Heater Wars are raging. the temp has begun to plummet into the bone-chilling 50's at night, requiring a little heat in the house. a little i said. somewhere between sixty and sixty-five degrees would be perfectly reasonable. there are clever inventions for dealing with this kind of teeth-chattering cold, you may have heard of them: pajamas. blankets. slippers. there is no reason to heat a house so that it can be occupied by people in boxer shorts and a wife-beater. in fact there is no reason other people in the house should have to even see that sort of thing. put some damn clothes on, in other words! the clothes, you buy once. the heat, you buy every single night.
but that's not the worst of it. i know i've said this before and yes, i'm saying it again -- i am nagging, that's what this is, nagging. deal. in a simple, basic apartment heating system, there are two possible states: on, and off. depending on how high the little dial is turned, it will not get hotter, faster. will only be on, longer. it will reach the comfort level in the same amount of time, but if the stupid wretched little dial is turned up too high, it will stay on until the house is fillled with arid, stifling heat. dries my skin, irritates my sinuses, and pisses off the rest of me.
and depending on the mood of the combatants, the temperatures we select without consulting one another (because there is no agreement on this) will get either higher or lower. doors will be opened. fans will be moved from room to room and pointed in different directions. people will bitch. and bitch and then the gas bill comes, and bitch, and bitch, etc.
Don't even get me started on this one. When it's too hot in the house, I get physically ill. I wait ANXIOUSLY for winter when I'm in the middle of texas summer, only to wake up sweating because someone (not naming any names) wants to loll about in shorts and a t-shirt.
Grrrr...
i freak out when it's too hot. i'm well-insulated, not only the padding but my big fuzzy hair. and i hate the waking up sweating thing. oh man.
also i'd like to take this opportunity to admit that when i re-read that rant, i heard my mother's voice. not all of it, but it was in there. loud and clear.
...and here I am out blading in shorts this morning. Still, I'd better find the sweats: the agreement here is to keep the house very cold and put a fire in the fireplace. ...and adjust your temperature by proximity to said fireplace.
That's if you can get the cats to move...
Flannel. Shirts, sheets... lovely flannel goodness is what allows me to survive the winter. We keep our heat at 65, and probably can't afford that, even - but Michigan insists on being Cold all Winter.