It’s the end of January…..

I’m here in the northern hemisphere…..

……so unless you are hanging around below the equator…..

…..it’s either chilly or it’s freezing outside…..

Because I live in fun/sunny Florida…..

…..it’s chilly…..

…..the heater had to cut on…..!!!…..

…..and it’s doing so with regularity…..!!!…..

It has a different sound than the swoosh of the air conditioner…..

…..and the first few times it flips on during the cold season…..

…..there’s a definitive/disconcerting burning-smell…..

…..it always makes me panic and trot around the house…..

…..with my nose in the air…..smelling all of the vents…..

…..(which is where the smell comes from)…..

…..the smell’s origin is the warmed/burning(?) dust from the heater’s dis-use…..

…..”they” all say don’t worry about it…..

…..the burning smell will just burn off and…..go away…..

…..but it’s BURNING dust…..!!!?!!!…..BURNING being the key-word…..!!!…..

…..well…..if you’re lucky…..(it’s only dust?)…..

…..and not the re-heated/re-constituted remains of an expired rat or a cluster of palmetto bugs from last summer…..

…..eeewwwww…..

This morning…..however…..I did find myself outside…..collecting firewood from various nooks and crannies around the front yard…..

…..and I found that I was really…..REALLY…..cold…..!!!…..

…..it took me awhile to realize that along with my seedy bundle of firewood (that I was trying to lever through the front door)…..

…..I was only wearing my new pajamas from Christmas (thank you older daughter)…..along with my torn/paint-splattered/buffalo-plaid/flannel shirt…..

…..AND I was barefoot…..

…..except for the sandy/clumpy dew-dirt that was stuck all over my cold feet…..

…..my toes were blue-ish…..

…..and I couldn’t feel them…..

In hindsight…..shoes would have been a good choice…..socks would have been an even better…..

…..but, nope to both…..

…..just my nice new pajamas and my old/comfortable flannel shirt…..

…..(and an armful of nasty (burnable) wood)…..

…..(btw…..I have an assortment of flannel shirts)…..

You can never have too many…..and they are exempt from judgement…..

…..tears…..frays…..stains…..splatters are all perfectly acceptable and okay…..

…..(Flannel Shirts are the mainstay of a southern winter)…..