It is Saturday morning and Tetsu is outside changing the tires of my car. Snow tires for the winter. I am not a great driver to begin with and when it snows or is icy I stay home! Some winters the streets will freeze over during the night but by the time I get out and around everything will have thawed. This year I realize that I will need to be at the crosswalk by 7:30 every morning while the roads are still frozen. Gulp. Even with snow tires this may prove to be a challenge but if I should get caught WITHOUT snow tires I will slide off into the forest. Thus I asked Tetsu to change my tires early. The weather isn't forecast for snow yet (usually in January) but I want to make sure!
Winter is not my favorite time of year. I'm going to grumble today and winter has barely started! For one, I HATE our kerosene heater! The whole process of pumping kerosene into the tank from the outside tanks is messy, smelly and cold. It seems like every other year we have to buy another heater because the old one doesn't work for some reason. I'm sure it must be something like it needs to be dismantled and cleaned or something but when one is talking about flammables and explosives I sure don't want to take chances. So we buy heaters. Sometimes ones with large tanks which means that they are hard on the back when you have to carry the full tanks back in the house. Sometimes heaters with small tanks and that means that the dang things need to be refilled about once a day. What a bore! I also don't think breathing in all this kerosene burned air can be good for you but I've lived with it for more than 30 years so I guess it isn't THAT bad. And buying the dumb kerosene to begin with is a chore because I have to lug 20 liter tanks (two or three at a time) to the gasoline station or the home goods store and get them filled. Talk about being bad on the back!!! (Yes, it is possible to have kerosene delivered but that costs quite a bit more...)
Okay. That's why I don't like kerosene heaters. Another reason is because, of course, you have to turn the heaters off during the night or when we go out. In emergencies (earthquakes) they need to be turned off fast. So at night we sleep in icy rooms! Every winter I complain to Tetsu that I don't think our house has insulation. A room COULDN'T be this cold if the walls were insulated. His comment is "Well, what do you want to do? Tear down the wall to find out? Put out more quilts."So we snuggle deep in long underwear, fleece pajamas, socks, neck warmers, flannel sheets, down comforters, boa blankets, and hand made quilts. I usually have a cat or two under the covers too and one or two on top of all that (they have their preferences). Either I'm freezing or feel like I'm suffocating!
And watch me race downstairs and change clothes in front of our one heater in the living room. The cats and I vie for heat space! Chip beat me to it this morning and she has taken up residence on the electric carpet too.
15 comments:
Winter there doesn't sound like fun at all! I carry in the wood for our two fireplaces and clean the fireplaces every day when we are using them. I don't mind the exercise at all. We also have central gas heat so the house doesn't get too cold. We have a separate electric furnace and air conditioning on the third floor for our daughter's living area. One day last winter our main furnace stopped working one evening and the heating/air company couldn't get parts until the next day. I slept under many, many afghans and comforters and was still so cold. I can't imagine having to deal with that every night!
No central heat? Brrr. Is this typical of Japanese homes? I think I've seen insulation that can be blown between the walls from the outside-some sort of handyman has to do it. (In the states) Do they have anything like that in Japan? Lois
When I was little all we had for heat was wood stoves & at night they would burn down & it could get pretty cold in the house. Doesn't sound much different than your kerosene heat situation. What about using those natural gas or propane catalytic or brick heaters? They have oxygen sensors so don't need to be vented though it never hurts to leave a downwind window cracked just a little. RVers in the US use them as supplemental heat in their RVs. Or how about electric quartz heaters or the oil filled ones that look like old fashioned radiators? I don't think I could handle the kerosene smell. Maybe just an electric blanket would do the trick.
Ok there is NO WAY I could deal with that. With the fibro and arthritis I can't handle the cold at all...it makes the pain so much worse. I really feel for folks in Japan who have health problems and have to deal with that!
We have central heating in most of the house that just 'ticks over' at night to stop us getting too cold, and keeps the house warm during the day. We have no central heating in the kitchen/breakfast room or in my sewing room though, but we do have a multi-fuel stove which keeps both rooms warm. DH stokes it up at night so that it lasts through to the morning, but when he's away on business I freeze. I go to bed far too early to be able to keep the fire in, and so I have to light it each morning, and carry out the ash, and carry in the coal. And I moan about that you can be sure.
Hi Tanya, I have been enjoying your blog for some time. We have had deep snow this last week in Suffolk, my car wouldnt start and luckily I could walk to work or take the bus. But we will try to get the car started today. I too hate driving in snow and ice - no snow tyres here...
My two cats have their own "pet mat" - a safe low heat pad - in the closet and it is their "nest" in the winter.
Pippa www.welshquilts.blogspot.com
Wow, I think you've convinced me that that has to be just about the worst kind of winter living! No heat on at night??? No way! When I lived in Minnesota we had heat, but it wasn't very efficient, so I would put a hat on in bed, but nothing like you describe. You've done this for 30 years? Amazing.
No wonder you hate winter! we love it here, because it's the only time you get temperatures of 19 °C! wooot! usually it can go up to 43°C in summer, so you bet it is more than welcome!
Hey, your winters on the other hand, are perfect excuses to quilt like crazy all year long!
I hope you and Tetsu can find a better way to heat your home before you get old. I suppose all that lugging about helps keep your bones strong. I have wood heat and I figure it helps my bones to be lugging firewood around. My stove will hold a fire overnight but only if it is turned down quite a bit. If it is particularly cold I make sure and drink a lot of water before going to bed so I will get up in the night and can throw another log on the fire having left the draft open a bit more than usual. I worry sometimes about having inhaled more woodsmoke than might be good for me but what can you do? I couldn't afford to have some other kind of heat. In fact I don't want any other kind of heat, I love wood heat. I surely do sympathize with you. No wonder you stay so slim, you are burning off calories just to keep warm!
I've been feeling colder this winter than previous ones - maybe when they cleaned the furnace this year, they changed some kind of setting. I can't imagine not having heat at all at night - especially the getting out of bed part.
Oh Tanya, I know what you mean! My mother in law has a cottage in the mountains, and when we go in winter it is exactly like you describe: Icy cold under the covers!
I try to put a wool blanket under the sheet we sleep on and a few hotwater bottles to warm the bed up before crawling in, but no matter what: It's icy cold! And then in the morning, you don't want to jump out of bed!!!
:)
Sending you warm weather from Cyprus! God knows we have way to much of that! :)
You make me so appreciative of central heat, I can't tell you! Although we have a "cat warmer" too. My mother in law had unvented natural gas space heaters throughout her 100 year old house and they gave everyone headaches. I can't imagine living with kerosene heaters the whole winter. Here's hoping the weather is mild.
I am cold just reading your post Tanya! Makes me grateful for central heat. When I was growing up (you are about my age--so don't think dinosaur age!) I remember having kerosene stoves and wood kitchen stoves. Large kerosene/oil burners that were about the size of a kitchen range. Even now I keep an emergency propane heater "just in case". And, an electric blanket is this girl's best friend. It gets nasty cold and we have vicious blizzards, wind chill, and ice storms here. I would rather be too hot than too cold. Can I send you some heavy wool socks???
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Do you not have electric space heaters over there??? The new efficient ones run great and are fairly efficient energy wise. And NO smell. We have both electric for normal use and the kerosene for emergency use.... give me the electric any day. NO filling... NO smell... and MUCH easier to use. :-D
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