We're having Thermostat Wars at our house, and the other side perpetrated a sneak attack recently. Game on.

I get used to a certain level of constant cold during the winter, so I admit that I haven't been taking DD#2's complaints seriously for the past couple of days that she was cold, her room was cold, the hot water was cold, etc., etc. I tend to wear sweaters around the house and the girls tend to try to dress as though it is July, not December. If you come to me wearing a tank top and tell me you are cold, I will probably be less sympathetic than if you come to me wearing an Aran and tell me you are cold.

However, this morning I sat down for a practice session at the piano, and I could not get my fingers TO MOVE. It finally occurred to me to check the thermostat. We have one of those wonderful programmable thermostats and last time I checked, it was set to turn the heat up to 65 during the day and down to 60 at night. Not the tropics, certainly, but I can live with it.

Guess what? Someone decided that because no one was here on Sunday, he would turn the thermostat DOWN to 60 degrees instead of wasting propane to heat a house no one was in. Unfortunately, instead of turning it down temporarily (which is possible with the programmable thermostat), he just turned it down permanently (because he went and looked at the propane tank and decided we need to conserve propane). We've been at 60 degrees for the past 48 hours. And why should he care? He's not here during the day, attempting to type and knit and play the piano with frozen appendages.

[As for saving propane/money, it is my considered opinion that it actually costs MORE to heat up a house that is cold than it does to keep a house at a reasonable temperature all the time, but I have no good way of proving that right now.]

I'm kind of irritated (can you tell?), so this is what I did to the thermostat:

We shall see what happens. For now, at least I can move my fingers.