Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The flue.....who knew

After my initial trial and error fire, I have avoided the fireplace. I figured I had enough excitement and would just use the house heating system to stay warm. Or try to stay warm. No matter what I set the thermostat on the heat level never changed, meaning I have been trudging around the house in long sleeve shirt over sweatshirt, sweat pants, socks, slippers....everything short of mittens and ear muffs. Quite the fashion statement, I know, but in the interest of not turning into a solid block of ice, I haven't really cared.

I have considered sleeping in the bathroom where we have a small space heater that actually warms the room. It has not been pleasant. To understand this one must realize I have always been the type of person who sleeps with the window open, no matter how cold it is. I dont like heavy covers on the bed and generally am too warm, no matter what. Ha.

Guess what? After said fire, I never shut the flue. All the heat was getting sucked up and out of the house, via the chimney. Duh. Now that it is closed the house is a balmy 72....which doesnt sound all that warm but compared to being in the 60's, its positively a hothouse.

I dont know whether its been the cold or some stray germ but this morning at 3am I woke up with a sore throat and swollen glands ....now I look like a bundled frog. It could have been a reaction to shoveling several inches of partly cloudy off the deck and front porch in the middle of the night ( it gets dark here at about 4 in the afternoon so "middle of the night" might be a bit of an exaggeration...) but the drippy nose and red eyes dont add much to the look I sport.

Hot tea and a good book sounds pretty exciting right now, when I can get up the energy to put water on to boil. Does that count as cooking?

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