Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sweatin' off my buns

Freeze Yer Buns Challenge 2008I'm sitting here and I'm hot. I really shouldn't be because it's been bloody cold around here today (well, cold for Seattle - in the teens), but because I haven't been keeping an eye on the thermostat it's been creeping up to 70 in here.

And I really can't stand it warmer than 65 when I'm dressed warmly. It probably doesn't help that I'm wearing two long-sleeve shirts, one of which is some winter sports material that makes you extra hot.

Unfortunately, my husband's metabolism is all screwed up from his stem cell transplant, so the tables are turned and now he's always cold and I'm always hot. What a weird turn of events. I can't really tell him to buck up and freeze him out too much, since he's not generally feeling good altogether and adding death by shivering is a little too cruel and unusual. They say that it takes a year after your transplant for this to go away so hopefully by next year's Freeze Yer Buns, he'll be back to preferring cooler temps.

Fortunately, my husband likes to sleep in an icebox, so turning the heat down to 58 at night is not an issue. What this means, however, is that our bedroom is even colder than that, since the central heating seems to avoid coming anywhere near the duct that leads to our bedroom, much preferring other areas of the house, just on principle. What this also means is that my natural heat source (aka husband) is no longer putting off 2,000 BTUs in bed so I'm even colder than normal.

In any case, I really can't believe this season's challenge is almost over. Thank God. Anyone else looking forward to warmer weather? I say this now, but since I'm acclimated to the cold, I will be bitching when it's above 70. And, when it's time for the summer cooling challenge and it's sweaty ass-crack hot, you bet I'll be complaining. You can count on it.

Anyway, how about you, do you naturally run hot or cold? Does this make turning your heat down more of a problem? Do you have heating/cooling wars with your spouse, roommates, kids because of how you each regulate your body temperature?

36 comments:

knutty knitter said...

Apart from the fact that the kids think they live in a tent (ie don't shut doors unless reminded) the summer has been quite good. We are now into Autumn so the heaters have come out but I tend to keep things down if possible. We only run one bar heaters where we are sitting. There is no central heating or cooling to worry about and no real need for it either especially with good insulation (working on that!)

Now if I could only train the cats to shut doors along with the kids.....

viv in nz

Anonymous said...

I mself have a problem with staying warm. It was more of a problem when I lived in Boston, but things are better now that I live in Hawaii. While I do have central air and I don't use either. My BF is usually hot but finding a middle ground hasen't been too hard. He found that taking a really hot shower with the Dr. Bronners peppermint soap really cools him down. We usually just leave the windows open and use the celing fans and it's comfortable enough. If I get cold I grab a blanket, if he's too hot he turns on one of our standing fans (we have three and I unplug them when not in use).

Anna M said...

Considering the cost of heating oil it's a rare day that I allow the thermostat to climb above 62 and it's more usually at 58. The woodstove occasionally heats our main room to 74 but not too often. If I'm really cold first thing in the morning before the fire really gets going I'm guilty of using a heating pad for 20 minutes or so while I peruse the net but other than that it's shawls, wool socks and flannel.

Anonymous said...

My husband runs cold. I run hot - worse now that hot flashes are in the mix. And husband works at home, so it's not like he enjoys someone else's warm building during working hours.

What has helped was a programmable thermostat. It's set so the house is at it's warmest when husband drags his butt out of bed in winter, and so it's coolest when I go to bed in summer (the times we are most sensitive to temperatures)

Only tangentally related: Ren Faire, in heat of summer. The royal court all in heavy royal garb. Every few hours they walk into the walk-in fridge that holds the food for the vendors and cool off for a few minutes. I don't know if it has reduced the number of times the corsetted women pass out on hot days, but it makes the hottest days more comfortable.

Fern

healinggreen said...

I run cold, and my husband runs hot. He is Irish/Scottish, and wears shorts much of the winter season -- in Connecticut. Ironically, I was more comfortable sleeping with the thermostat at 52 than he was, so now its at 55 while we sleep. I can't fall asleep if its that cold in the room/bed, its usually around 66 when we go to bed, then the temp drops quickly during the night to 55. The bed stays cozy warm, though, with lots of blankets.

I used to run even colder, but since being pregnant three years ago I have retained the circu;lation boost, it seems (tho thankfully the weight has all come off finally).

