Cold in Paraguay

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up cold and you just never get warm again?  Well, I have had one of those days!  I have not been able to feel my toes all day long!  It has been in the low 40's here this week.  I am aware that 40 does not really sound that cold.  I mean, in the US when it is 40, you just turn on the central heat or push a button to turn on the automatic fireplace and sit back in your t-shirt and shorts and enjoy.  Unfortunately, central heat and air are not common in Paraguay.  And my house is one of the few that I know of that actually has a "central heat and air" unit.  I find it very ironic because we only have two central heat and air vents.  One in the living room and one in the kitchen (both downstairs).  The one in the kitchen doesn't even work.  Having only two vents seems to me to defeat the purpose of central heat and air, since the idea is to heat/cool the entire house.  Our one working vent does fairly well with air, but not so good with heat.  The rest of the house is heated and cooled by window units.  And some rooms/areas don't have any heating or cooling except for windows.  So, we have to use a lot of electrical fans and heaters.

The homes in Paraguay are made to keep the heat out and the cold in because of the extreme heat.  Our house is made completely of tile and concrete and the windows are all positioned to keep as little direct sunlight out as possible.  So, a house made to keep heat out is wonderful 9 months out of the year, when it is scolding hot.  However, in the few months that it is cold outside, IT IS COLD inside! 

We normally build a fire in our fireplace to keep warm in the living room, but for some reason every time we build one this year, the kids' bedroom upstairs fills up with smoke.  We haven't been able to figure out how that is happening, so we have been avoiding fireplace fires.  I am really missing them!

I finally had to go take a hot shower at 5:45 this afternoon because I just could not take it anymore.  It was so nice!!!  Now the problem is that our hot water heater started leaking.  Great!  Tomorrow may not even hold the blessing of a really HOT shower.  Burrrrr.