It's a balmy -12° this morning. The house is set for 18.5 ° overnight, 21 ° during the day. If it's sunny, solar gain is massive. If it's overcast, or snowing (which it has been, too much of late) there's always the wood stove. Indoor wear? Jeans and a shirt. Outdoors, particularly when walking the dog (snowshoes, actually), full parka, snow pants, boots, and heavy mitts.
We keep our thermostat at 68F (20C) in the winter and 72 to 74F (about23C) depending on the outside temperature in the summer. The stat is mounted on a wall that houses the return duct from a vent mounted near the ceiling. The temp at the couch in front of the TV is usually a degree or two colder. Heat is electric and we have seen $400/month electric bills already this year.From what I learnt 25.5 degrees room temperature (in wintertime) is seen as unhealthy. ...... but last time I checked 23 degrees was the maximum. For sleeping rooms 18 degrees is said to be optimal........Costs a fortune too when having electrical or natural gas heating.
Despite spending the first 62 years of my life in or near Miami, I am far more tolerant of cold than heat, and this seems to get worse with age. My usual dress is a pair of shorts in the summer or a pair of jeans in the winter. No shoes, no shirt. If I get cold I just do 25 pushups or so and that fixes it. It doesn't take much exertion for me to break into a sweat. OK, I'll wear flip flops to shovel snow. My wife, on the other extreme looks like an eskimo sometimes with three layers of covering.
At 8 AM this morning it was lightly snowing outside with a temp of 31.1F (-0.5C) and 64.6F (18.1C) inside despite the thermostat setting of 68F. My lab and computer are in the basement which is a bit colder than the ground level rooms, but I don't have a thermometer here. There have been a few days where I have resorted to a T-shirt in the basement. Expected high temp for Sunday is 30F with an expected low of 16. Guess I need to dig out a thick T-shirt.
Attachments
Yeah, but your neighbours secretly refer to you as 'Yeti'... 😉
As an aside, we have a minimum of 27C tonight...ha ha ha.
As an aside, we have a minimum of 27C tonight...ha ha ha.
Yeah, very chilled vodka goes down far too easily.Its not cold as long the Vodka don't freeze...

jeff
A shawl is a no from me Galu. It would be cumbersome I feel?
It is the best way to spend a cold afternoon on the laptop...with another tightly wrapped around the lower body and legs.
I have a double tartan picnic style rug and an old fashioned thick velour travel/carriage rug...all on top of an absolute heap of wooden type clothes!
This has been so since I had a triple artery by-pass and pneumonia coming out of the anaesthetic (and over fifty years of heavy
cigarette smoking), needless to say I have (mildish) emphysema. Local people think that I look like a semi-mobile charity shop when I go out to shop
each morning.
But I put the main problem down to using Warfarin.

Heat is electric and we have seen $400/month electric bills already this year.
I just got the biggest electric bill since I moved here over 10 years ago, $462 for 33 days.
As T. S. Eliot wrote:
I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
I am still at the hoody stage.
Never grow up, never grow old.
If I am ever cold inside, I go outside and wish that I was back inside where it’s actually a balmy 18.
Never grow up, never grow old.
If I am ever cold inside, I go outside and wish that I was back inside where it’s actually a balmy 18.
................ Local people think that I look like a semi-mobile charity shop when I go out to shop
each morning.
But I put the main problem down to using Warfarin.
![]()
....and being nearer 83 than 82!

Big zip up hoody over sweatshirt and t shirt here. Warm as toast with the hood up.I am still at the hoody stage.
Never grow up, never grow old.
If I am ever cold inside, I go outside and wish that I was back inside where it’s actually a balmy 18.
Sometimes I wonder if I should be a bit less tight with the heating, but every month the energy company sends our bill, plus an assessment of usage showing that we (family of three living in a modern, insulated house) use less gas and electricity that an average single person living in a small apartment. Then suddenly the hoody seems worth it 😎
When you start growing up.........Oh, nevermind. I'm not doing that, I'll stay a kid forever......teenager maybe.I am still at the hoody stage.
Never grow up, never grow old.
If I am ever cold inside, I go outside and wish that I was back inside where it’s actually a balmy 18.
The walk outside when it's cold and snowing or take a cold shower in mid winter trick works for me. The colder you let yourself get, the longer you will feel warm when you go back inside. My wife thinks I'm stupid and refuses to try it.
After paying the $462 electric bill I shut all of the heater vents in the basement where I work. The temp in here has dropped to 59F (15C) and I might get a shirt on my next trip upstairs. It's now 25F (-4C) outside and the concrete walls down here feel cold.
Can you channel The Dude?Am I ready to don a cardi?
Absolutely not. My hair is receding, I'm overweight (in a "doesn't carry it well" way), and boring AF.Can you channel The Dude?
- Home
- Member Areas
- The Lounge
- Erm... I think I'm ready for a Cardigan