One of the unique things about this temporary house is the warming drawer.

I’ve always wanted a warming drawer. No one told us that this behemoth of a house came with one. We discovered it by accident. After the weather turned and winter came we discovered that hiding in the bottom of our plastic container drawer amid all the miss-matched parts was a tropical paradise. You can feel the warmth of the air. You can hear the sound of the waves breaking on the beach. If you dug deep enough, past the containers with no lids and the lids wit no containers, you would find a white sand beach with starfish and sea shells.

That the tropics are here in our drawer in Idaho proves once again that space is relative. It makes sense that we would have Hawaii in our kitchen drawer since Idaho and Hawaii are so close to each other.

Try this. Get a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper and a pencil or pen. Put one X about two inches from the edge situated approximately in the middle. Put am X on the other side making sure you have it about in the middle and a couple of inches from the edge of the paper. How far are the Xs from each other? If you are like most, you will say, “each X is about 2 inches from the end of the 11 inch side of the paper. That is a total of 2 x 2 = 4 for the Xs. The paper is 11 inches, less 4 = 7 inches.” You confidently reply, they are 7 inches apart. Now, fold the paper so that the Xs line up. Hold the paper up to the light so you can line them up well. Then poke your pencil through both Xs. You see, if you bend the paper the Xs are in exactly the same place.

We always keep the house cold in the winter. We do it to save fuel in our contribution to being green and to saving some green. A warming drawer is really great for us. It warms our plates so we don’t freeze on food cold dishes. Friends jest about “dressing” to come to our house. We always remind them that we turned the heat warmer since we had company coming.

Once years ago a friend came over to work on some data analyses over the weekend. When he arrived we headed up to our office. With great purpose he sat down in my spouses chair, back pack in front of him. He withdrew one brightly colored dancer’s leg warmer and pulled it on one leg. He retrieved a second one and put on his other leg. After that, still without speaking a word, he dug out an impossibly long multicolored stocking cap. He flipped the tail end behind him with a flourish and settled the cap around his ears. He then looked at us with a straight face and said, “Now I am ready to work.” Through the whole thing we had stood there too shocked and taken by the creativity to even say anything. We all burst out laughing.

One of the side effects of saving fuel in the winter where it is cold is that your dishes are ice cold. If you pour a cup of hot coffee into a mug out of our cabinet you have iced coffee by the time you finish pouring it. We used to warm mugs with hot water or putting them in the microwave. Now we just put them in our warming drawer nestled among the plastic containers.

Each time we take a mug out of the drawer we reach up north to our cabinet shelves and put it in the warming drawer.

At some level our warming drawer is a mystery. It was never planned when they built the house. Still, the location of the heating vents is the most rational explanation. Having Hawaii here because there are points bent in space is a whole lot more interesting. I shall keep to that idea.