Okay, maybe I started this one off with a bit of hyperbole but there are times that I actually feel like my feet and hands will never warm up. I know you may be thinking, come on Saskatchewan girl, you’ve survived colder weather than this. Like the winters that it actually gets to -50ºC and if you throw water up in the air it’s frozen by the time it hits the ground. How, you say, can you compare that to the -4ºC ‘cold snap’ that is happening here. Well, if you have ever talked to someone from Saskatchewan (we love to talk about the weather) they will tell you ‘it’s a dry cold’. Nothing that $800 worth of gear from MEC can’t handle. Here its a wet cold, which means that when the fog rolls in it wraps its wet icy fingers around you and sucks the heat right out of your cells. Fortunately, there is a MEC equivalent here. The pub. After a cold day out and about, it’s fabulous to pop into the pub for a pint and a warm up. Now to be clear, it’s not like I’m shocked that I’m always cold. I had a pretty clear notion that the winter was going to be wet and chilly but I really wasn’t prepared for how fast I get cold (usually by the time I reach the end of our block). The truth of the matter is that I haven’t any idea how to dress. Everyone keeps saying “The key is layers!”. Well, layers are easy on the top, but the bottom? Canadian bottom layers consist of long underwear under jeans under snow-pants. I haven’t the faintest idea how to dress in English layers. The best I’ve done so far is tights, knee high boots and a dress. I was almost warm that day. Right, so that’s the story when I go outside. It can’t be like that in your own home you say. Incorrect I say!
Today is day #12 without a boiler. Our two donated plug-in heaters are going at full blast. Together they can heat any one room. That means that the other four rooms are pretty chilly. By chilly I mean, the temp in the bathroom is the same temp as outside and the soup I left on the stove overnight has ice crystals in it. You can see your breath in the morning, no joke. Midnight trips to the bathroom are avoided if possible. Hot baths don’t quite have the same effect as back home. By the time the bath is a quarter full the heat has been sucked out the underside. You can feel the cold bottom of the tub despite the hot water on full blast. There is a bright spot in all of this cold. The shower, lol. It’s electric and not on the same system as the boiler. It struggles at times but for the most part you can count on it to produce heat.
We are adapting though. Slippers, sweaters and feather comforters have been purchased and soon the boiler will be fixed. Next on the list is buying rugs for the living room and kitchen. Soon we will be all kitted out with the right clothes and home decor. (Just in time to move again. LOL!) I admit, I am warm more than I am cold. When I’m warm I think, It’s not that bad, it’s not a Canadian winter. But when I’m cold, I swear, I’ll never be warm again!
UPDATE!
It has been a full 17 days but we finally have heat! We thought we had heat on day 14 but it only lasted 30 minutes before the whole electrical system blew. They tried until 10pm to fix it but to no avail. Day 16, they came again to try and fix it. This time they wired the system backwards. It took a while but I finally figured this out and the whole system was eventually wired properly. Alas, the saga is not over. Yesterday a crew came to repair the water damage (a rad leaked all over our bedroom and the water poured down the wall all over the front window) and build a new closet for the water tank, as the one they installed was too big.(They never measured before they ordered the tank). The last thing that needs to be done is a repair on a rad that they knocked loose which now leaks. What a production!
weRNtheBritzone 