More Heat Than Light

The temperature rose and the wind began as the storm approached. Like clockwork, the rain began at 11pm. Ketchup and Gingos – the cats on the porch – had to retreat back toward the house wall to stay dry because I had already retracted the sun-shade awnings. The rain was moderate and gone by morning.

Patmos has two mostly sunny, breezy days before a much larger, colder storm system arrives Monday and stays most of the week. We're in for a wet, chilly Christmas. 

The house has been fine in the wind and the rain. While it needs a fresh coat of white paint as houses here do every two to three years – Mohammad feels it'll be fine through the winter when he paints both the outside and the interior rooms that need it – mainly the kids/guest room. 

While structural integrity matters the most, it doesn't solve another acute problem – the stone architecture and tile floors common to so many Greek islands optimizes cooling. Which is great in the summer. Only who wants to live in a cave in winter? There are no central HVAC systems on Patmos, although older homes often have fireplaces. Mine was likely built as a vacation home, so it doesn't.

The first line of defense are the split air-conditioners which thankfully have heat modes. Similar to the way Southern California homes typically have high vents optimized around cooling in the hot months – and therefore rather weak at heating in the winter – the split-air here blows hot air that takes time to affect the room. It generally works best in the bedrooms which begin to warm sufficiently within 15 minutes. Because the house doesn't have insulation, the units have to work fairly steadily to maintain a desired temperature. Still, it works – so that's a blessing.

The living room, on the other hand, which is open to the foyer and kitchen is a heat vortex. The poor a/c unit blowing hot air to capacity seems to be spitting into the wind. It doesn't make no difference, but not enough to want to take off heavy clothing or sit under one of the Sherpa-fleece throw blankets I brought from Costco.

After a day of realizing the living room and kitchen just don't heat, I pulled out the strange plug-in radiator thing the former owners left in the kids' bedroom closet. It was made by Phillips – so that seemed questionably reassuring enough. Rolled into the living room and fired up, the radiator-looking device definitely added heat to the room, although when it was running any number of other uses of electricity could break a circuit – especially use of water which activates the well-pump in front of the house. In other words, if you so much as flushed the toilet, the living room lost electricity. This state of affairs could have been tolerable if the radiator-thing heated the room enough to make it comfortable throughout. Instead it functioned more like a good fireplace where sitting within close-range felt good.

As Michelle sat under a blanket wearing a puffy jacket and two layers of clothing two nights ago, I got fed up – like Popeye the Sailor-man. "Enough is enough as enough is too much," I felt. There had to be a better solution than what we were using. Locals must have something that works – maybe space heaters?

Only three and a half places sell appliances on Patmos and one only large appliances from an odd, bordering on sketchy location. The half is the Proton Supermarket which sells mostly small electrics. These two were obviously out. I decided to go to the larger of the remaining options – Expert. If anyone would know how to solve my situation, it would be the three guys who work there and seem to know something about everyone in addition to everything about their appliances.

Lucky for me, George an Australian guy of Greek heritage whose wife fell in love with Patmos on a vacation a couple of years ago and insisted they move here was standing by the door as I walked in. George is fluent in Greek – but he lived the first forty or so years of his life in Australia making him both a linguistic and cultural bridge.

I explained my situation to George who after some confusion at the term "space heater" because apparently that's not what they call them in Australia knew exactly what to do. Expert carries a variety of reasonably priced space heaters – but there's only one Patmians buy. It's large, light, uses quartz tubes, is energy efficient, highly adjustable and sends heat both forward and up. It heats large rooms with ease – in fact, it could heat the entire downstairs of Expert, George said. Then he plugged in the floor model to demo for me. It felt like a small nuclear reaction. I was sold.

"This is what we use in my house," George added. "This is what I put in Yorgo's room when he was a baby," Costas told me about his eight-year-old son, which seemed to imply it's safe enough for a baby, but begged the question of why Yorgo no longer has that heater. "I've had mine for eight years now and it's perfect."

I concluded if I can't trust George and Costas (who was so spot-on with the TV), who can I trust?

With a little skill I managed to take my new home heating system on my motorscooter.

I walked into the house proud and confident of my accomplishment. Michelle was pleased but reticent to celebrate until she experienced demonstrated results. 

