I snapped a picture of the delivery truck the last time we had our oil tank filled.

Norah has spent some time learning about the Arctic and Eskimos. I found something very interesting. Eskimos obviously had no wood to burn... where would they find it on the arctic tundra, after all? So, they'd burn fat from the animals they hunted as heating fuel.

Knowing this, makes me much more humble about our huge, old, but ever faithful oil tank in the corner of our basement. The tacky paint on it used to bother me, but really, it doesn't anymore. I realize the only thing I need to do to receive our heating oil is give the delivery service a credit card number. I never even have to open our front door, let alone make the house smell like burning animal fat just to keep warm.

For windows (which were necessary to see if an angry polar bear happened to be coming around, looking for the source of BBQ smell) they'd use even thinner pieces of ice!

And, when the Eskimos didn't have fat to burn, they'd depend on more layers of furs or animal skins to retain their precious body heat. Right now, I'm wearing an old, threadbare t-shirt looking out what, all of sudden, seem like obscenely large thermal windows. There's a thick layer of snow on the ground, icicles hanging from the edge of our roof...

I am so much more pampered than I thought I was.