Taking our apartment from summer mode to winter mode involves a surprising amount of excavation and spelunking.

The transition begins with notice from She Who Must Be Obeyed that it’s time to put the fans away and get our large blanket out of the closet. This is followed by me thinking of every excuse I can to do something else. Luckily, once the decision is made, She Who Must Be Obeyed usually gets distracted by some other task.

When we are finally both ready, we move the “variety pile” from in front of the “variety closet”. (Why the variety pile is not in the variety closet is a long story.) Once the path is cleared, I don a silly hat with a flashlight attached, open the closet door–the closet actually has two doors but one is blocked by the variety shelves–and begin exploring.

Luckily, after the big cleaning I did this past spring there are fewer boxes taking up space and I was quickly able to retrieve our kerosene heaters and our winter blanket. We also only had to find space for one fan as the other one had begun to show its age (its 14) and has been “retired” (i.e. dismantled by me and put in a trash bag for future disposal). Next summer we’ll just buy a new fan.

I also decided we should go ahead and dig out the electric carpet put it in the living room so that we won’t have to get back in to the “variety closet” until the spring. Placing the electric carpet involves moving the piano but not much more than that.

Although we won’t be needing them for a while, and don’t even have any kerosene, we’ve already decided to retire our oldest space heater as it has become temperamental and has a tendency to take random rest breaks. If those issues continue, it might not make it to spring.

Now the at we’re ready for the cold, I suspect it will be warm the next few days.