It’s been really cold this week. Almost as cold as it ever gets here during winter. Which might not seem that cold to some of you, but bear in mind that there is very little temperature difference between inside and outside casa az. Also, the living room heater (which is just like this bedroom one) has gone wonky and will now only work if it’s taken off the wall and placed upside down on the dining table. Go figure.
And so I am writing this from bed, wearing a t-shirt and a sweatshirt, a cardie over those and a scarf … the duvet (sweatpants and socks on under that) comes up to mid-chest, and the heater is on. But while most of me is feeling warm enough my hands are freezing, so I think I’m going to have to invest in some wooly gloves and cut the fingertips off.
Can’t imagine how I’m going to do chemo in January as the side effects include not being able to even touch anything cold (because it hurts like hell). Ah well, one day at a time…
Friday looks like it might be a nice day to go out. Pipocas and I have a date to go and see some Rodin sculptures in the Plaza Nueva around midday if I’m feeling up to a walk. She just sent me an email saying “It can’t stay this way, can it?” (referring to the cold). I sure hope not, especially with that possible long weekend in Málaga coming up…
How about you guys – are you keeping warm?
casa azahar 
Take Pipocas up on her offer to go to the hardware store and get some weatherproofing.
http://www.taikongren.net/hard-boiled-shanghai/2005_11_01_archive.html
🙂
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damp and dreary around here….
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Yeah, it was raining here, all day. I’m ALWAYS cold, have been for a while, probably circulation related. It gets to 60F and I’m shivering, even in a coat.
I’ve gotta buy a new one *soon*! Fortunately, it’s the sale season, right before Xmas. Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, here.
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I must say the new windows have helped a lot. I don’t have to cover up with a quilted throw when watching TV now. I know how much it helped because they haven’t done the windows in the hall yet, and boy is it cold there. I had to put my “draft-dodger” thing on the door so I wouldn’t get a draft under it. It’s been getting down in the upper 30’s here lately, which is about as cold as it usually gets here. Although we usually have a week down in the 20’s at least once a winter.
Hey, Spacecadette, you might check your thyroid, too. That can make you cold all the time, as I can attest from personal experience.
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Snow… lots of snow. Currently -2C
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Temperatures are about the same here, and the radiator here in the living room hasn’t worked for years. I guess we might try and get it fixed sometime soon but who knows when.
But life goes on. I’m typing this in a shirt and I’m not cold, really.
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im not going to complain about the weather here just yet. its been quite nice here considering it can get into the
-40’s. im enjoying the -10ish weather and it feels good to not have to worry about frostbite yet. dont get me wrong i cant stand the cold and daydream about sunny beaches all the time. but considering how cold it will get soon enough im dont want to be the one to bring it on any sooner by complaining about the tolerable weather we have now. i have yet to plug in the car so im happy! as for staying warm indoors thats not a problem. actually we have the opposite of ur situation. living on the top floor we get everyone’s heat rising to our place so we dont even have to turn our heat on…yet
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Ooooo, yer such a tough guy, Blues! 😉
Well, when I woke up this morning the thermostat on the bedroom heater said 12º (53ºF), which is pretty cold to me. I’m doing the ‘under the duvet’ thing again but I’m still a bit chilly.
I remember that same ‘using other people’s heat’ phenomenon happening when I lived on the 26th floor in Toronto, DKL. Also, I had double-glazed balcony doors & windows and the building was insulated.
I’m always cold too, SC, but this has been a life-long thing for me. I’m what the Spanish call a ‘friolera’ – someone who is very sensitive to cold. I don’t mind having to put on a sweater or two at home in the winter, but when I’m still shivering with three layers and a scarf and my fingers go numb I get a bit fed up.
I’m still not sure about the weatherstripping idea. I mean, I’ve got six balcony double doors that are 2/3 window panes (one layer of very thin glass), but it might help with the draughts.
Meanwhile, the electricity bill is going to be astronomical. Last year (after finally putting a heater in the bedroom and keeping the livingroom reasonably warmish) the winter bills were more than double. And that was with me & Nog being out a lot, working, etc. This year I’m going to be stuck at home most of the time and keeping two rooms warmish … yikes!
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I don’t want to gloat but it’s beautiful and balmy in sydney today
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Ah, I was wondering when you Antipodes were going to show up and start gloating… 😉
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Something about this post made me remember that my German car has built-in butt warmers. So this morning I put those babies working and… ooohh, so good.
Those Germans: smart, smart people.
How about I weatherproof your bedroom and you can test-drive the concept?
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Maybe we could start with the livingroom as I don’t have a duvet in there (yet). Thanks!
Actually, I was thinking that once I’m feeling better I can keep warm by getting on the dreaded exercise bike more often. 10-15 minutes every hour ought to do it.
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Poor thing! It hadn’t occurred to me that houses in warm countries might not be geared up for keeping you warm if it gets cold.
We get colder here in the Scottish Highlands than over there in Spain but we are geared up for it more – so I’ve got the central heating on (for part of the day – oil’s too dear to have it on all the time), I have a wood-burning stove that I can fire up if it gets really cold (needed it last week when the heating broke down for a whole week – brrrrr). I’ve also got top-up electric heaters in some of the rooms. I’ve got my winter duvet on the bed, and an extra blanket too.
My mode of dress changes in the winter too – scarf gloves and hat of course, and my new woolly coat (yum) but also, as I get older, a vest or a t-shirt underneath it all. I feel like Paddington Bear as I set out some days – rigid with all the layers of extra padding. And it’s only November! Help!
