Friday, December 07, 2012

{{{cold}}}

It's cold here.  

Now I do realize I have people reading this blog in Germany, Utah, Maine, and Rhode Island...all of which are cold as well.  But you know what the big difference is between here and there?  Insulation.  Our house has none.  Not like "Oh man, our house has poor insulation"...literally, we have NONE.  Our house is made (as are all houses in southern Italy) of cinder block and cement.  That's it.  Oh, and tile or marble floors.  So when it's mid-40's outside it's not much warmer inside.  Sure, we have wall radiators that use gas...but they are E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E. to run.  If we ran them for ONLY four hours each evening our gas bill for one month would be over FIVE HUNDRED dollars.  I shudder to think about keeping them on all day!  So instead I run a little space heater in whichever room I'm in...and we layer like crazy.  Long john undies, leggings, sweat pants, two pair of socks, slippers, t-shirt, hoodie...and sometimes a hat.  INSIDE OUR HOUSE.  Because even with the space heaters going, the heat escapes so quick through the cement the temperature doesn't climb much.  We've tried to minimize this as much as we can buy covering as much floor as we can in rugs, putting all our big furniture against outside walls, putting curtains over each door/window, and keeping our metal shutters closed...but it doesn't help much.  Last night at 6pm it was 54 degrees in our house.  FIFTY-FOUR.  

So anyway...it's cold here.  

Only 102 days until spring.  


2 comments:

V said...

and people in Korea!

We have the same no insulation/wall-radiators-that-use-gas-and-are-crazy-expensive issue and lots of snow and ice outside. Feeling for you guys!!! I've resorted to wearing my down coat around the house :) but the kids really don't seem to feel the cold in the same way. Doesn't it make you want to crawl in bed all day long? It does for me.

Unknown said...

Yep, I remember sleeping (and being grateful for ) a horse blanket on my mission. Try the long table clothes with the heater underneath.