Seeking Warmth

The Internet's "Hourly Weather Forecast" says it's supposed to be 60°F outside at noon today in this zip code, which is quite nice for outdoors at this time of year. It's ten degrees warmer than that in the house, but I swear I'm chilled to the bone. Do you think getting older makes one colder-natured?

At night I try to remember to turn on the electric blanket a few minutes early so the bed will be nice and warm when I get into it. Then, when I do go to bed, I take my bathrobe with me. Once I've crawled in and pulled up the covers, I spread the bathrobe over me like a Snuggie to keep my arms warm while I read. I always get too warm sometime during the night and wake up just enough to turn off the electric blanket, but still, after all that heat, the perfectly reasonable house temperature feels shockingly cold.

While I'm talking temperature (which I promise to stop doing any day now), I forgot to tell you how we kept the dogs warm last week when the wind chill temperature was 10°F. Three of our four dogs have winter coats; Lucy has outgrown hers. It's quite a challenge to put four dogs into coats at the same time, which we did over and over for a couple of days. Gimpy didn't like his much at all. Levi didn't seem to mind the coat itself but was impatient while I was fastening the straps and repeatedly inched away toward the door. Oliver strutted around like a proud peacock the instant Kim put the coat on him, just like he did last year. And Lucy, bless her heart, was amiable and cooperative as we rigged her up with a folded towel and two headbands.

Here's how Levi and Gimpy looked this time last year, when they tried on their new coats for the first time:

And here's the best shot I got of the two of them last week, after they'd figured out that coats are highly grabbable:

Here is Ollie in his coat of many colors, with Lucy, who resembled a fat burrito:

You know I'll complain endlessly about the Louisiana heat this summer, but right now I'm thankful we live this far south.