When I left the hotel in LA yesterday morning it was cold (as in the 40s, maybe 50º) and pouring rain. I got home at 8:00 p.m. and when I turned up my driveway I found a couple of inches of snow. I hadn’t seen any of it on the 3+ hour trip home from the airport until then. Of course it was very dark.
Several years ago I read an engaging article in Granta Magazine about the North Atlantic heat pump and how global warming, in its early stages, means a colder northern hemisphere. I love stuff that turns my thinking upside down. Huh? Global Warming??!! Uh, hellooooooo. It doesn’t say Global Colding . . . but, of course, once you look at the mechanics, it makes sense.
Any way you cut it, it took 4 hours to warm this place up enough to take off my Elmer Fudd jacket and wool hat. (No, I did not wear them to the big city. I put them on after I got home.) Wood stove + propane cook stove (warmed the water for tea and I even heated the oven to 350º, turned it off and opened the door) + electric space heater.
And now, after midnight, I’m going to bed . . . where I will dream about building an energy efficient, passive-solar, inviting home . . . and about how I’ll earn the money to build it . . . and I’ll snuggle in, grateful as all get-out.
