I have this strange fascination with yurts. It all started at the end of last year when I was thinking about helping my dad build a mother-in-law apartment at my parents’ house in Idaho. I looked into building plans and the costs of such a project and decided that a yurt would be the way to go.

Dad wasn’t thrilled with the idea. But he didn’t have to be. The seed had been planted, and now I’m a yurt man. I like the idea of having some place where I can retreat away from the world. I want a yurt, even if it’s a yurt in the back yard.

I would outfit it with solar panels to power my laptop, and I could live off the grid and write novels in my yurt. I could even get a ChillSack and have all the comforts of home and all the comforts of a yurt.

Or maybe I’ll just open a restaurant.