On the midnight of January 4th/5th our house flooded. Last Friday, March 7th, some nine weeks later, the last bit of repair work was completed. It has been two of the most frustrating months of my life, but ultimately we're coming out of it with what feels like an almost new house, which is giving us a vigor to get other parts of our lives in order. We've painted, rearranged, built a wall, done a major overhaul of the bathroom, and gotten rid of about 30 bags and boxes of stuff we no longer needed, and feel we have the space to actually live in our house again.

A few weeks ago I picked up a small heater at Lowes as a) it was on sale, b) I've got circulation problems so if I get cold when typing my fingers go numb. Amusingly it still gets a little cold in Florida occasionally, so for $11 it was worth picking up to have available if it was needed. Today the room I was going to be working in was a bit too cool for my liking - the windows had been open to dry paint, so it was a perfect time to try out the heater.