When I was younger, I remember how uncomfortable it was trying to get by. When you’re just starting out in life and people will only pay you eight or $10 an hour, it’s pretty difficult to find a place to live and food to put in your mouth. There were many times that I lived on Ramen and granola bars for weeks on end because that’s all I could afford at the grocery store. There were months that I had to walk everywhere because I couldn’t pay for car insurance or gas. In fact, they were definitely times that I had to turn off the indoor air temperature control equipment because I couldn’t afford to power my heating and cooling appliances. To save money I would literally disconnect to the thermostat and give it to my friend for safekeeping so I couldn’t be tempted to change the indoor air quality even if I wanted to. Drastic times and drastic measures. I remember those days being uncomfortable in many ways, most literally in the area of air quality and relative body temperature. Now that I’m older, I don’t struggle with affording my heating and cooling equipment nearly the same way that I once did. However, I’ve also found that it’s not entirely necessary to rely on my forced air furnace in the same way that I needed to as a young, single woman. As an adult, my winter nights aren’t so shockingly cold because I’m never alone in bed. Between my three 100 lb dogs and my husband, I can rarely find a cool spot in the bed.