Mind you, it’s mild today and I’ve even got a window open (slightly!) so I’m enjoying that while I can (no vest today either!)
Hope it warms up for you there soon – maybe the mild air’ll move down to Spain from Scotland… 🙂
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It’s -6C and some 5cm cm snow in the Far North. I’ve been wearing long underwear for weeks when I’m outdoors, as well as scarf, warm gloves and hat. A few days ago I started to use my long warm furcoat.
It’s a little clumsy with all these clothing, but better that than freeze. The local “cry of war” is “better warmth than beauty”.
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It was raining this morning in Norn Irn, but seems to have stopped now – I can even glimpse the odd patch of blue sky! If our outdoor temperatures are in double figures (Centigrade) then we’re doing well at this time of year. Rog is very good at lighting the big open fire, and there’s nothing nicer than lazing in front of it of an evening.
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First snow in the mountains, a little nippy here but soon it will start to rain and it will warm up a bit.
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Seat warmers in cars are just wrong.
My father outlaw didn’t warn me about the ones in his lexus and I thought I’d wet myself or something.
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“Seat warmers in cars are just wrong”
We don’t have seat warmers in our car but when it is a -30 morning or worse, we sort of pine for them. We have an automatic car-starter and a block heater in our car which helps with cold morning starts but not enough.
For those who don’t know what either of these items are….
Block heater: keeps the engine block slightly warmer in order to prevent the car from seizing in cold temps… an absolute necessity in Canadian winters (or at least anywhere other than Coastal BC).
Automatic car starter: You start your engine from inside your house using a little remote starter gadget abut 10-15 minutes before you have to go outside and scrape off the 8 inches of ice from the windscreen. There is a little box attached to our windscreen behind the rear-view mirror and you have a small clicker like your automatic lock system uses and you turn your engine on and off from inside the house. We don’t use it every day, of course, just when it is very, very cold.
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Talking about seat warmers: can’t you get a heizdecke, az?
They don’t need much electricity, and the keep the bed nicely warm.
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It looks as if what I suggested right now wasn’t posted for some reason, although it says it was.
Anyway, I suggested an electric blanket, they’re not expensive and don’t need much electricity, but they’ll keep your bed (and hence you) warm.
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Great idea, Bel. Forget the bed – I think I’m gonna get one of those, wear it poncho-style, and just wander around the apartment with a very long extension cord.
I’m definitely sporting the Padddington Bear look at home, Puddock. When I go out in winter just a sweater and scarf under my wool coat is plenty. Don’t need a hat or gloves or boots. During the day it’s often much colder inside than out.
“My father outlaw didn’t warn me about the ones in his lexus and I thought I’d wet myself or something.”
😀
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The problem with the car seat being warm, as well as keeping the heat in the car up too high is the same as using the air-conditioning too high in summer… You feel colder when you get out of the car (reverse in summer). I try not to keep the heat up too high in the car because it makes it harder to face the cold air outside, quite apart from it usuing too much gas and being not nice for the environment. I try to off-set the fact that I use the car starter in the morning by not cranking the heat up in the car while I am driving.
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hmmm, its an overcast 26 here, with thunderstorms and rain forecast over the weekend which puts paid to my scuba plans. 😦
“Rug up Az” as they say here!
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I’m with you, Blues. Seat warmers are for frigid climates with wussy drivers. Here on the Left Coast it never gets that cold and we all drive like 16 year olds with three beers in us. Damn the torpedoes, full speed through the stop sign!
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“Rug up Az” as they say here!
I’ve never heard that one before, truce. “Rug off” on the other hand …
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It was supposedly nice here, but I was in the 130 degree kitchen all day, my face red as a beet, so I wouldn’t know. My mother was in bitching about how cold it was in her wool sweater.
We started a fire (in the fireplace) later in the evening. After the smoke finally started going up the chimney instead of into the living room, and the coughing fits subsided, it was nice.
How are you feeling today, Az?
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I’m feeling good, Beth. Pipocas and I went out for a walk (first time out since the op) and took in some art in the streets. Then we went for lunch and I’ve been “rugged up” ever since I got home. 🙂
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“Damn the torpedoes, full speed through the stop sign!”
I nearly met my maker (not for the first time) today when someone from a province I won’t mention but its initials are Quebec stopped at a stop sign leading onto a major parkway and, despite my having no stop sign, pulled out right out in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes full on…. Despite the screeching tires and horn, they took no nevermind and continued on.
It appeared that either the passenger was engrossed in conversation with the driver or they were on a driving lesson.
Sadly, I didn’t have a light long enough to get out and point out the basic rules of one way stop signs…. I might also have pointed out that insurance companies take a dim view of people who total their car while failing to yield the right of way.
My niece was disabled in just such an accident.
Crappy day, here… wet snow and rain off and on. I brought a bag of salt and sand in from the back yard last evening and stupidly brought it into the house without realizing it was saturated and had a small hole in the bottom…. I now have a thick coating of salt all over my hall floor. I have washed the floor three times and there is still salt.
I may have to pour vinegar on the floor to break up the crystals and then wash it a few more times.
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I’ll never forget my 6 month stint as a courier driver in Winnipeg when I was about 21. We drove – get this – Pintos, in the winter, in Winterpeg. It’s amazing I’m still here to tell the tale. Nothing like driving for 8 hours a day to make you really hate bad or careless drivers.
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I’ve suddenly lost my sense of humour about wacky driving too. I was in an accident on Thursday – no injuries thank goodness though I still ache all over. But I’m mad as hell as it’s dented my confidence and my joy in driving. 😦
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