The Heater Challenge

Every now and then, I read about a “Challenge” that is going around. Some Challenges are downright dangerous, such as the “Dancing Outside a Moving Car Challenge” or the “Tide Pod Challenge.” Others are fun, silly, creative, or raise money or awareness–such as the “Ice-Bucket Challenge” or the “Police Lip-Sync Challenge.” While I can appreciate that some people might find them fun, I never participate in any Challenges myself. I’ve never been one to care about fads of any sort. If a cause is good, I will support it without the hoopla of a group Challenge. If I want to engage in a Challenge, it will be to challenge myself, not others.

I kind of wonder if Extroverts enjoy group challenges more while Introverts enjoy individual Challenges more? As an Introvert, I don’t get the appeal of things like the Ice Bucket Challenge, but I do understand individual challenges such as one of my readers is doing–setting herself a goal of walking more than 1,000 miles in a year.

There is a Challenge EJ and I participate in every year. I think many people in the North participate in it. I call it the “Heater Challenge.” It involves seeing how long we can endure as the days and nights get chillier and colder until we finally turn on the furnace. Turning on the furnace means higher heating bills so we try not to turn it on until absolutely necessary. Turning the heater on in September is out of the question, no matter how chilly it is. We have to last until at least October 1–but we try to endure until mid-October. I always lose the Challenge because I give in before EJ does.

Today’s weather is a repeat of yesterday’s weather–with overnight lows in the low 40s and highs in the mid-50s. That makes for a chilly house. It’s in the low- to mid-60s in the house. I don’t know why 60 degrees feel so warm in the Spring but so chilly in the autumn. I’ve put our Korean blanket on the bed to keep warm at night. My brother met his South Korean wife when he was stationed in her country years ago. When she came with him to the USA, she brought along a very beautiful thick, heavy blanket which she gave to my parents as a gift. It’s wonderfully warm, but my Mom felt it was too warm so she let me borrow it when I moved into my first apartment, and then later she gave it to me. I consider it an heirloom. We love it.

During the day I’ve been wearing sweaters, I wrapped myself in a comforter, I soaked in Hannah’s body heat as she lies on my lap, and I’ve been drinking hot coffee or tea to keep warm. I’ve been a trifle tempted to turn on the heat, but nope, not yet. The forecast says the temperature will reach 74 degrees on Wednesday, which is too warm for the heat to be on. My goal is to wait until the lows at night are in the 30s and the highs during the day is consistently in the 50s. I can endure.

Yesterday EJ did some maintenance on the Xterra. Hannah really wanted outside so I took her out and she rushed over to see what EJ was doing. She looked so cute:

While EJ was working on the Xterra, I took dried herbs out of the dehydrator and stored them in glass canning jars. Then I went out to the garden and harvested more herbs. I brought them into the house, washed them, arranged them on the trays, and stuck them in the dehydrator. I confessed to EJ later that one of my reasons for drying the herbs–besides the fact that I won’t have many more opportunities to harvest herbs this year–is that the dehydrator pumps out a little heat and might take the chill out of the house. He laughed at me. But, hey, every little bit helps.

After EJ finished the Xterra, he nailed the cross-piece on our North Post. We had a bit of a snafu when he went to hang up the sign I had painted. I had pounded two large staples into the side of the sign as hooks to hang the sign. I was careful when I pounded them in because I didn’t want to risk them coming through the front of the sign. However, I had not pounded in the staples far enough so they came out and the sign fell to the ground. When EJ pounded in the staples further, the paint was marred and the staple came through the side. Sigh. I can’t do anything about the staple, but I repainted the marred bits. I have to wait for it to completely dry before I hang it. Once it’s hung, I will take photos to share.

Our little grocery store is having it’s annual canned goods sale so people can stock up for the winter. We can get cases of canned goods for a reduced price. I picked up an order form on Friday afternoon and filled it out, then returned it to the store. This is the first year we’ve been able to participate in the annual sale because we didn’t have extra money the first couple of years after we moved here. Mostly we are just getting canned tomatoes, chili beans, and mushrooms. One day I would like to learn how to can so I can do my own tomatoes, but until then, we buy canned.

Many of the Michigan pages and groups at Facebook have been sharing a recent Saturday Night Live segment in which Adam Driver, who played Kylo Ren in some Star Wars movies, said that “Ewoks are real” and that they can be found in Traverse City, Michigan. Traverse City is the biggest town in Northwest Lower Michigan.

This Saturday Night Live segment stirred up memories from years ago when EJ, JJ, and I used to play Star Wars PlayStation games together.  We could play as Clone Troopers or Rebels on various planets in the Star Wars universe, one of which was Endor, the planet of the Ewoks. We usually played as the Rebels when we went to Endor. The Ewoks kept following my character around, constantly yipping. It was annoying. I often exclaimed, “Hush! Be quiet!” because they were giving me a headache and I accused them of “giving away my position.” One day I got so annoyed that I shot an Ewok. Once I shot one, it was easier to shoot others. Bam! Bam! JJ got so upset with me. He said that I was shooting teddy bears and that each time I shot one, our side lost points. I tried to be good, but then a yapping Ewok would annoy me and I would shoot him. Bam! Bam! After awhile, JJ wouldn’t let me go to Endor any more. Those are good memories. LOL. So the Saturday Night Live segment reminded me of hunting Ewoks. I shared the video on my FB page and tagged JJ, asking if he thought I’d need a hunting license to shoot Ewoks in Traverse City?  He told me I was a monster. LOL.

Another memory: We had gotten JJ a NASCAR racing game for his Playstation. He never played it the “correct” way. Instead, from the very first time he played it, he always drove the wrong way around the track, smashing into cars like it was a demolition derby. We sometimes played it with him and, like him, we always drove the wrong way and crashed into the other cars. Although we had nothing against Jeff Gordon, we always especially sought out his car to hit. LOL.