The Big Chill

When your furnace goes out on the coldest and windiest night, you channel your inner Laura Ingalls and take charge. Luckily we have a fireplace, but it's like lighting a match as far as actually heating a house goes. I turned the oven on...(I know, "they" tell you not to do this, but I bake all day, with no carbon dioxide reading on the detector, so why not.) The plan was to keep the house reasonably warm for two of my littlest residents. I don't think I've mentioned them here before, but I have two cheerful parakeets named Blue and Dill. Parakeets are tropical birds, they can take a drop in temperature, but not a cold draft. I covered them in their regular cover and added a warm quilt over their cage. Jon (who was visiting) and Mike camped out in the family room, with one electric throw and tons of covers. I heard laughter, my favorite sound, coming from the family room until very late in the night.

My husband and I snuggled in, and despite the coldness of the room, were quite cozy. Thanks to our new windows, the temperature on our main floor was 52 in the morning. (It was 12 degrees outside!) The repairman was in by 10am and out with a check in record time. The warmth came back into the house slowly, and even after the heat being on most of the day, the surfaces upstairs were still cold to the touch. We are so lucky to have heat at the touch of a finger, hot water at the turn of a faucet. The last two weeks we've been reminded of how fortunate we are. How in the world did people survive before all these conveniences? I like to think I'm hardy stock, but waking up to a warm house sure is a blessing. The sun is out this morning, the house is snug and it's back to baking! Enjoy this beautiful day.