Even when it's unseasonably warm …

it's cold.

I came home from my trip to NC to find a broken heat pump. It's not 100 percent broken – the fan blows air – but after a very expensive weekend visit from a technician, we learned we need a new compressor. The original one has somehow become grounded, rendering it useless for warming the air coming into the house.

I know NOTHING about heat pumps, other than what I've learned from Google this weekend.

What I do know is that it will be several days before a new compressor can be installed, it's going to cost lots o'bucks, and it's cold. Even the slightly warmer-than-normal outdoor temperatures aren't warm.

So we're wearing wool socks and multiple layers and huddling in the TV room with the door closed and a space heater running full-blast.

Our next electric bill will be astronomical.

The Emergency Heat setting on the heat pump doesn't provide any heat, again because of the compressor. I think. Without that critical component, we're stuck with the unit sucking outside air in and pushing it, barely warmed, throughout the house.

I'll be using the oven today. Roasting a turkey, since my husband stayed home for the holiday and he likes turkey and I picked up a fresh one that needs to be roasted. I'll probably make crackers and pumpkin muffins, too. And I'll roast a mixture of beets, sweet potatoes and carrots, using this recipe (but not as many vegetables) for a side dish with our turkey.

I should probably bake a pie, too. Just to keep the oven going.

I might be tempting fate, though. It would be just our luck for the oven to break during the bake-a-thon.

•••

For Denise and Gingerzingi, who have been commenting about the Ferguson issue, I haven't read the testimony yet. I have read some commentary about the case, and my conclusion is that the prosecutor should have recused himself (due to his close ties with law enforcement and being chairman of the board of a group that raised $400K for Wilson's defense), and a special prosecutor should have been appointed.

Something about the whole thing smells funny.

•••

Finally, if you haven't started listening to the podcast Serial, you're missing something unique and fascinating. I got all caught up on my trip and can't wait for the next episode.

When I feel as I do this morning …

it's probably better to keep my thoughts to myself.

But THAT ain't happening! Heh.

I expected there would be no indictment against the Ferguson police officer who killed Michael Brown. I haven't looked at the evidence, and I didn't hear the witnesses. I can't say whether the grand jury decision is good or bad. It just is.

What I'm left with – and what I started with, once the facts began to come out – is why that officer had to kill that child. Why was deadly force necessary?

I'll grant you that the young man wasn't a fine, upstanding citizen. He wasn't helping the Little Sisters of the Poor. He'd just shoplifted cigars (and not even especially good ones) from a convenience store. He apparently tussled with the officer. He was a big guy, while the officer was of average build.

But who are we, when it's acceptable to kill someone for shoplifting?

Yes, that's simplifying it. But to me, that's the essence of it.

My opinion – and I'm entitled to it – is that the officer overreacted in the worst possible way. A dozen shots weren't necessary. Gunshot wounds are largely survivable if they don't penetrate the head or the heart. Disabling the criminal would have been sufficient.

That child didn't have to die.

I'm not a law enforcement professional. I've shot a gun, but only in target practice, not in a dangerous situation. The only thing I can do with this is accept that the officer felt his life was threatened and he reacted instinctively.

That's tough for me to do. We don't kill shoplifters.

But in this case, I guess we do.