January 18, 2004
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I was about halfway into a personal email response to this comment:
you know…you make 41 degrees indoors sound cozy. how do you do that?
Posted by LuckyStars
Then I decided to share it with the rest of you, whoever you are.
There’s no trick to it, really. (subject line)
A positive forty-one degrees indoors when it is more than twenty below zero outdoors, is about like having it at 95 inside when it’s just freezing outside. After being out in subzero temps, it does feel cozy in here. However, waking in a cold house and trying all day to get the temp above forty does not in any way fit a “cozy” image. That was today. Doug and I were home and Greyfox in Wasilla at a gun show, working. It was 37 in here when I got up. The day’s indoor high was 45, for an hour or two in early afternoon when the sun got high enough above the treetops to give us a little greenhouse effect.
It started cooling off even before sunset, and by the time Greyfox got home it was back to 37. Fed up with the cold and hungry for some hot food, I put the big griddle on 2 of the kitchen stove burners and made grilled cheese sandwiches for Doug and me. On another burner, I reheated last night’s pot roast for Greyfox. Just for comfort’s sake, I turned on the oven and left the door open a crack as I cooked.
Somehow, all that made me remember last summer when it was so hot here I’d lower the blinds and leave them that way for days, and wouldn’t cook at all. I guess that’s my left-handed way of counting my blessings. Mama was left-handed, and she always said, “Count your blessings.”
Comments (5)
That reminds me of the last year I lived in Winnipeg. I was a student living in a fairly old (100+) building in the basement suite. Nice roomy place, quite comfortable with the old radiators haging from the ceiling. Until I came home from Christmas at my sister’s MIL’s house.
While I was gone there was a problem with the sewage line from the building. The only way to fix it was dig it up & replace it. Unfortunately it ran through the hallway beside my place. hmmm… open holes & a January cold snap… not a good combination. It was -40 outside, maybe -30 at best in the hallway. After I spent 2 days in longjohns and all my snow clothes on with the oven door open, I put plastic on the windows & got a spaceheater from the Landlord. It then warmed up to 55. I’m sorry, but that felt damned cold to me, even with it being -30 to -40 outside!
It must be something you just get used to. I grew up with indoor heat, and I rather liked it 
I must admit now, tho, I am getting used to lower indoor temps, but it is so mild here I’d have trouble with -40 outside. I’ve become a wet-coast wimp 
Well, I’d guess there are no exotic plants growing in your house. I bet you don’t have any hamsters, either.
welcome to the lefty group of wich I am a proud member….
Count your blessings, is right. And you always do….
when i read this last night and again today…i had a craving for waffles. i think it was the word ‘griddle’ that did it to me.
when taken in context of outside temp vs indoor temp, it does make sense. but like you said…it’d be getting the nerve to slip out from under the covers in the morning that would get to me.