Friday, December 3, 2010

A Chilling Dose of Reality

The weather has turned cold--for here. About 20 degrees below normal for this time of year: mid 40s at night high 60s during the day. My brother has this thing about not turning on the heat--reasonably enough as it never gets this cold in southern Florida and the house is not properly insulated for these temperatures, and it's (extremely expensive) electric heat, and (since the heat was never intended to be used) the house was designed with the heating/cooling vents high up on the walls. Because cool air descends the air conditioning in the summer works just fine. But since hot air rises everything goes right up to the peak of the cathedral ceiling and then seeps out of the house. Last year he got a bill for one month for $300.

Mom, of course, put on a sweater when the temps dropped below 80 back in October. Now she wears multiple layers, uses an electric blanket at night (when I remind her she has one and point it out to her) and sits in front of a quartz heater during the day. She claims to be comfortable and by afternoon the house has warmed up to the point where she discards most of layers.

This particular "cold" spell should last another week or so.

The trade-off is crystal clear cloudless deep skies, soft dry breezes and sunlight in the trees. Yeah, worth it.

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