Baby it's Cold INSIDE

This is the first day since we turned off our furnace that the cloud cover has been thick enough to keep the sun from warming my upstairs studio to a more pleasant temperature.  The house is cold.  Usually it is several degrees warmer upstairs on the south side, but not today.  It's in the fifties even in here.  I have a thick sweater on, a blanket over my lap and a cat on my legs and I'm still cold.  My nose is cold.

Even with all that being true, I have no intension of turning the heat back on.  For the last couple weeks we've been living with the house ranging from 55 to 62 knowing we will see our reward when the next energy bill comes.  This house had proved very expensive to heat and the winter was tighter than was comfortable.  We didn't want our spring to be the same way.  So off went the heat.

There are other benefits too.  We're using less energy and so the weight of our footprint will lighten a bit more.  That's a good thing.  I want to enjoy the beauty of this earth for as long as I'm here and I want my nephews to have a beautiful place to live as well and their children after them.  I'm very willing to do my part.  The cats are willing to help too by being reliable lap warmers.

For two people that have been known to spend several days out on a mountain in the middle of winter for a snowshoe backpacking trip - living in a house without heat  really shouldn't be a big deal.  I think the mentality changes when we come indoors.  What is tolerable and even enjoyable outside feels uncomfortable inside.  This has got to be some sort of psychological thing.   I try to remember that when it's feeling particularly cold inside.  Maurie, I say to myself, Maurie you have chosen to go camping and hiking and even climbing in colder temperatures than this and you had fun doing it - stop your whining!

Or I'll pack up the computer and go to the library where our tax dollars are already paying for the heat.