My dad was very fond of saying something along the lines of when it rains it pours to describe a string of bad luck. I guess I should have seen it coming when the first lockdowns happened. When I got sent to work from the air conditioning of home, I knew that it was bad. But I didn’t have any idea of the bad luck that was to come. We lost our jobs. The kids were home learning inside the air conditioning as we tried to scramble without scaring them. But I got my job back when I was called back to work as we reopened. I still had to work from home and at less money. But we had a lifeline. So we got busy really cutting the fat to only spend money on complete essentials. That meant we were cutting stuff that seemed like an assumed essential. Stuff like HVAC cooling. Obviously given where we live, doing without HVAC cooling altogether would be impossible. Yet, the thermostat setting was going to be way up there as compared to other summers. During the heat of the day, we kept the thermostat in the low to mid 80’s. That sounds warm, I know. But when it’s hovering around triple digits outside, that temperature feels pretty cool trust me. We actually sort of got into it. Like we tried to think of ways to have less heat in the house. I was even preparing anything cooked outside on the grill. It’s been a tough year but I’m proud of how we found a way.

fireplace