Friday, December 21, 2007

BEING COLD AND UNCOMFORTABLE

My parents were both of Mediterranean descent. I was born to be warm. It is difficult to stay warm in a house that has the thermostat in the warmest, most sheltered room where I spend the least time in the day. It has taken me years to get over the notion that the thermostat should not be set above 70 degrees. At 73 degrees my bedroom (on moderately cold nights) is about 59 degrees at its warmest. Each room in the house varies by a few degrees, all in cooler direction.

Some people make me feel cold when they are perspiring while I am alive with goosepimples. Today I ran the gamut of body temperature, mimicking the NE weather. I got out of a warm bed into a bedroom that was 61 degrees. Next room, I sat down on a cold seat that chilled me further from the waist down to the toes. In the kitchen I then heated water and made an instant cup of mocha cappuccino. I started warming a bit from the inside. Then I jumped into a warm shower and felt warm all over until I stepped out of the shower into a cold room and wiped down with a cold towel; then walked to my cold bedroom and got dressed in cold clothes. Now I was chilled to the bone again. Shortly afterwards, I left the house to get even more cold as I walked into a cold car. People in the front seat who have hot air blowing into their faces may forget that the air is not reaching the back of the humongous SUV middle seat. As the car began to warm it was time to get out and take a cold walk to a warm store, roast with my coat on then leave to go back into the cold air and into a cold car.

And so the day went on...and on....and on. I have concluded that body-temperature constantly adjusting can be exhausting....I wonder why it doesn't work as a great dieting tool! It is not to be analyzed. I don't think I minded leaving my mother's womb. However, I have only enjoyed life when I am warm. Discovering an electric mattress pad has made going to bed a far more pleasant experience than trying to lay my cold body on a cold mattress and trying to get warmth from an empty source. Once in bed, I turn off the mattress heat and by morning am sticking my feet out from under the covers to lower the boiling point reached sometime while I was sleeping.
Before I leave my warm bed and get out into the cold and discomfort again, I daydream about warmth and the all too brief summer I am looking forward to feeling in a few months. I will get thawed out just in time for the next winter in New England!


3 comments:

chris said...

There's something to be said for living in Key West!!

Anonymous said...

Call an electrican and move the thermostat!!! There might be another good story in that experience.

Anonymous said...

There's something to be said to be here in Texas but even we have had some freezing temps this week, so I can certainly relate and I haven't forgotten Chicago winters.
The only good thing is Spring evenually comes.