Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The Heat Is On

When I first had my own apartment, once I'd passed the roommate-stage and was actually living alone, I had a rule about heat: Keep it off as much as possible. I refused to turn it on in the fall until December 1st, and March 1st of every year it was off again, regardless of the outside temperature. In between, it would get shut off every morning when I went to work, and again when I went to bed. I don't know recall what my heating bills looked like back then, but they had to be pretty small, since the heat was probably only on a few hours a day.

This may sound like an uncomfortable lifestyle, but it was really second nature to me. We always kept the thermostat low when I was growing up; in fact, if I remember correctly, my grandparents didn't like to visit in the winter because they said our house was too cold. But if you were chilly, there was a always a cat willing to sit on your lap and keep you warm:


Note I'm wearing a jacket in the house. Early in the morning, when it was exceptionally cold (where do you think I learned that trick about shutting the heat off at night?), you could usually convince the dog to join you too:



We learned the hard way, though, that not all pets will put up with a cold house. Little Sis's brief experimentation with keeping chameleons ended when we realized we hadn't seen them for awhile, and the crickets in the cage weren't disappearing. Further examination revealed two little blue bodies curled up in the plants in a fruitless attempt to keep warm. She tried again with another chameleon in the summer, and we would set his little plastic cage out on the picnic table so he could bask in the sun. Oh, he basked all right. He baked. We gave up after that; clearly we were not meant to have cold-blooded animals as pets.

Growing up in the eighties made it relativly easy to endure a cold household, though, since the eighties were the Era Of Big Sweaters:

Anyway, once Hubby moved in with me, my years of being frugal with the thermostat ended. He grew up in the sixties and seventies, and was not a Wearer of Big Sweaters. Also, they had a different attitute regarding heat in his house; I remember being astonished when I visited his mother's house in the winter and I realized they had the heat on and the window open! I mean, who were these people?!! But, marriage is all about compromise. Now we leave the heat on until it's actually warm out, but the windows stay shut. We had the furnace off and the windows open for a few days last week, but yesterday was damp and chilly, and I actually went and turned the thermostat up myself. On April 3rd! I guess I've been spoiled by this luxurious lifestyle of having warmth whenever I want it. Either that or I'm getting old.

This last photo is for Mignon; proof that I did eventually learn how to style my hair:

I couldn't leave you picturing my twelve-year-old self going out to dinner with a 31-year-old. This is actually what I looked like when I was sixteen. Still young, but not that young. Oh, and did you notice I'm wearing a big sweater?

Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 7:29 AM :: 8 Comments:

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