stand up, hold on, and swear you won't let go

[enthusiastick]

Winter has at last descended upon Boston, and its come swiftly and without remorse, angry at having been held back too long by bouts of unseasonable warmth and drizzling Autumnal rain in place of snow. The weather service would have me believe that the high today will be in the low twenties, with a wind chill dropping us down into the mid-teens. But weather.com tells me that its currently 11 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it "feels like" -3. That's more in synch with what I experienced walking to and from the train this morning; a bitter cold that bites viciously when the wind gusts, regardless of how warmly you're dressed, reminding you that no sensible person would be out in weather like this.

It won't last. Despite its outrage and ferocity Winter doesn't have staying power this year; current predictions hold that temperatures will be up above freezing tomorrow, and though there's precipitation expected on Friday no one can say whether it will come in the form of snow or rain. Which is good really, because I seem to have a minor cold, and its hard enough to drag myself from bed without the prospect of facing icy bone-chilling winds when I set foot outside. Also I continue to wrestle with my roommates for control of our thermostat. Both of their bedrooms have separate heating zones, so they can be heated up even when the heat in the house is turned down, provided it is not turned off entirely. Whereas my room doesn't even have storm windows, and is typically five to ten degrees colder than the rest of the house. On multiple occasions I've had the audacity to notch the main thermostat up as high as 66 or even 68 degrees only to have it turned down again as soon as my back was turned. There's nothing quite like waking up to discover that moving even a fraction of an inch in either direction will give you chills as it transports your body out of the pocket of body heat you've created for yourself, into territory where everything around you, even the blanket in which you're wrapped, is damnably cold.

Sorry if I seem downbeat. I have half a cold, and I'm stuck in the doldrums of no new television. Heroes won't return for another couple of weeks, and the Torchwood finale kind of, well, sucked. Things have gotten so dire that I've picked up Ugly Betty as a filler. I've watched all the back episodes and added it to the Tivo season passes. I didn't mean to pick up another entirely girly fixation, but, well, there you have it.

Comments

[dystopiac.livejournal.com]

New BSG sunday night! That's something.

Yeah, um, my suggestion for you in that thermostat battle (particularly because of the complete and utter lack of insulation in your room with all the windows), which really isn't *much* of a solution because it doesn't solve the problem of how cold you are when you get out of bed, would be to get a heating blanket. Frankly, I don't see you winning the thermostat battle. Not to mention that the rest of the house is a big empty cavernous space to keep heated. Try one of those newfangled safe space heaters? A thermostat on a timer for mornings would solve your problem, but it's not like you have any capacity to get one.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the suggestions, though I have heard them both before.

Knowing the way I am, an electric blanket would likely backfire; lacking the patience to fine-tune it I would likely fall asleep, wake up too hot and subsequently sweaty, turn it off and then be even colder in the morning. My temperature regulation is already pretty wonky; I run hot, and in normal circumstances have to sleep with my feet out from under the blanket or I'll overheat.

The space heater is a better idea. sleetfall has even volunteered to lend me one, as he's got a couple he's not really using. The thing is, academically and intuitively, I know that a space heater would be less energy efficient than the wonderful bank of radiators that already exists in my room. So I'm resistant to it, because I'm ornery, and because really if I agree to have it turned off during the day who really gives a crap if I turn our heat on for six hours on a really cold day?

The answer, of course, is Pete. Grumble.

[dystopiac.livejournal.com]

For some reason, when I opened the email alert window, the first thing i saw was "the answer, of course, is pete."
which meant, to me, that you had decided that cuddling nightly with pete until he agreed to turn up the thermostat was the solution. that may, in fact, be the best way to get pete to give in to your heating demands, and thus is my new recommendation to you.

overall, space heaters are less energy efficient, but if you're talking about just heating your one rather small room rather than heating the admittedly cavernous open space that is the rest of the heating zone, there's got to be a significantly lessened use of energy overall.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

I am once again awestruck at your ability to seize upon seemingly insignificant details or turn of phrase and inflate them into thoroughly ridiculous scenarios and/or pronouncements.

No, seriously.

[dystopiac.livejournal.com]

My inner monologue would probably utterly terrify you.

I can attribute the habit you speak of to a number of things:
1) My train of thought can seek many alternate paths at once. I am slightly crazy, inherently. Must be.
2) I bore easily. I can entertain myself with these things in my head, much of the time.
3) Many years of MUN & Mock Trial training, fine tuning my ability to pull words and phrases and shred them to pieces.
4) Another several years of improv troupe on top of that, further honing my weird scenario-developing 'skills' should you choose to call them that.
Though I'm not sure that last one is quite true - I know I wasn't nearly as good at improv as I would like to think I was.

Judging by our trail of comments today, it is apparent we've both been planted at our respective work-desks a tad short of stuff to adequately fill the time.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

Well, my inner monologue would probably utterly terrify you, too.

With reference to the first item on your list... you're not crazy, you're just intelligent without being particularly focused. I should know, I suffer from a similar affliction. Its kind of fun, most of the time.

And yeah, LJ has proved a major source of entertainment today, given that I've had about 15 minutes of real actual work to do. Its been nice almost talking to you.