Staying Warm

Brrr!! 9am and there is frost covering my windows! It almost feels like I'm inside my own little igloo. This is a vivid sign to me that it's definitely almost time to fly the coop to a warmer place. Only a few weeks till I can head out.

I am so glad that I installed a little Radio-Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer inside my van. It is one of the little gadgets that I brought with me from my last apartment. It tells me that it is a whopping 28.6 degrees inside my van and 30.2 outside. BRRR. I really hate being cold, but my down sleeping bag is terrific. It is so warm, and my silk mummy liner adds an extra 10 degrees to its warmth.. :) I love this liner, because it protects my bag (I don't have to worry about when I showered last..), and it is also perfect to crawl into in warm weather. The bag and the liner probably cost me $275, but I got them back when I was working full-time. They are also very valuable to me in my van because they pack down into small, manageable sizes. 

Since I'm on the subject of keeping warm, one thing I love about my VW is that my bed is right above the engine compartment. If I run my van for a little while, my bed gets all warm and cozy. I also have a little heater along the floor, near the end of my bed. That sucker really cranks out the heat! I prefer not to use that very often, though, since I really want to conserve my gas. I only get maybe 16 mpg in my van. 

Blankets are nice, too, but they take up more space. I do have a very nice fuzzy blanket that I found at a summer music festival, and I keep it with me in my van. I hardly use it though, since my sleeping bag is always enough. I do think about getting it out of here, even though I've become very attached to it. Hmm. Sometimes I am just torn, even though I am by no means a pack-rat. I do like to keep things that might be useful someday, but I also like to get things out of my way that I'm not using. There is just no room for unnecessary items in here with me. When it is time for the blanket to go, it will just make its way out. I believe that there is a pattern of natural turnover that occurs. When something comes in, then something will go.