RIP dragon candle

When I was six years old, I was dragged along when my mom visited a friend. The friend had sculpted and painted a whole fantasy scene out of candles, large castle, knights, the works. There was a small upright orange dragon with painted scales that six-year-old me fell in love with, and the lady gave it to me.

That was the beginning of collecting dragons. Of course I never burned the candle. I have carried it with me from dorm to apartment to house all this time. In this house I had it upstairs on a shelf nestled in with a few stuffed animals and other treasured relics of childhood.

Today I noticed that the dragon was face down. I went to set it upright, and realized it's not that it had been knocked over. It *melted*, probably during the June heat dome. 116 degrees! Fifty-two-year-old me cried real tears and ceremonially carried it to the trash.

Ironically, I was looking closely at that shelf because I'm thinking about getting a heat pump mini-split for my bedroom, which is unheated except for a small electric heater I mostly don't use. There's no air conditioning in the house, although the basement stayed cool even during the heat dome.

( To install or not to install... )

Anyone out there have experience with heat pumps? What do you think of them?