5/23/2012

old habits die hard

Until this week, the weather has been quite changeable--so much so that the lemon tree has blooms as does the apple tree and my strawberries. They don't know it's not spring.  One day it's rainy, the next it's beautiful.

I know in my head that winter is coming and I think my brain automatically goes into Chicago winter mode  even though I haven't been through a Chicago winter in over 30 years [I was raised just across the state line in Whiting, IN but most people don't know where Indiana is]. My mind still goes straight to frost on the inside of the windows because the furnace can't keep up, even though it runs 24/7. Brr.

When it does actually get cold here, it's very rarely below 0 degrees F. Hubby teases me when it gets into minus degrees in Celsius but my  I have to stop and tell myself it's not as cold as it sounds, it's not Fahrenheit.

I guess the fact that there is no central heating in homes here doesn't help. We heat the bedroom with an electric heater and I use an electric blanket (the kind that you put under the sheet) so that I can sleep at night; but turning on the electric heaters in the rest of the house when I get up and waiting for the heat is not my ideal way to start the day.

But, it is what it is.Yes, we all live without central heat. And without central air. And without insulation. (The building industry here has only been required to use insulation since 2000). That sounds so terribly archaic but, on the bright side, it doesn't snow very often so I don't have to worry about shovelling snow or driving in slush. And, most days--even in winter--the sky is blue, the air is clean. And I know winter is not forever.

4 comments:

Lindy said...

I know where Whiting is...I grew up in La Porte. Those winters at the tip of Lake Michigan were not only frigid, but were also buried in lake effect snow. Hubby and I moved to Arizona for 9 years and, after we acclimated, were cold any time the temperature dropped below 80. Now we are back in central Indiana. When we moved back, we invested heavily in thermal under garments. ;-)

I hope your electricity fees there are not as bad as here!

Belle said...

Oh my, I would find it hard to live without central heating. Waking up to a cold house would be awful! I guess England doesn't have that either. No insulation! Well, each country is different. My ex-son-in-law lives in New Zealand at Christchurch. My granddaughter is going to visit him for a month in July.

Our winter this year was also strange. It was sometimes warm in January - in Canada!!

Nicole said...

Wow! Here in Canada that would be crazy!

MaryMeg said...

I moved to Australia from Canada, so I understand your culture shock (and now we're here in NZ).

You should mention that in the vast majority of NZ it rarely gets terribly cold. We had our first snowfall in 20 years in Wellington last year.

I'm impressed that you psych up for winter at this time of year. My brain hears "mid-June" and starts wondering where the spring flowers are and why it isn't warmer out. I suspect I'll never get used to the idea of July being "winter". It doesn't help that Canada in May and New Zealand in May can be similar temperatures. :-)