For the last few weeks, my main topic of conversation has been about heat - when to turn it on, what temperature, etc. Some people 'round these parts have this feeling of superiority about keeping their house cold for as long as possible, and I admit I was starting to fall into that. Not that I feel superior, but I was definitely proud of my little family and me for not turning it on at our house yet. When honestly, it's not that we're made of sturdier stock - we're just plain cheap and trying to save as much on oil as we can this year.
So, we were trying to make it to November 1st. And, we almost did. But yesterday I admitted defeat and had to laugh at how ridiculous our little goal had become. On Monday morning, it was 53 degrees in the house. I shipped off R to school, A went into the office, and I worked from home all day - in long underwear, jeans, two pairs of socks, a shirt, a wool seater, and my winter coat. And, I was still cold! So, I grabbed my laptop and went upstairs to R's room to get under his huge fuzzy blanket, and I turned on his space heater. (We made sure R was warm at least these last couple of weeks.) But, that day was sunny, so the house warmed up enough to be tolerable. Yesterday wasn't. It was cold, wet, and gray. So last night, I cranked the thermostat up to a toasty 59 degrees while A was out. LOL. Then I turned it back down before he got home so he wouldn't notice. Craziness! A few minutes after he got home, I confessed and, of course, he didn't care. We didn't turn it on again last night, but this morning R and I couldn't take it anymore, so I turned it up to 59 again to take the edge off. I've been fondly reminded of the (unheated) cabin in Maine my family spent time at in October when I was young, but the fondness was wearing a little thing.
So, that's it. The heat/temperature talk is out of my system. Especially because I was thinking this morning about just how lucky I am to be able to decide when to turn the heat on, to have the luxury of heat and a home at all. So I'll find something else to prattle on about now.
4 comments:
This reminds me of how your Mother dealt with the heating season. The wolf at the door was trying to get out! I remember fondly when we got the self-cleaning oven and any cold day that I was home I would magnanimously clean the oven. That baby got itself up to over six hundred degrees and some of that heat would radiate into the kitchen.
In a more appropriate vein, I have found that wearing one of those velour hats in the house makes you feel warmer. They are also great for sleeping, they keep you toasty. Fifty-nine degrees is a bit extreme, I like sixty-five. This situation probably explains why New Englanders do so much baking in the Winter. You don't hear much about beans and pies and bread in the Summer. I don't know much about space heaters but they do make me nervous. I am sure that they are much improved over theones that were in use when I was young. You have a good head on your shoulders and would never do anything dangerous. I think that turning the heat up and down uses more energy than leaving it in one spot but I am not sure about that. I wish you shelter from the storm, a cozy fire to keep you warm,
daddy
Dad - Space heaters make me nervous, too, but this one has all the safety features, plus the elements themselves don't actually get that hot. We're really careful with it, and we've taught R to be careful, too. It's always a risk, but our upstairs just never gets warm, even with the heat cranked up, so we don't have many other options for a boy who won't stay under a blanket.
We have a wood burning stove. Our insurance company hates it but our heater hasn't come on in over 5 years. Our electric bill is very low in the winter and our house stays toasty. So what are we going to talk about now?
I thought your post was really interesting... weather is something we all deal with.
In our home in Southern CA... we have central heat and air, and in our 47 years of marriage we've never had that....
In just a few minutes...we can be cool or warm... What a great convenience.
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