Friday, March 7, 2008

Where is Spring?

Since we're extremely cheap college students, we have decided to save money by using the heat sparingly, a.k.a: never. Our thermostat is usually set between 55 and 59 degrees. If we have layered our clothing and are shuddering beneath two fleece blankets and we're still cold, we'll turn the heat on. Right before Christmas break, we were all cold but not cold enough to turn the heat on. So we layered up in warm clothes, squished together on the love seat, covered ourselves in a blanket or two, and read for an hour or so.


There were a couple of weeks in January that were in the negatives so we decided to use the heat then. But we definitely tried to use it sparingly. Cassie couldn't handle it anymore so she broke down and bought a space heater. We didn't use the space heater sparingly though and we ended up not saving any money. We keep the space heater in the living room; so come bedtime, it's all about the layering and getting under the covers quickly. I feel like I have mastered bedtime warmth:




Here's the breakdown:

Clean, dry socks

sweatpants

Hooded sweatshirt complete with tightened hood

Once I have my warm clothes on, it is time to crawl under the many layers of blankets (I have labeled the layers for you). One thing to keep in mind, there's a little box next to my bed that just doesn't quite keep out the cold air.

Layer 1: pretty worthless-after all it is just a sheet, but what kind of bed would it be if there wasn't a sheet? Not a normal one, that's for sure.

Layer 2: a fuzzy blanket-I can use these again now that I understand that picking fuzzies ruins blankets

Layer 3: a down blanket-it's really nice, but I question its warming abilities

Layer 4: a quilt-my grandma made this one, it's got childhood written all over it and again I question its warming abilities, but it's precious to me

Layer 5: a rag quilt-I made this one and I don't question its warming abilities because it's made of flannel

Layer 6: on really cold nights I use this blanket to wrap around my stockinged feet, although the last couple of nights it has been warm enough for me to just lay it on top of everything else

There are two more blankets in the picture but those aren't for keeping warm. Those are for cuddling purposes-which is equally important to warmth in my book.

I stay warm at night. But I'm sick of these layers. I want my basketball shorts and T-shirt! The sun comes out each day, melting a little here and melting a little there. I think "Ahhh, spring is coming." And then the sun goes down and I realize it's still winter.

Spring break begins today. We're leaving for Missoula, heading to Spokane, driving to Seattle, staying in Boise, and looping back to Logan. I know, I know: you'd think we'd head somewhere warm; but no-we're going north. Hopefully we'll stay places where peoeple believe in using their heat.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was in college I had the opposite of your experience. I had roommates who thought that the furnance wasn't working well enought so they made some modifications to it but removing something. Well it turned out that the furnace began pumping carbon dioxide back into the apartment. Our whole apartment had carbon dioxide poisoning. Luckily no one died. I got up feeling faint walked to the bathroom and hit the floor. My falling to the floor woke enough of the apartment up to realize that something was wrong. We opened the doors called the paramedics and as they say, the rest is history. Keeping your furace off may actually be safer than running it.

Jalayne said...

Well, Ken, I'm glad you're alive today

Darby said...

Not going to lie, living in Hillside was nice and a blessing for one reason--free heat. Plus the building was like an incubator for some apartments. I do like your place though and remember the freezing days of Old Farm. Yikes!