Women Over Fifty

The heating (and cooling) have been on the blink for three weeks or so.  During that time we had quite a cold snap for southern California.  My home has been COLD! 

Jake, our Norwegian Elkhound with the two-level fur, is so playful in the cold weather.  He loves it.  He tosses his toys into the air, finds them, and does it again. He plays with us - meaning that he takes his toy away from us, runs around, tosses it in to the air, and teases us about giving it back.  I don’t share his joy.

Our house is built long and leggy.  We have a lot of outside surfaces and single-glazed windows.  In addition, the house is old and has been remodeled so many times it’s hard to guess where the remodeling began.  So I’ve been cold all day every day.  I haven’t resorted to wearing my coat and mittens - well, once with the coat before the great room warmed up.

We have been keeping warm enough with a heating stove, electric heaters, and electric blankets.  Warm enough not to get sick.  Warm enough not to qualify as being deprived.  But cold enough to be miserable a good part of the time, particularly me.  My favorite room to sit in (besides the room where the computer sits) has been impossible to keep warm.  I can snuggle under an old electric blanket covered with an afghan, but it leaves me sitting mummified in a chair.

Today was the big day!  The repair man came to fix things.  He rummaged around in the attic, climbed up and down ladders, and tinkered with controls.  I’m not sure how he did it, but the house is warm and even the corners are beginning to heat up.   I am so happy to be warm.  (I am so spoiled to be used to being warm anywhere in my house.)

I don’t apologize for wanting to be warm.  My body doesn’t conserve the heat like it used to.  I care more about being cold.  It takes a lot more energy to be warm in those circumstances.

It’s nice to be warm inside the house again.

Marilynne

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