Change in the Climate

All right.  I'm now up to 31021 words in the NaNoWriMo novel  and have seven chapters.  Writing 50000 words may seem like a large number, but it really isn't when you consider the challenge in keeping a novel to this length.  My goal is to have a complete story rough-drafted for the purpose of this gala writing event.  Well, maybe it's not gala, but I should do something to celebrate when this is complete.  Now, I have to really begin moving the novel towards its climax.  I do have an outline, but my novel outlines are not as fixed as when I wrote term papers in both undergrad and grad school.  Anyhow, I really enjoy the novel and can't wait to see how it finally ends.

Climate Change
Dang! 68 degrees.  Bob was freezing cold in his own house.  His wife insisted that the home be kept under 70 or she would get too hot.  Winter was Bob's least favorite season with its cold and shortened hours of daylight.  He loved the warm weather.  As a matter-of-fact he craved for those days when the temperature rose to the upper 80's.  If it weren't for mosquitoes eating him alive, it would be perfect just to sit outside and soak up the hot.  However, his wife Helen blasted the air conditioning so much that Bob donned sweaters just to be comfortable in his house in the summer weather.

While shivering in his bed, surfing the Internet on his laptop, Bob noticed an ad for a space heater that could be held in the palm of a person's hand, but could warm a room 8000 square feet at the most.  The whole thing only cost $9.99 plus tax and shipping.  It just plugged into the outlet like a night light and then the user would enjoy the blissful vanquishing of any cold, regardless of the temperature outside.  The thing even ran on a battery back up so, even if the power went off, the user wouldn't freeze.

The tiny appliance arrived within five days and Bob was eager to plug it in.  After the previous night snowstorm followed by the most frigid arctic blast in two years, Bob spent his day clearing off his driveway and some of his neighbors'.  Bob had just finished plowing when the delivery came.  He was surprised they even managed to make it through the ice and snow with their oddly shaped vans.

Helen saw the heater and puzzled, "What is that!"

"It's for me to be warm.  You can keep this house 68 if you want, but this will give me the right temperature for me"

"That thing couldn't possibly work as it claims.  It's a space heater for a mouse."

Undeterred, Bob found one empty outlet on the power strip where his TV and cable receiver were connected to.  He shoved the polarized plug in and it released black smoke that instantly warmed the room.  Kicking off his shoes and hurtling himself into bed, he lay with his head propped up against his hands, feeling mighty proud of himself.  "Ahh...this is more like it."  

The black smoke continued to billow out while the smoke detectors all screeched alive.  Helen cried out, "Oh my God, the house is on fire!"

When the fire department came, they figured out that there wasn't a fire at all.  It was nothing but a thick toxic cloud that originated from that tiny space heater--that one faulty space heater.  

Bob was found dead from asphyxiation.  It never did really heat the room much.

Be good to yourselves!