Pete Delkus‘ hair has been on fire all week. Not from the hair spray, but from the storm headed our way.

However, the latest news seems to indicate we may be spared our FOURTH snow-event of the winter (A record in my memory, for sure). Nevertheless, it’s gonna get cold. Saw a FB post by Dave Stoddard, who lives in Fargo, yesterday morning, and he said it was -6 there there, with winds of 50 MPH. So I guess it can always be worse.

But it reminds me of how grateful I am for central heat and air. Man, do we take that for granted! I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that the only way to make it through a cold night was to stoke a stove with wood or coal. I can still remember the shuttered-up coal shoot in down in the basement of my grandparent’s Kentucky home. Even though it’d been out of commission for some time by the time I ever saw it, it wasn’t that hard to imagine the work it must’ve been to keep it going.

Now? The whole unit’s in the closet, just outside the bedroom door. And although I sometimes moan about its dull roar (like a distant airplane engine…) where would I be without it?

Every morning, I wake up and it’s warm. Cozy warm. And I haven’t done a thing but turn on a switch.

Sociologists have done studies on air conditioning and the population explosion of the American Southwest and Texas. No question, the two are definitely related.

We take so much of our interior climate for granted now. It can be below freezing, it can be above 100, and except for a few moments of adjustment once you come inside, you just go on with life without having to shovel coal, or fan yourself.

And so, today’s “My Daily Gratitude” is Central Heat and Air….and a warm house.

Many thanks to the brilliant folks who made it happen.

And my I remember to stop and be thankful for it now and then.

(During this year, my goal is to find something new to be thankful for every single day, and to add that thanksgiving as a blog entry, under the title “My Daily Gratitude.” I started this kick back around Thanksgiving, and it’s already resulted in a favorite new song of mine. The goal of this ongoing spiritual exercise is to see if doing such a thing might inspire even more gratitude within me, and to foster general awareness of life on a deeper level.)