Hannah said...

I am freezing to death if it is 71 and sweating bullets if it is 73. (I grew up climate-controlled.) But we live without AC and with barely any heat now.

Will keep your husband and whole family in my thoughts.

Anonymous said...

I have low blood pressure, so I think my body has a difficult time regulating my temp. I run very cold. That being said, I have also noticed that two pregnancies have made me permanently less cold, yay! My husband is variable, but mostly running warmer, one kid is still a baby and the other one runs hot. We use a space heater for the room we stay in most during the winter and all sleep together in one room when it is hot enough to use the AC.

pigbook1 said...

I run cold so even in the summer we have at least one blanket near the couch. My husband is a heater which is fabulous at night because i just have to be within a couple feet and he warms me up. Also, we can turn the heat waaaaaayyyyyyyyyy down at night because our room is the warmest room in the house. I love it!

Anonymous said...

I think I run colder than my husband. We have actually been keeping the thermostat at around 65 this year. I have not been that uncomfortable.

We have been going through a warm spell and it has been hitting me worse than my husband. He is comfortable. I am hot and can't sleep.

It used to be that I couldn't stand being cold and the heat in the house was higher than the A/C in the summer. Now I have completely turned around and am super sensitive to heat and keep the house cool in the winter and cold in the summer.

Anonymous said...

I run cold, for sure, and I sit at the computer all day in my basement. My hands get so cold they turn stiff. I knit up some alpaca fingerless gloves that help quite a bit, but I will be happy when it gets warm. I used to dislike summer, and I still wouldn't say I *like* heat, but I would rather be hot. And I still can get cold feet on a summer evening. My naturopath said I should wear socks all year, but I can't bear it in summer. I'd say I'm looking FORWARD to hot flashes, but I know I'll rue the day ...

Anonymous said...

I am cold natured to the point where I do not sweat if it is 90 outside and I am in the sun. If I am in shade, I do not sweat if it is 98. Yes really.

Since I live alone, I do not fight with anyone about how hot/cool the house is. I tend to keep it low in winter though to save heating costs but in summer, I only turn on the AC if I have company or if the inside temp gets over 85.

If I ever become a hot natured person, I don't know what I'll do.

Kim said...

Well I used to run hot. I was ALWAYS hot. Okay I'm overweight, we get hot. But then BAM I got pregnant a few months ago and almost instantly have been freezing all the time. When it's over 70 outside and you are wondering whether to put on a flannel, you're cold blooded.

Chile said...

I seem to be running colder these days as I always put an extra blanket on my side of the bed at night.

Our temps have been quite mild lately, even downright hot (90 degrees one day last week!) but we cooled down a little this week. For me, the constant big changes in temperatures makes it hard to acclimate to either the cold or the heat.

Anonymous said...

Crunchy, have you checked the heating duct to your bedroom? There are little valves on the ducts (the big round pipes, not just the room registers) that can be opened and closed - maybe the bedroom one has been closed?

Shandy said...

I lost a lot of weight some years ago (like another person's worth of weight), and ever since then I am almost always colder than everyone around me. It's one of the side effects of weight loss, even slow weight loss like mine, that nobody ever talks about!

This is unfortunate since my husband is basically a human furnace that sweats at the drop of a hat, and my stepson is starting to become the same now that he's getting older. I'd love to do the sweating buns challenge and would probably be perfectly happy with the windows open and just our attic fan running here in the Florida summer heat, but there is no way they would agree to it. Alas!

Anonymous said...

I think I must have very poor circulation because I am always so cold. My hands, feet, and nose are like icicles to the touch. I've been suffering it out this season. CANNOT wait for the spring and early summer. The heat does not bother me at all, but here in the DC metro area, the humidity gets pretty bad. We run the AC more to keep things dry than cool....

Cave-Woman said...

Yes, it's a problem.

I run naturally cold---I like things warm.
I put on layers of sweaters, drink hot tea, and will even take a quick hot shower just to keep my body heat up.

My husband runs hot....so we are in constant battle for the perfect ambient room temperature.

Trying to be a good environmentalist I try to push my comfort zone to 2 degrees this or that way, depending on the season.

But I admit---I am always noticeably uncomfortable if it's less than 68 degrees.

