too cold to quilt

Time away was nice...yet, LA's temps are unseasonably cold and I watched the car outside temp gauge fall from the high 40's until getting home to 27 degrees. Its really cold in here without a furnace. Oh sure the space heater and even candles help. But I am not kidding myself. It is cold. I've given up waiting for the gas company and emailed a local plumber. I know that tomorrow is Sunday and he may not answer his emails, so plan to call him on Monday to see if there is a possibility he can fix the control box. I know that its special training to work with gas issues and not every plumber is licensed for it.

Meanwhile, the trip to JoAnns did not prove entirely fruitful. Fabrics were picked over, or at least what was there was not something I wanted to work with. I bought 4 yards of a black tone on tone and some black thread. This gets me closer to working on that paper piecing project. But not tonight and maybe not tomorrow if it is this cold.

What a freeze baby I have become. These Cali Winters have nothing on the MN cold I grew up with. Yet, here I am brain frozen and whining about it all.

Family and friends have been sharing their snow pictures with me and while I appreciate them and the snow, right now, this below zero cold is just the pits.

I want to stay positive, but realized on the way home, that according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I have fallen down the ladder from Transcendence on the top run to the bottom rung of Biological and Physiological. A person must get the lower rung needs met in order to get to the top this pyramid.

Its been a wonderful theory for me to consider as a teacher for many years now, but this is the first time that I have PERSONALLY felt how a person's ability to function is based on getting these more simple needs met.

I can feel muscles tightening, and even locking up on my back, so I am doing a MN trick to get warm by putting some towels into the dryer. I am not putting quilts in so that the batting doesn't fry from too much heat. There are candles going here on my desk and the space heater is warming the bedroom. 

Other times when I have thought about Maslow's theory and have seen how it has been applied to various settings, it always, always, always makes sense to me. 

People who are deprived of their basic needs are not lazy or inept or stupid. All of us need to have these things in our lives to evolve.  

I think that it is far too easy to feel guilty that we are non-productive or to shame others when they aren't performing in ways we think they should. I know I think these thoughts about myself and about others even thought I know and believe this theory. This theory has been around a long time so why don't more of us get it? Why don't those of us who get it practice it?

The towels I have over my shoulders and lap are starting to chill and so I am closing this post and heading back to my dryer for them to re-heat. Sleep is on this bottom rung too so maybe its time for me to head to bed and relax under their warmth.