It’s cold

Of course our central heating chose the coldest day of the year – the coldest few days in several years – to crap out. I mean, when else would it quit? Right?

I know you’re all like, Kristina, you’re in Tucson, how bad can it be? Well…I am grateful I’m in Tucson. But we’re getting hard freezes at night, and this house isn’t insulated. At all. I think I’ve mentioned that, but my apologies, it’s quite relevant so I’m going to say it again. We’re not insulated. Our exterior walls are solid adobe brick coated on the inside by a thin layer of lath and plaster. There’s no empty wall between studs where the insulation could go. And our ceiling/roof is one solid unit of 5″ thick wood timbers. No crawl space, no gap whatsoever for insulation, it’s just wood between us and the sky (yes, rainstorms are loud).

So like I said, I’m freezing. Luckily, what is saving me is the mini-split in our family room. It was originally an Arizona room (a 3-walled space open to the backyard, used for sleeping before air conditioning). When the previous owners added the fourth wall to create an interior space, they added a mini-split since the central heating didn’t extend into this room. Thank goodness for the mini-split. It is admirably keeping the family room, kitchen and dining area reasonably warm.

Also I’m wearing two sweaters and sitting on an electric blanket. Also I’m having a hot flash, but that’s an entirely different subject. OMG, I get them so bad. Even when my house is 61º. It’s ridiculous. But I still love Tucson and I still can’t wait for summer, because I’m just not a winter kind of gal.

Here’s pictures of the frost on top of our cars at 8:00 yesterday morning when I was on my way to volunteer at the botanical garden. Our task at the botanical garden yesterday was to collect and toss into the compost hundreds of potted poinsettias that were lining the pathways and had frozen. It was sad!

This next one is disorienting, looking up into the sky, but it’s the top front of our van, lit by the rising sun behind me. The other cars were too low to yet be in the sun.

That is the top of the Mini Cooper, and I wasn’t tall enough to see what exactly I was taking. I just reached up, angled my phone down, and hit the photo button a few times. I thought the pictures turned out pretty well for blind shots.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

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