SAD

The woman that is currently in charge of the thermostat in my home suffers from a disorder called SAD. Seasonal Associative Disorder is the full term which means that as the days get shorter and the weather turns colder she shrinks up into a semi hibernation state complete with melancholy and the moody blues. I could tell something was going on by the look on her face The woman in charge of the thermostat has a very expressive face. Very, very expressive. I asked if everything was ok and I got a low mumbling reply that sounded something like this 

“You never talk to me. We never go anywhere. I feel trapped in this house. All I feel is the negativeness of our life. The hideous lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of us forced to live in a barren, empty world like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation, forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos.” 

That's probably not a exact quote but you get the idea. To help alleviate some of this abject misery I took her on a mid week week end trip to Asheville North Carolina. While there we went to the Grovepark Inn and took in the National Gingerbread House competition. I don't know how many gingerbread houses were entered but we took 85 pictures of which only a handful I will post on this site. We did lunch on the Grovepark Inn Terrace. That was Tuesday. Wednesday we toured the Biltmore house No photographs were allowed inside the house so I'll just send one photo of the outside. I would get writers cramp if I tried to describe the Biltmore house. In total it has 250 rooms but the tour only allows 46. The size, the scale, the detail of construction are beyond mere words. You have to see it to believe it. We did the lunch thing on in the Stable Cafe at the Biltmore which is a restaurant in the old Vanderbilt horse stable. All in all a very successful 2 day mid week week ender.