Sauna Time!

All of a sudden, it feels like winter. Here I was, thinking that maybe winter wouldn't show up this year. Wham! Next think you know, I'm sitting on top of the space heater. At least it took until the middle of January. Once it gets cold, I go looking for ways to warm up. If only those Pentium PCs would throw a little of their precious heat my way ...

I have one favorite way to get toasty warm: the sauna.

Alas, my sauna time hasn't been separated by days.

It's been years since the last time I've enjoyed a few marvelous minutes of sauna goodness. And not just years, baby ... hundreds of miles.

Truth be told, the only times I've had the (rare!) pleasure of using a sauna have been on ski trips. There's no better way than a sauna to break that chill and ease those sore muscles after a long day on the slopes. Okay, so a steaming hot tub is pretty good, too ... but a dry sauna feels like it can warm you all the way to your bones. (The combination of the two is about as good as it gets.)

A home sauna is among the many items in the "when my ship comes in" category. For most of the year, the sauna's a good bit further down the list then its most closely related object, the massage chair. But the colder it gets, the further the sauna moves up the list. Never so far up the list for me to commit funds, mind you, but still ...

Saunas typically come as pre-fab units or material kits. Pre-fab free-standing saunas are quickly assembled -- typically from precut cedar planks. With a pre-fab sauna, you can be up and running (er, sweating) in less than a day. Material kits are designed to be built into your home in under a week. Installation entails the use of a vapor barrier and insulation.

Indoor saunas often use electric heaters, while wood burning heaters are more often found in many outbuilding saunas. My dream sauna has a Tylö Combi heater, to allow both a traditional dry heat, as well as a steam sauna. And lets not forget the industrial wireless keyboard and flat screen industrial monitor, built into the wall ... what proper geek wouldn't want that?