So How Cold is It?
Mood:  chillin'
"Well, this is as cold as it gets, right?" Answer, "Well, maybe not." Arghhhh.
I woke up this morning to wet and sweating windows again. This is an everyday event now. There is a channel at the bottom of the sliding glass door. At first I thought there was a bad seal because every morning there was a stream of water trickling to the outside from the window. I realised quickly that this channel is a necessity. It allows all the excess moisture which condenses on the inside of the window to escape to the outside by dripping and flowing in this channel. This morning, because we dropped down to 0 or below last night, my little puddle of water outside the door was frozen solid! oh, my. I don't even want to know what the wind chill was this morning riding my bike to school. All i can tell you is that my ski mittens weren't enough to keep my poor fingers warm. At the risk of repeating myself, THERE IS NO HEAT in the classrooms. On sunny days we get solar heat through the windows which is a real blessing. On windy, cloudy days it's just down right freezing. The little handwarmers and patches that you stick to your back between shirt and jacket are the only sources of heat while teaching. The staff office is heated and it is a relief to run back for a "warm up" between classes. I don't know how the kids manage. Some of the boys actually were wearing cotton gloves today. Many of the girls use chemical handwarmers(they have iron and sulfur in them and when you open the airtight package - oxygen is introduced and they create about 5-8 hours of welcome warmth). I used one of the patches on my back today and it is incredibly warm and helps take the edge off. The cold is an energy drain and i feel pretty drained at the end of the day from just trying to stay warm. I go to bed with a sleeping pad to get my core temperature toasty for a real good night's sleep. The philosophy seems to be, it's only a few months of cold weather and it would be an enormous expense to install heating and air conditioning in all the schools. They sure must saving on the heat bills!