Is Heat Over-rated?

And the answer is 'NO!"

This past week, I had a two and a half day heat breakdown. The first night that I got home from visiting my G-babies, the heater wasn't working properly. The next day, it wouldn't work at all. So, I spent a day very cold, and couldn't take a shower either. (as my water heater is combined with the heater) So, after giving in to "doing the day dirty", I had to look forward to getting to my theatre where I had rehearsal that night to get warm.

Well, I got there and....you guessed it! The heater wasn't working there either! After many apologies to the actors and their parents, I had rehearsal anyway. I went home to find that they had fixed the heater and yes, thought that it was the end of it.

At about 4:45 in the morning, I was awoken (awakened?---not sure...) by total silence and darkness. "What?" you say. "You can't sleep in complete darkness and total silence?"

NO! I have been addicted to white noise for about 12 years----it has saved my life after years of insomnia----so don't say another word about it!

Apparently our power had gone out due to the ice storms that were hitting the New England coast., and we had trees and branches falling all over the roads, hitting power lines right and left.
So, there went the power and heat for that day. So, what was a vain girl to do? I took a "spit bath" (thats cold water with a wash cloth to all the necessary parts) got ready and went out to the car to hang out for most of the day. (my hubby had purchased me a connector for my car, so I could have an electric outlet---what a man!) Aydan went with me and he watched a movie in the back seat as I put my makeup on in the front.

That night, my hubby and I went out Christmas shopping and dropped off our little guy at a warm babysitters house, and I considered having him stay there the whole night (they had offered to let us all stay), as their house was so warm, but my boy scout husband was having none of it! He knew that we could make it work in our cold house-big campers that we were. By the way, the temperature was supposed to get down to about 12 degrees that night. Anyone for snow cave camping?

So, later after we had picked up Aydan, and used flashlights and candles to get ready for bed, piling quilt after quilt on top of my little guy and our bed, we settled down for a LOOOOONG winters nap.

It turned out to be a long one, all right----first of all, I had to use my son's battery radio and turn it on between stations for some static/white noise, and discovered that the only way that I could get any of that noise was to hold the wire antennae in my hand as I slept. It was interesting, to say the least.

Now, I suppose that I haven't mentioned one of my many weird phobias----like sleeping in absolute darkness, apparently. I know that I have claustrophobia, since I can't sleep in tents unless all the windows are zipped open and I can SEE the air coming in. Well, I guess that I am freaked out by complete darkness also, as I kept waking up, panicking and not being able to breathe! So, there I was, clutching my radio wire and sitting up, upon waking, trying to remember where I was and why I couldn't feel my nose anymore and had a ton of blankets on
top of me.

It was a very disconcerting night, to say the least. I also kept getting up to check on Aydan, as I had images of him, frozen on top of his covers, as he had kicked them off, as he is wont to do.

I finally fell asleep when there was some light---at about 6:00 in the morning. I was a bit concerned when I finally woke up, because our big community Christmas concert was that night and I knew that I was thrashed, and I also WASN'T going to go dirty to such a big event!

So, I got on the phone to call several people that had offered to let us come and shower at their houses. It was still extremely cold in our house---well, lets just say that it was "you could see your breath" kinda cold. But after a few days of it, I was getting used to it.

Later in the afternoon as I was getting my stuff together, grumbling just a bit, then walking out the door,............the lights came on! I immediately said a prayer of thanks and did a little jig around the living room! YES! It was the best feeling!

As the day went on and it got warmer in the house, I appreciated it more and more. I didn't go to take a shower at my friends house, because I thought that I could take one at MY house now. I was bound and determined to stay there and enjoy my own shower, thank you very much!

Little did I remember that it takes about 6 hours to warm up the water in the water heater and I ended up having to take a cold shower! AAAAhhhhh----I DON'T recommend it to anyone.
But whats a vain girl to do, when she's got to perform in an hour?