Glaciers and Volcanoes

When I was married to Ex, her narrow range of temperature in which she was comfortable drove me nuts. She was always too hot or too cold. She could turn the heat on until she was warm, walk over to the thermostat and then turn the air conditioning on. Did she know what this does to my utility bills?

Once I was free of her, I thought that complaint of my life was gone. The first winter away, I lived in an apartment and kept the thermostat at 59 degrees. All winter. (OK, so I would also take a hot bath before bed to warm myself up for the night....I paid for heat, the landlord paid for water and hot water).

Fast forward to my present life with S. She can honestly sit on the couch in a sweatshirt and a throw blanket with the air conditioning on. She and Ex have only two things in common: They have both been married to me and they both have the same narrow comfort range.

I recently spent a day driving around the UP of Michigan in my Jeep with an engineer for a project I was working on. It was July, but the temperature ranged from 48 to about 63 during the day. I had the roof and doors off the jeep, just as I do at every available opportunity throughout the year. Now the engineer did choose to ride with me, there were others he could have rode with, but he was uncomfortable all day. I was in my short sleeves and he had a warm coat on. He was still cold. He would not admit it, but I could tell - he lives in North Dakota.

I have come to the conclusion that these people are not abnormalities. I am the strange one. I am comfortable between 55 and 90 degrees. 65 is perfect, but anywhere in there is OK. I do not like it too too hot or too too cold, but I can get by if I have to.

So, In an OFFICIAL APOLOGY to S and to a lesser part, to Ex, I am sorry that I give you a such a hard time about the HVAC. I will try to remember that you are entitled to be comfortable if you try to remember that every time you touch that little box, it costs me money.

I once worked with a very religious guy (gave 1/3 of his income to the church and used to tell me "you can't take it with you, but you can always send it on ahead"). He used to have crazy thermostat wars with his wife. He thought he solved the problem by installing a programmable thermostat, but she just used the override buttons. He then installed a locking cover over it like schools and offices have. She got around that by putting a cold-wet or hot-wet rag over the cover and fooled the thermostat. He finally ended the problem by installing a second programmable one in the basement by the furnace and disconnecting the one in the main living area. He did not tell his wife he did this. She would get cold, walk over, push the warm button and she would be just as happy as a clam because the little light came on and she thought she was getting warmer. Same thing with the ac in the summer. She was not really controlling anything, but she thought she was. Now, I do not advocate tricking your spouse, it is a good way for my friend to reunited with his tithe sooner than he planned....

I try to set reasonable limits. I don't argue if S wants to turn the heat up if it is below 65, or turn the AC on if it is warmer than 85. S takes a fair amount of liberties with these limits (Suggestions???)

I do have a personal problem, I HATE air conditioning. Turn it on and I have an instant headache, My nose plugs up and I get crabby. It's my problem only. I am the strange one *VBG*

(My apologies to artists for the cartoons I stole here)
(My apologies to S for including her in the same blog post as Ex).