Jack and Me

Pleasant little Moscow surprise yesterday morning!

“I’m cold.”

I can’t begin to count the number of times these words pass from my lips every single day.  Not only does it seem like I was born with a broken internal thermometer, I also made the great decision to move to Moscow, ID, where it has snowed every month except for August and the temperature regularly dips below zero in the winter.  

I hate being cold so much that I do crazy things to avoid it.   I do dishes, even though I hate doing dishes, just so that I can be elbow deep in hot water for a while.  I find myself longingly eyeing the “snuggie” a hideous wearable, sleeved fleece blanket.  The models on the box look so happy,  smiling as they sport their hideous unisex, one-size-fits-all getup everywhere from the comfort of their own homes to sporting events, simply because they are warm. I bake just so that I can have the oven on for an hour or two.  I eat dinner perched on top of our archaic heater in the living room.

Actually, that heater is a source of a lot of bitterness for me.  It sits in one corner of the room and blows warmish air out into the room so that it settles somewhere around the ceiling of the living room, leaving the rest of the house close to outdoor temperature.  And it breaks.  After it broke down for the 4th time in one week the maintenance guy came by yet again and found me huddled on the couch swathed in every blanket I own, glaring at the heater.  ”You” I told him “are not leaving until you show me how to fix that dang thing myself.”  So now every time it goes on the fritz I pull it apart and fix it myself and feel very accomplished and self-sufficient.

Pretty early into winter last year I couldn’t take the frigidity of my bedroom any more and I broke down and went to Wal-mart where, for a mere $15 I bought a little space heater, named it Jack, and got an extension cord to go with it.  Jack and I were inseparable, I would get up in the morning and drag him all over the house wherever I went, the extension cord trailing behind us.  Sure, my room mates made fun of me, and it was a little inconvenient to have to drag Jack all over the place, but I was warm, and smiling.  I felt like one of the models on the snuggie box.