Good Morning from snowy and cold Northwestern Indiana.  The weather dudes lied again.  We were supposed to have sun and seasonable temperatures.  No sun and cold again.  It is still early so the temps might hit a normal high.  Last night was miserable.  I haven't heard and felt wind like that since the time I lived in Missouri and a tornado passed less than a half mile away from me.  It drove the cats nuts and they, in turn, drove me nuts.  At least the wind has died down.  Hopefully the snow won't amount to much.  Another piece of luck for family and friends in other parts of this area is the flooding was not as severe as last September.  That had us worried for a bit.

I found this little entry from Chris In Paris blogging at Americablog.  He links to an article about the various 'conveniences' that are not necessities and he asks how many of these are really necessary.  He notes that, living in Paris, he has had little need for air conditioning.  We also have not used ours much.  We were grateful for it on the, perhaps, ten days last summer when the temps reached into and above the mid 90s.  Otherwise we didn't use it.  The microwave is a necessity because, since it is a combination micro/convection oven, we use it almost exclusively.  That is one reason we don't have to use the a/c as much.  We don't use the big oven and, therefore, it doesn't heat up the entire house.   We no longer use the dishwasher.  It never cleaned well and we rarely have enough dishes (including pots and pans) to fill it.  We do have cable tv but not any of the premium services.  We couldn't do without the computers and internet services.  The article mentions the clothes dryer.  We have to use ours because we have no place to put up a clothes line.  But then our landlords put in a new large capacity and energy efficient model when the old one died last spring.  Luxury or necessity?  I guess it all depends.

It is time to go on to some necessary house cleaning.  I have said that I am the type of person who cleans when the spirit moves me and thankfully it doesn't move too often.  Unfortunately I can write my name in the dust so the spirit is moving.  See you next time.