglite on my bare foot this morning as I fiddled with the blinds, and, in the span of two seconds had explored a long involved psychodrama in my head. This is how it ends, I thought. The Maglite shatters my foot and I try to stumble out to the van to go to the hospital, but I fall into the snow. In my daze of pain, I will have forgotten my cell phone in the cabin, so it's all I can do but lie there and shout for help. But no one hears, and for some reason I can't crawl back to the cabin (in my fantasy, my arms don't work, either), and I just lie there, getting colder and colder until night falls. And then the ghost-wolves come.

But of course, I'm fine. All that happened is that I yelled, "Ow! Fuuuuuuck!" and picked the flashlight up from the floor and then went and got a cup of coffee.

My cousin Nick is coming up tomorrow for the night, so I have to make sure the road is plowed for him. I should also straighten up the cabin and, perhaps, practice talking in the mirror, since he's the first human being I've seen in a week, like a primer for an Earthbound alien or a Mormon:

"Hel-lo. How are you to-day? I am fine. Say, how much did you pay for that? How 'bout them Vi-kings?" It will be an uphill battle.