Wide-open windows are my favorite part of the (slightly) warmer weather (this is the view out my bathroom, and this tree is awesome in all seasons). There’s nothing like a spring breeze to make everything feel new again. Insides get a little stale in the winter, and especially this winter, when my no-heat experiment meant that I was afraid to lose even the tiniest bit of warmth.
Wait, let’s talk about that for a minute. Having lived in Maine for the last 5 years, I’m programmed to start using the heat as soon as October or November rolls around. This year, I turned the heater on it’s lowest setting for 8 hours before it was too hot and I needed to open the windows to cool down. Well, that’s not efficient now, is it? I love my clunky old heater for it’s charm, but it just wasn’t doing it for me, so off it went.
As an experiment, I waited and waited to turn on the heat for a day that I got too cold to wait any longer. October turned into November, then into December, and before I knew it, it was March and I’d made it all the way through a winter in Maine without heat.
December and January got a bit chilly, especially sleeping at night. I started wearing my super old (super soft) plaid shirt/jacket anytime I was at home and drinking a lot of hot tea, and by swapping my regular sheets for flannel ones, I was plenty warm at night. Big difference. Mmm, don’t you just want to crawl into these?
So, lesson learned this winter: examine your habits before you take action! Why do you do the things you do? Do they make sense? I have no idea what I saved gas-wise or money-wise (my landlords pay for heat – score!) but I’m sure it was at least a little significant, and I found other, less detrimental ways to stay warm.
Anyway, the point of this all was just to say that by the end of winter, opening the windows is the thing I look forward to most. Sometimes it’s okay to get off topic.
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