By last night, we learned that after an hour, the new space heater really does heat the space and the entire set of common rooms feel as if they had central heating. For the first time, we sat on the sofa without blankets and I shed my hoodie. The circuits don't break – the toilet can flush freely. In the spirit of Wicked, it felt as if the wicked witch was dead.

It seems Summer or Winter, the lessons of having a house on Patmos are endless. After all, Sennen and I still haven't perfected our use of the built-in grill in the front yard.

Winter on Patmos has required other new strategies. For example, with Petrino – the largest cafe in the town square – closed, but leaving its tables out, I saw an opportunity to use a Summer strategy in Winter. Instead of spending money on a restaurant lunch in order to work and eat outside, I thought I could buy a cheese and a chicken pie from the bakery and use the vacant Petrino tables to enjoy what felt like a warm-enough afternoon. It worked until simultaneously the winds picked up and my laptop battery suddenly died – only to discover the outdoor outlets at Petrino weren't working. They foresaw my electricity piracy. Michelle and I could either go home or find an actually open cafe if we wanted to stay out. So we went to Aetherion by the harbor which has a large-windowed sun-room in front – and to my joy, outlets at almost every table. 

Aetherion – which I have passed by with disinterest in the Summer – may be my new favorite hangout. Both food and drink menu are awesome as the interior decor and vibe. Only by the time we paid rent via a couple of drinks, I'm not sure I saved any money for the day. Still, I learned – an affordable lesson at that.

"I love being here in the Winter," Michelle told me this morning – which I think was greatly influenced by finally being warm in the living room. She likes the quiet and calm. The island remains beautiful – but with a slightly different vibe. The blue of the water is a little less vibrant, but the light makes the seasonally greener hills striking. The people are more accessible and if Greek life wasn't slow enough in the Summer is even slower in Winter. Manolis at the organic shop got my kombucha two days later than he said he would and I'll pick it up a day later than that. It's fine – neither of us is in a hurry. He probably has to go home and turn on the same model space heater in his three-year-old son's bedroom.

If the world feels far away in Summer, it feels even further in Winter. On Patmos, there is a chasm between us and life has it's lived at home – and I'm so much more relaxed. Michelle noted she hasn't seen this guy since last time we were on Patmos. The funny thing is even though I work, talk to people at home, handle the various issues I usually do and am working my way through personal projects, I just feel more at ease. Life is easier here and I feel at home.

"See, this is why we should live on Patmos full-time," Sennen exclaimed on our FaceTime call yesterday. We were outside and I had the phone camera pointed at the cats. 

"We should live here because of the cats?" I asked.

"Yeah, we are missing all the cat drama! We need to be there for it," Sennen replied. "Daddy, can you put a GoPro on Gingos so we can see where he goes?"

In short, Sennen wants to put GPS collars with micro-cameras on the feral cats in our yard so we can learn more about them – and then ask Immanoula the cleaning lady/caretaker to feed the cats when we're away so they always consider our house their home. I hadn't realized how much the cats factored into Sennen's world. I'll look into camera options, but I'm not sure we're going to be able to GoPro Gingos.

Of course, Sennen isn't the only one involved in cat drama. Michelle is a cat lover and enjoys time out front with them. Only the power dynamics of feral cats are significantly more complicated than domestic pets. Two days ago a fight broke out between Ketchup and Gingos after Michelle pet them both simultaneously. It seemed like a battle for dominance vis a vis who was more in Michelle's good graces. Let's just say that within a half hour of the fight Ketchup wasn't speaking to Gingos, Caramel had exited the scene and Michelle was upset with Gingos, who then tried to repair with Ketchup to set things right.

"I can't get involved in their drama anymore," Michelle concluded last night "It's too much – it's different than having a cat you live with inside. I don't understand it all. I'm not getting involved anymore!"

But she's still getting a pet blanket for Ketchup to sleep on since Gingos took the one she tried to give Ketchup a few days ago.

The things we have time for in the Winter.

I'm not sure how things will feel once the rains set in for multiple days in a row. I figure we'll stock the house like I would any Christmas and take it easy. Reading, writing, movies and yoga are the Four Tops of my agenda. If we get some takeout from Alas or wander into Aetherion to work – those might be okay too. Otherwise, I'll be at home, on the sofa, comfy as Yorgo when he was a baby (but not anymore). 

Gingos

Ketchup and Gingos