We stayed at the Peaks of Otter Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway recently, a place we\u2019ve visited many times before. We expected the mountain air to be cooler, but the temperature was drastically lower, from somewhere in the sixties the day before, to freezing when we checked in. Brrr.<\/p>\n
I rarely touch a thermostat. I simply put on a jacket or socks when I get chilly. George, however, is a thermostat guy who constantly monitors and adjusts, whether at home or elsewhere, so I keep hands off.\u00a0\u00a0 Which is what I did during our visit. I should add that the Peaks of Otter Lodge is an old hotel with baseboard heat and window air conditioner units.<\/p>\n
I noticed George went to bed wearing two shirts and long athletic pants, which was unusual. Then he asked me to find an extra blanket. There wasn\u2019t one, so he went to sleep thoroughly swaddled in the bedcovers. I kept the chill off by leaving my socks on.<\/p>\n
In the morning, after a long night of shivering, George turned on the window air conditioner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you turning that on?\u201d I asked. \u201cI thought you were cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI set the temperature high,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to get some heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which, of course, we didn\u2019t, since it was only an air conditioner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t you adjust the thermostat?\u201d I asked, pointing it out on the wall near the bathroom. He walked to it, looked, and moved something on the little box. We heard the heat come on.<\/p>\n
Then he turned to me, a confused look on his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t I know there was a thermostat?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I shrugged.<\/p>\n
We stared at each other as I took off my sweater, heat already filling the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cOld and stupid,\u201d he said, shaking his head.<\/p>\n
Yes, old and stupid. And finally, warm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We stayed at the Peaks of Otter Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway recently, a place we\u2019ve visited many times before. We expected the mountain air to be cooler, but the temperature was drastically lower, from somewhere in the sixties the day before, to freezing when we checked in. Brrr. I rarely touch a thermostat. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}