When it is finally the "perfect" temperature, it is pollen season and I can't open the windows. Ug.

Anonymous said...

We started the season with our programmable thermostat set to 61F for a couple hrs in the morning and a couple hrs in the evening. 58F the rest of the time.

I must admit,58F when it's below zero outside was a tad difficult some days.

Then we decided, that since I was home all day (having been laid off)-we would heat with wood "all the time" vs just on those weekends when it was below 20F.

Gotta admit, it made for a rather enjoyable winter. Stove is in the basement so it takes a little bit of time for the upstairs to warm up-but once it's warm- it's rather nice. Basement stayed around 70F; upstairs around 66F. Who would of thought that 8degrees would make such a big difference in comfort!

For the month of January we only used 10 gallons of oil (we still heat our water with oil). Felt sorry that our oil company even bothered to stop that day. I should have called them to say we were heating with wood. Next year, if I'm still home, I'll do that.

Stove is now off for the season-unless we go below zero for an extended length of time. House down to 59/60 during the day.
Not quite as nice as when the stove was up and running.

Still wearing layers for the foreseeable future.

Anna Marie said...

I don't think I officially joined the challenge, but I'll comment anyway.

I am "affectionately" referred to as a fireball by my SO. He claims he can feel the heat radiating off of me from 2 feet away @@. Casey doesn't mind the cold too much, unless we've been really sedate, and thus our circulation is down. Then the darned boy goes and turns the thermostat up to 70!

And then you add a renter to the mix? That complicates things a bit more.

In spite of that, I've kept the thermostat down to 60 degrees most of the time. It's dipped as low as 58, but then thermostat ninjas turned it up to 64.

We'll have to see how the summer goes because Casey is a whimp when it comes to heat. I didn't have A/C growing up, so I'm used to it.

Laura said...

My partner is so sweet. He lets me, nay encourages me to, put my icy feet on him when we are in bed.
I'd say I naturally run cool. Certainly cooler than my partner! But I hate being too hot. I get angry when I get too warm. We have had one or two real disagreements about temp in the house this season, usually when one of us was tired or having a crappy day, and we worked them out. Not too shabby. :)

Oh! And I made myself a Cherry Pit Bed Warmer. It is my new best friend.

Anonymous said...

We keep the heating set to 64,4 during the day when I'm the only one home. That means my office upstairs is usually around 62,6 or more. I don't mind too much, though I used two sweaters and fingerless gloves when it was around 61. When the kids are home I turn the heat up to 68. The bedrooms are never heated, I have no idea how cold they get.

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

I'm always cold. It must be due to my cold, cold heart. :)

I survived the freeze yer buns challege by wearing lots of layers as I was taught to do growing up with the lake effect that is Lake Erie. It really helps when one of those layers is long underwear.

Anonymous said...

I run cold. It's gotten better over time, but still my ideal climate is humid and in the mid-80s.

I remain annoyed that the loss of my thyroid has not resulted in me being able to micromanage my own metabolism. You'd think I could just take more thyroxine and eat more and become warmer, but nooo, I just become jittery and extra-cranky about the cold.

Robj98168 said...

I just give the Jimmy Carter "put on a sweater" speech. Of course when I am sick and freezing that only goes so far.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe it's spring some places. We had a few days of melt and now it's 5 degrees again.

Also, I discovered that 60 degrees is my magic number when I'm working from home - 58 is fine for being home *doing* things, but at 58 sitting in front of the computer all day is *excruciating*. And my bf admitted that this winter he started bathing about twice as often, just to heat up. We may bump the heat some next year, if we're both still working from home then (to 60.)

Ellen said...

I am sensitive to heat and cold, but your tips have helped our family with both ends. We keep the house at 62 during the day. I am the one at home and I drink tea, wear woolen socks, extra sweaters etc, to stay warm. It IS Colorado though, and the sunny days have really helped! DH is very thin and gets cold very easily, but he is on board and also bundles up. I'm also looking forward to summer. Last summer, thank to your tips, we only used the AC 2 days. Perhaps a case of "the grass is always greener?"

Anonymous said...

DH and DD are both warm types; I am always cold. I have invested in fleece (clothes and socks!) and wool socks. I am willing to put more clothes on to stay warm here in Wisconsin. They can wear whatever they feel like!

