How cold is too cold?

Every year, I fight turning on the heat. It has nothing to do with money; more a desire to fight the realization that winter is upon us. Consequently, I usually set a timeline--a specific date when I will turn the heat on (Mark just humors me through all of this). This year I decided not to turn the heat on until November. Now, this is a big problem if you live in Michigan, and probably not a problem at all if you live in Florida. Most years, I would say it wouldn't be a problem in Missouri either. However, this year we have had an unseasonably cold October; i.e., we've had several nights at freezing already this month. We've had a few warm days when I've been able to open up the house but mostly it's been a bit chilly. Not yet having kids, the cold is not such an issue for us, and we troop around the house in sweatshirts and use the electric blanket at night. No big deal. However, even I have my limits. The house has been below 60F for a couple of weeks now, and we've been managing pretty well. But on Monday night when we went to bed the temp was at 56F. I finally caved and told Mark I'd turn the heat on when it got to 55F--I was starting to worry pipes would freeze, although our cold-weather dogs were absolutely loving it! We got up Tuesday morning to a thermostat reading of 53F. We turned the heat on. :)

In other news, the St Louis Cardinals have continued to exceed all expectations (except those of their fans) and are leading the World Series 2 games to 1. We're supposed to have Game 4 tonight, but it's currently raining and supposed to worsen as the night progresses. Normally they could just postpone the game a day, but it's supposed to rain pretty steadily (and hard) all day tomorrow. We'll have some friends over tonight to watch the game and share some food. I'm sure they'll appreciate the fact that we've turned the heat on since the last time they came over was pre-heat. ;)