Seeking Heat

In many ways I'm a lot like my Dad. I love to read, I keep calm in emergencies, I like it when people thing I'm funny and I don't mind being the life of the party around my friends.
I also like to sleep with the windows open. I torture Matt for most of the year, making him sleep with the window open because I need air. I like the room to be chilly and to feel snug under my covers. I like to be able to hear the sound of the rain. Really hear it, not faintly but as if I am standing under it. When Matt complains that he's cold, I add another blanket to our bed, I turn on the heater in the early morning hours so that it won't be to cold when he wakes up, I make him a cup of tea.
When I was growing up our house was cold FREEZING. My Dad constantly refused to turn the heater on. He was more in favor of piling on layer after layer of precious Patagonia gear. I can remember vividly all of the times my sister and I complained that we were freezing, he would look at us, dressed in our socks, sweats, uggs, and sweatshirts, huddling under our down comforters and staring at our breath (that last part might be an exaggeration) and it was as if we were walking around in our swimsuits. "Put more clothes on!" he would say. As if every teenage girl is dying to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror looking like she lives in an igloo. As a teenager I would sunbathe until I was so hot that I couldn't take it, then I would go inside to cool off. It almost as good as having a pool, the cold air would hit me and it was only a few minutes until I was back outside, seeking the warmth of the sun.
This weekend our house is being tented and we are staying at my parents while they're in Mammoth (a place my Dad love to turn the heat on). When I was packing up all of our stuff to come here there was a long list of things that couldn't stay in our house. Down comforters wasn't one of them but they were the first things I threw in the car. Every. Single. One. My kids were not going to freeze to death while at Grandma & Grandpas.
Guess what we did last night? Cranked up that heater! It sputtered and spewed like it wasn't sure what to do if it went past 60. I'm not going to lie, it was still cold. Apparently heaters that never get used don't work that well. Go figure. This morning we cranked it up even higher though and everyone was happy.
Sorry Dad. It's going to be a long weekend. You can send me the bill.