Susan

Anonymous said...

I'll try most things, but I just don't want to live if it's below 70 for any period of time. I prefer 74 to truly be comfortable. No amount of layers can keep me warm enough for sedentary work at a lower temperature, and when my face and hands are freezing, my back starts to tense up. On days our heat pump can't get it to 72 or so, I sit with a heating pad.

When I lived alone, I balanced it by leaving the A/C off until it was 90. Can't do that anymore with my warm-blooded wife. We really struggle to find a comfortable medium. She'll often be in shorts and a tee-shirt while I'm in sweats.

Judy T said...

I like it cool, My hubby likes it warm. Since he got laid off work and is home all day, I lost the battle with control of the thermostat for the winter. I don't mind putting on more layers and like it cool when I sleep but he wants the heat cranked up. At least we compromised on night time heating. The house is cool (60) but we have a zoned electric blanket so he can turn on his side and I can leave mine off.

Anonymous said...

Hey. Love your blog btw. As for the temp. We live in Northern VA. We don't have the coldest of winters but they can get below zero a few days in the winter. I love the cold and if it were up to me we would have all of the windows open during the day in the winter and at the very LEAST our bedroom window open. My husband on the other hand likes to sleep in a below-zero sleeping bag. In the summer there will be a lot of whining from me because of all of the heat and humidity. I'm a spring right into fall kind of girl.

scifichick said...

I am looking forward to spring and warmth, but just because I'm tired of winter, not because we had too much of a hard time with the challenge. I think we'll have a much harder time with the summer one. My boyfriend likes the bedroom cool, so keeping the heat off was not a problem. And he's very warm too, so it was just warm. I'm afraid in the summer it will be too hot! I'm hoping we'll be able to get by on just fans, but we'll see. This will be our first summer together, so I don't know yet how we will handle the heat.

katecontinued said...

This was a fairly mild winter in San Diego and I fared well except for one week I was sick. I had a pair of fingerless gloves with removable mitten tops, an excellent gift.

But, just today I realize what I really need is leg warmers! Those silly 80's fashion things would be perfect for warming my ankles and calves.

Allie said...

I've enjoyed the lack of heat. I'll be sad when it starts to get hotter. Houston in the summer is the least pleasant place I can think of to be.

My gas bill has remained identical to what it is in the summer (meaning it's 1/3-1/4 of what it was each month when compared to the previous year). My electric bill is super-low, because it's not the hot time of the year. I've saved a bundle, despite using two electric space heaters during the colder days.

Between the space heaters and an abundance of blankets, it was actually quite comfortable not using the heat. We never turned it on, not even when it was in the 30s. I don't even know if it's functional. My boyfriend did not argue even once about the lack of heat. When it got too cold for him, he simply bought a second space heater.

But I am not looking forward to it getting warmer. I'd prefer it to stay cold.

Anonymous said...

Well in the morning after a hot shower, coffee and the hair dryer, I am a hot flash sweaty mess. Hubby doesn't understand the bathroom ceiling fan at tornado speed at 6:30 am! In reverse, at 6:30 pm I'm usually freezing ( thermostat is at 68 - I know, lame) and layering on the sweatshirts. Hormones are definately a problem!

Carol-Leah said...

Oh, Lord!!! Almost 40 years of marriage and the thermostat is still our biggest bone of contention. He turns the furnace on if it gets a little under 78F. I'm only happy under 70F. I always figured it was easier to put on clothes than take them off because you can only get so naked and then you are still hot. I fear it is too late to change him however.

camp mom said...

Seems we all run cold in our house. But last fall i went to the thrift store and found a bunch of heavy pullovers for all 3 of us. I got some from the guys section for the youngin and I so they are big enough to accomadate the layers we put on under them. Also found a bunch of wool socks there to keep our feet warm.

We've kept the heat at 58 and bump it up for a couple hours in evening to 60. There isn't a heating zone set up in our upper bedroom so it hovers at around 54. Which feels really chilly. When it dips down to well below zero (like it was -38 one night) we set the heat at 60 a tad longer than normal. The heating fuel company was wondering if we ever had the heat on. We weren't using alot of propane. We are well below their average for the area. Which is fine with us. I think we are almost healthier than we use to be when we had thermostat turned up. We all complain but we haven't been as sick.