Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Primal Comfort

I came home last night to confront the first cold day since moving into the new house. The cats weren't outside exploring their usual neighborhood haunts, but were instead huddled in blankets or near our feet. Blankets were out, and the Lil Hux was wrapped up in one on the couch.

So, for the first time, I fired up the furnace. After a bit of futzing, it came on.

A deeply comforting feeling, to be in a new house, on the first cold day, and hear the furnace slowly grumble to life. To reach down and feel the warm air in the vents, then move from room to room, finding each vent in working order. To smell the slight scent of burning dust in the air, accumulated during all those summer months.



I showed the girls where the heater vents were in their rooms. They reached down, felt the warm air on their arms, looked up smiling. A bit of Small Magic for them, I think, for me to play with a box on the wall, go down to the basement, come back up and play with the box some more, and suddenly the house is warm. Or warming, anyway. Large moved the head of her bed, to be closer to the vent.

It's a primal comfort, to be able to heat your home on a cold Fall evening. Comforting in ways you can't fully understand, felt in your nerves and bones and blood, left over from fires lit in caves ten thousand years ago.

The cats seem happy too.

7 comments:

Eric said...

Nice. I'm a little jealous.

Unknown said...

I think to make a home _yours_ you need to prepare a meal in it, heat it, and hang art on the wall. After these it's _your_ home.

ArtSparker said...

Roast some chestnuts on that furnace.

Laurita said...

We've been having cold weather for a little while now, and I am quite jealous of your furnace. Sure beats electric heat. There is something incredibly comforting about walking into a warm house on a cold day.

Lil Hux said...

Even better -- the main level of our house was warm when we woke up! Thanks, Daddy!

LH

Hilary said...

Your kidlets are still at that great age when you're their magician. :)

My A/C went on last night! But a couple of weeks ago we had one of those campfires going at the cottage.. lovely.

Clowncar said...

It was a good feeling, Eric. Satisfying on such a basic level.

Nance: a meal, heat, art on the walls. And a wireless network. That makes it a home.

Artspark, atop the furnace those chestnuts would be cold, dusty, and covered with spiders.

Laurita, it is one of the more comforting feelings in my life. I don't like electric heat.

Hil, I figure I've got about two more years of "magician" status left. After that I'm a hellish embarrassment. Which might be even more fun.