Thursday 25 January 2007

Pic of the day: This is a nice enough living room, except it is actually more like a dying room unless you dress like you're going outdoors.

Short: Cold

The cold has besieged the House of Chaos. I have retreated to the inner keep, the home office (formerly parents' bedroom). It is large enough to contain most of what I need: Computers, more computers, books, a chair and a couple tables. I make brief forays to the kitchen or the bathroom when driven by the corresponding biological needs, but soon I retreat again to my warm, cozy sanctum.

I have not entirely abandoned the rest of the house. There are electric heaters in the kitchen, bathroom and even living room that keep the temperature safely above freezing. But it is hardly safe for a civilized human to relax there. At about 10 degreec celsius (where zero is the freezing point for water) you are likely to start shivering pretty quickly unless you are dressed for winter.

On days like these, I think that it might have not been so bad if the student downstairs had been home. The chopped wood outside belongs to him; I haven't bought my own wood for the winter, which in retrospect may have been a bad decision. Since heat travels best upward, and since the chimney goes through the house and gives off a slight heat, he would have been heating my part of the house to some degree as well. Oh well. I could afford to heat it myself with electricity, especially after the months of rain has sent the price tumbling. But it generally just isn't worthwhile. The home office is large enough that I don't feel imprisoned. And in any case, I can always get up, put on some outdoors clothes, and spend some time in the big living room if I so desire.

I find myself humming a tune by Enya these days, "Exile". The song as a whole is actually not expressing how I feel, it is all due to these two lines:

Winter has come too late
Too close beside me.

Ain't that the truth? ^^