Sciatica

From weather.com - Arctic cold will grip the Northeast Friday with temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below average. Morning lows will range from -30 in Caribou, Maine to near 20 in Norfolk, Virginia. Afternoon highs will remain below zero in northern Maine and struggling into the 20s from a New York City to Roanoke line southward.

Here in Knoxville the temperature climbed as high as 24° on Thursday with a projected wind chill of -4° on Friday. This is my first real experience with the east coast’s version of cold. With the humidity and some wind, it is the very definition of bone chilling. Jarom opted to take Alixa to work in the morning so he could drive the car to school instead of going numb on his bike. The first few weeks of school are out of the way, and he is pretty sure he will enjoy his classes again this semester. One of his classes is Expert Performance in Sports, which is basically our retirement plan. He is going to learn all of the techniques that will turn his offspring into hugely successful pro athletes. It’s foolproof.

It's so cold, our neighbor's Beamer even needed a blanket

The cold has also prompted Jarom to continue his as-yet unsuccessful job search outside of the Knoxville city limits. This week he found a job that requires him to snorkel, lay on a beach, go hiking, sailing, and swimming. It also pays $100,000 for six months of “work”. He would have to keep up a regular blog, but I could help him with that. The Australian Tourism Industry is offering the job, and if you are interested you can learn more at www.islandreefjob.com. But don’t apply, because the last thing Jarom needs is more competition for employment.

I wonder if Alixa will let me come with them to Australia?

In Alixa’s life, pregnancy threw her a new curve ball this week. On Tuesday her leg started to sort of go numb and feel weird. It persisted, so she called her doctor, who told her that the kid is probably pushing on her sciatic nerve, which is the major nerve that enervates the leg. It isn’t terribly uncommon. In fact, FetusJarom did it to his mom for so long that he caused permanent damage, and Nancy still gripes to him about how she always feels like someone just gave her a shot of Novocain. Hopefully FetusJaromJunior will get off it soon enough, and Alixa can go back to walking normally.

Jarom posed for the picture on the left

Other than work continuing and school starting back up, the Winns are looking forward to their next vacation, a trip to South Carolina to hang out with some family for a week. We have also spent some quality time together watching the new season of American Idol. Jarom only really likes the first few weeks, when he can see the nutcases and crazy people. None of us are pleased with the new judge, Kara DioGuardi. As far as we can tell, she has yet to contribute anything to the show, other than making an even number of judges and muddying disputes.