A Little
Domestic Dispute
by Jack Swenson
My wife has
night sweats. I'm a string bean and always cold. We
have an undeclared war over the thermostat
setting in our house. If she gets up first, she
sets the temperature at 68 degrees; when I get up,
I wait until she leaves for work and bump it up
to 70. This works fine, except on days when we
are both home, which are Wednesday, Saturday, and
Sunday. Then we change the setting every time we
walk down the hall. Sometimes I forget. When
I notice that my toes are beginning to freeze, I
turn on the heat.
Recently my
wife went on the offensive and began to turn the
regulator way down, to 62 or even 60 degrees. I
didn't say anything; I just punched it up to 70
degrees on the key pad. I thought about putting
the device at 75, but decided against it. Neither
us have ever spoken about this issue. Our war is
undeclared, and there have been no peace talks,
no negotiations. By now I just want to see what
happens. I'll be darned if I will be the
first to make a peace offering or even raise the
issue. I'm not sure I can hold out, however. My
wife is not a talker; I am. I am afraid that the
silence is going to drive me crazy.
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