John, Julia, and I went through three “housescapades” together, and buying and selling homes can be a bit of a roller coaster ride. They were both always great: level, practical, and non-emotional. That is, until during their first winter out on the farm and the Polar Vortex of 2019 descended. I met John at the Muscatine house as they’d already moved out to the farm and we were getting ready to put Muscatine on the market. The driveway and alley were packed with snow, and John thought he’d make it up the driveway hill in his new-to-him pickup. He got stuck, though, halfway in the driveway with his rear end in the alley. He got out of the truck and started stomping around. He was wearing these old-school wool pants, and I remarked that those were perfect for the conditions. When John opened his mouth, a long line of words came forth, words I’d never heard John utter before. I’m paraphrasing a bit here to tell the story. “I’m freezing my tail off out on the farm. There’s no heat. I’m having to wake up every rucking three to four hours to put wood in the fires, and the heat just goes right straight up. Julia and the kids are staying at Paula’s while I’m freezing my tail off. The wind blows right under and around the flipping north side doors. They (the sellers) said they’d sealed the gosh darn doors. They didn’t do jack dirt. When I called the heating guy who had inspected the system prior to buying the home, he advised that the rucking system was operating correctly. But it’s a gosh darn undersized system, and it’s going to cost a dirt-ton to putting in an adequate system. Why the heck did no one mention this when they serviced everything? The furnace guy said it’s never been adequate for a normal (whatever that means) Iowa winter. But a flipping Polar Vortex?” We were both quiet for a few moments, when I looked up at him and asked, “Feel better now?” He kind of chuckled, and the “cool” John we all know and love settled back in and he said, “Sorry. Yeah, I do. But I’m still rucking cold.”