Friday, January 16, 2009

This weather sucks. No, really.

I know this area is not the only area in the friggin' deep freeze right now, but I just have to say that it truly blows. I cannot fathom those people who actually like cold weather. It's not normal. Humans were not meant to inhabit such a ridiculous climate. Friggin' Polar Bears are meant to inhabit this climate. It's stupid cold. Every winter I say the same thing....I need to move south. Unfortunately, it's not possible because Katie's father would forbid it, I'm sure. She's 15...maybe in 3 more years we can get the hell out of here.

Poor Kevin doesn't either #1) know how to cover himself back up fully, or B)...hmmm...I forgot what I was going to say here. Must be the freakin' COLD interfering with my brain synapsing. Anyway. Because this house is almost 100 years old, the way it was built has a few issues. One is that there is no heating vents in any of the bedrooms. There is one central large floor vent in the hallway outside the bedrooms. It's not really a hallway, per se, It's more of a landing. You, literally, walk up the steps and either walk straight into my bedroom or do a U-turn into Katie's bedroom. The bedroom doors have to be let open during the day to allow heat to enter the rooms. When we sleep the doors get shut so it gets chilly in there during the night. The doors need to be shut or we'd be kept up all night with all the racket the dogs make. Normally it's not a problem. It doesn't get very cold during the night, we dress for the winter weather, and both Kevin and I like to sleep in a colder room, but this week has been a different story altogether. It's getting too cold. I was running an electric ceramic heater in Kevin's room to warm it up before he goes to bed, but Roni does not feel it's safe to run it during the night. She's terrified of a fire. (I'm worried it'll get too warm in the room for him. He hates to be hot when he's sleeping, but I could adjust the temperature of the heater so it keeps it cool without being cold.) Soooo, Kevin has been waking up between 4:30 and 5:30 this week. I've been assuming he's cold so I've been gathering him up and bringing him into bed with me. Every day, except this morning, he's gone back to sleep. Now the weekend is here and my 16 hour shifts. I'm thinking that it's going to be an exhausting weekend.

Do you think it's unsafe to run an electric heater in his room? It's the kind that stays cool to the touch, if that makes a difference.

5 comments:

Baby John's Crib said...

Eeek, that sucks! Bottom line is no, I don't think it's safe to run the heater. But then again, DH & I used to handle insurance claims where those damn things started fires. I would only use one when you are there to monitor it or for a very short period to pre-warm the room when it is empty (and you are home to keep tabs on it).

Have you checked into blown-in insulation? Old houses typically don't have anything between the plaster and siding/brick. It can really help.

Laurie said...

I don't know anything about the heater, but I hate the cold weather too. It sucks. 23 below here last night. Maybe we can be neighbors in the south in 3 years. It will take me that long to convince hubby to move down there.

Michelle Smiles said...

It is cold even in TN - single digits last night!

Mama Bear said...

We do use one called Surround Heat from Honeywell. We had a different one but hubby researched it all out and came up with this being the safe one (not sure there's anything a hundred percent safe) and we've used it now in the bedroom that is over the garage and always freezing and haven't had any issues. I think this is the second winter we've used it with no problems and it hasn't even been broken!!! It sits on top of the tv and it really keeps the room warm. It has high/low/off and like a temp gauge that you can turn from low up to high but again I'm not the techie, hubby checked it all out! With 4 kids in the house though and him so overly protective that we even have to have a stupid alarm system that I'm always setting off (yes, I'm an idiot, what can I say) I kind of trust his judgment in the techie stuff!!!

Good luck and hope it warms quickly. I soooo would love to move to Texas! We're in VA and still freezing our behinds off.

Julie P said...

We use a space heater in our daughter's room - this is the 2nd winter we've had one in there.