oops, it must be winter
I was awoken this morning by what sounded like someone standing on a chair pouring a bucket of water into a brass trough placed on the floor. What on earth was this cacophony?! Was it someone outside? Was there some sort of leak in the bathroom? No, in fact it was only--as you've probably realized if you're from the northeast United States--our heat starting up, and the water coursing through the radiator in our bedroom. At least we have some variety: the radiator in the bathroom sounds like a steam-powered jet airliner revving for takeoff.
I must say, never since the electronic abacus has the world seen a case of such high technology wedded to such primitive instruments. The reason the heat came on this morning is because I finally bothered to investigate, and set, our Star-Trek inspired thermostat, which may be standard in many households and businesses accross the country, but which still seems kind of like overkill to me. It's got all these buttons, and you can set your desired temperature for four different parts of the day, and even set a different temp for weekdays and weekends. All that programability avails for naught, however, when one's weekend happens to be Sunday and Monday. So I'd just as rather have on the little old round twisty kind of thermostats, where at least you can tell what's going on and the heat doesn't start up without you telling it to, unless the outside temperature drops 35 degrees and your springs a leak (or is generally an excelent conductor of heat). And how likely is that?