During one particularly cold winter in Minnesota, the block of townhouses whereI lived lost power. I remember that it was late in the evening, so we had to round up some clothes and pillows and sleep at a neighbors house, leaving our cat and beta fish to fend for itself. Luckily the power came on the next day so we were able to have heat and the fish miraculously did not freeze in its tank. Widda the cat was just fine and actually he is 17 now and living with my brother.
Last night I had a flashback to this incident as we are trying to hold off turning our heat on in our house until the last possible second. Living in Georgia typically means that we don't even need heat until later in November, but we have been hit with a cold spell of 40 degree nights this week that began last night. Throughout the weekend, as the local forecasters were warning us, I was the biggest proponent of leaving the heat off. I reminded my roommates that I have lived in Minnesota and I am never cold and actually like sleeping when it's colder. My room is in the basement and is very very drafty because I have a door to the outside in my room. If you put your hand up to the door you can actually feel the wind pushing through it.
So I was definitely eating my words as I laid in my bed with all of my covers on and was still shivering! Finally I got up and put on some socks and got my T-shirt quilt out of the basket in the den and put that on top of my comforter. Four layers of covers seemed to do the trick as the warmth seeped in to my bed slowly but surely. It reminded me of the book "Peace Like A River" too which is set in Minnesota and all the kids used to sleep like that in the wintertime.
But we are refusing to secede to the Georgia Gas company just yet. I'm buying a space heater tonight.
And I'm buying my airline tickets to go to Minnesota December 23-30. It is the love of family and not the love of weather that keep bringing me back for the holidays.
No comments:
Post a Comment