Yesterday Attila left work an hour early, having gone in an hour early, allowing us an early start on our most recent journey to the little house in the city.
After driving for an hour we hit an ice storm. It began as rain and quickly evolved into a downpour of ice pellets. Luckily the temperature was above freezing, so that the roads were only a little bit slippery. It slowed us down quite a bit though.
When we arrived at the little house in the city it was a great luxury to unload the car and carry our belongings in, up the new steps and into the house through the front door. It was chilly in the house, 8C. An hour after arrival the temperature had risen to 9C. Being occasionally quite stubborn, I decided we should not turn the on furnace, and see if the temperature rose any further.
We wore parkas through what was left of the evening. I warmed my pyjamas by placing them inside my parka, underneath my arms, for about an hour. That worked very well. I also filled a hot water bottle with warm water and placed it in the bed to warm it up. That worked very well as well. I found that my head was cold though, and I hadn’t thought to bring a toque!
When I had to arise in the night to visit the washroom, my resolve froze and shattered. The temperature had not risen above 9C, which feels very chilly when emerging from a nice warm bed. Grabbing my glasses, I carefully set the thermostat to 16C. I drifted off to sleep as the temperature slowly rose.
I have been suffering from a series of nose bleeds, which usually plague me during the heating season. Heating with wood dries the air, significantly. This morning I arose to another nose bleed. And then I had an epiphany, the same epiphany I had last winter. Aspirin. I had been taking aspirin for my back pain. I get nose bleeds when I take aspirin. Luckily my back is feeling much better, so ceasing and desisting on the painkiller is not an imposition.
Sometimes I venture into places to see if they are what I think they are, or as I remember them to be. Usually I find that they are what I think they are, or what I remember them to be. Today I did just that. At one time I flourished in an environment of debate and pursuit of ideas. This is not a new or unfamiliar arena for me. So, just to see if a particular brand of political “dialogue” was as I remember it, I made a general statement, on Facebook, in a political thread. The inflammatory statement was: “walkers are more interesting than talkers”. They were discussing Russell Brand.
Hades’ gates opened wide and out swarmed the unconscious projections of men, all men, whose emotions seem to rule their minds. Words were put in my mouth, aspersions cast upon my character and intelligence, and statements were made about me that bordered on threatening. This went on for quite some time, without any input from me. These fellows felt very confident explaining to me, and each other, exactly what I meant, because of course only their interpretation was possible in this universe. How self-referencing can you get. I will not go into the details of their arguments, because what they had to say about my short, general statement had nothing whatsoever to do with what I actually meant, or was interested in discussing. These are men who know how the “lumpen masses”, a clearly inferior group to which they seemed to believe I belong, should think and behave. Wow, one little term to dismiss anyone who doesn’t tow their line of thought. I don’t know what their ideas of freedom of speech are, but I don’t think they resemble mine. This lumpen mass will speak for herself, thank you.
The whole exercise served to remind me that, that particular brand of political “dialogue” is exactly how I remember it.
Women, in their youth, have a few days each month when their emotions have a powerful effect on their perspective. But men suffer from hormonal fluctuations of the mind on a daily basis, throughout their entire adult lives. Many learn to live a balanced life in spite of it, others do not.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
6°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Saturday 26 October 2013
Condition: Light Rain
Pressure: 100.8 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 10 km
Temperature: 6.4°C
Dewpoint: 3.9°C
Humidity: 84%
Wind: SW 47 gust 62 km/h
Quote
“Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
That quote caused such a flap? I don’t get it.
I am quite frugal with utilities, but I suspect you are ever more diligent than I am. I just checked a conversion table. Are you mad! 🙂 Where I live people think I’m quite odd because I set my thermostat to 58 F at night. Good heavens – that’s a heat wave in your household. Bravo to you!
I didn’t get it either Irene. I just read the slings and arrows, aghast. I hit some sort of nerve I guess.
Irene, your comment “are you mad” made me laugh out loud! The heat wave comment tickles my funny bone too.
In the winter our country house is usually about 20C, right next to the central masonry heater. It gets a lot cooler when you approach an external walls. On top of that, I like to sleep in a room with the door shut against all that heat. But thermal mass heating (the masonry heater) is different than forced air or convection heating. With thermal mass heating the objects in the room warm up to the same temperature as the air, so in the bedroom with the door closed, the objects are warmer than the air, and it is comfortable.
But here at the little house in the city it is forced air heating, which requires a warmer temperature for comfort! I am learning.
I, too, like to sleep in the cold and have my window open near my head all year long.
Nosebleeds: I used to have them bad, too. Especially in the dry heated air. One time I had one at work that wouldn’t quit (I worked in a hospital) so I went to an ENT doctor and he cauterized it right then and there. It’s simple, very quick, and I’ve never had another nosebleed since that day! That was back in 1967. It’s all due to a weakened blood vessel in the nose. Easy to fix.
Thanks for the tip Bex, I have been plagued with nose bleeds my whole life through. I will bring this up with my GP at the next checkup!