Christmas Space Heater
I swear to god, I have an actual Christmas story this morning.
It's like the Christmas Shoes except it doesn't involve god showing someone the true meaning of Christmas by giving a kid's mom cancer.
Are we seated comfortably?
So as some of you have been following along, Sarah and I are taking care of some stray kitties that showed up on our doorstep. One, then two, then three, then three and a half (he's an orange one and the other three don't seem to like him much). Friendly cats, but strays.
We can't bring them inside with us because we already have two indoor cats, and these are definitely outdoor cats: ear tipped, chipped by the shelter, all of that. Community cats, they're called. So we've been feeding them and being friendly with them, making sure they're okay.
But this week we have these temperatures that are harsh for the season where we are. It's 18F/-7C right now, which isn't bad for lots of you but we're not used to it here in Charleston. It's been down to 10F/-12C with the wind chill at night.
So they need shelter.
We have a screened in porch that we've covered in plastic for the winter, so we decided we'd just bring in the outdoor cats for the worst of it. I set them up with food, water, litter, some cheap heat-reflective beds I got ($11 each, nice deal) and a space heater.
The space heater is a problem, though. It just isn't powerful enough. Plus there's some gaps and drafts I need to deal with using some weatherstripping and such. So I ventured out this Christmas Eve morning to get a (sigh) much more pricey unit. Was looking at $100 USD or more.
We're doing okay, but I've got taxes coming up, groceries are more expensive, I have doctor's bills (and another ultrasound soon, yay) so we're watching out money the best we can overall. But on the other hand, can't just let the cats freeze. They need their comfy room.
Went off to Wally-world and it's Dec 24th so nobody wants to be there, not the shoppers, not the employees, nobody. And it's also 7am so everyone's tired and miserable. Made my way over to the space heaters and as I was looking them over this nice older lady came down the aisle.
Now, two things: one, I do not like talking to strangers. Ever. I feel awkward and weird and I generally don't like people. Two: I'm not a space heater expert unless you count computers that use way too much electricity, and that did not apply.
But she seemed like a nice lady.
So I tried to go over what I know, infrared is fast but not efficient, ceramic is safer but not as powerful, oil radiators are efficient and good but really slow to get going, etc. Must have spent ten minutes or so asking her how big her room is, what she needed it for, etc.
We're really not built for the cold in Charleston, in most cases quite literally. Almost every house has some form of air conditioning but usually heating a place isn't a priority. Last Christmas it was something like 60F/15C. So lots of us aren't well versed in heating.
After a bit she turned around and asked me what I was getting, and I explained to her about the cats and looking after them and then she asked for pictures and she was all "awwww" and then she was talking about her kitties.
Her name is Anna and she had two (and of course she has pictures), but her senior kitty Misty passed just before Thanksgiving so we talked about that a little. Finally she decided on an oil radiator (we have those for inside and I told her they worked well for long periods).
So I figured she was about to get on her way and I was about to get back to getting mine, but then she says "And I'm getting whichever one you're getting."
"Well, you don't really need two of them."
"No, young man, I'm getting yours for you."
(And I gotta say, getting called "young man" was a Christmas present all by itself.)
I tried to talk her out of it of course, because that's just weird and we could handle it but she wouldn't hear of it. Like, she was really insistent because it was for the cats. I did manage to keep her from buying the weatherstripping stuff for me, at least.
But yeah, she got us a pretty beefy little ceramic heater that'll hopefully shore up the porch for the rest of this cold snap (which is looking like the better part of a week).
As we were checking out I was sure to tell her that Sarah works at the animal shelter and if she was looking for another cat to come by on the weekend and ask for her and all that. She said she would.
And then it was "Merry Christmas" and we were on our way.
Not a real big twist or surprise here at the end, sorry. But yeah, that happened. It's not a huge deal but it helps us some. So happy holidays and all that. Hope you enjoyed that.
