Of course, we were only moving from Orlando, but even Orlando freezes.. Key West has never seen frost; the lowest temperature ever recorded being 41 degrees, and that was way back in 1981. The only other time it had ever reached that low was back in 1886! I was safe from freezing. Or so I thought..

This last week down here we’ve seen the second lowest recorded temperature in Key West ever.. 42 degrees. Now I’m not one to complain, I mean it is KEY WEST after all, but like most of the old homes down here, ours was built to keep you cool in the summer.. scant provisions were made to keep you WARM. Few homes have central air, let alone central heat, and most homes have window AC units.. which typically have no heat cycle.

So over the weekend we broke down and hit up a few stores looking for a space heater.. of course, so did everyone else in Key West.. suffice it to say we came away empty handed. Now, I’d watched a lot of MacGyver back in the day, so I knew all I needed was a little duct tape, a lighter, and a small furry cat, and I could build a space heater, so I sat down with an irish coffee and put my mind to work. The more irish coffee I drank, the more I liked the cat idea, but Christina was against it, so I settled for the next best thing.. I turned on the oven and left the door open. Not as spectacular and cool as a flaming cat, but it did the trick.

Of course I wouldn’t recommend trying this at night while sleeping, but left on for 10 minute increments every half hour or so, it worked quite well in taking at least the coldest chill from the air. AND you can bake at the same time!

I look forward to some more warm weather, I’ve had enough of these ‘mainland’ temperatures!