You could warm up a couple of water bottles, tuck in your blankets tightly, and put the bottles at the foot of the bed. I've never done this, but I've seen it suggested for camping in cold weather (substituting sleeping bag for blankets).
I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service; no charge for service, just the annual fee, as I understood it. I had reason to resort to this in Brooklyn, Long Island, East Lansing, and Seattle. I think the house in Boston had the same, but we never had to use it. I think.
Never having owned property, I have no further idea about how this works or how otherwise usual/unusual this is. But you might want to look into that sort of thing, possibly.
Take very hot baths, if you have hot water. It really helps. That's one of the motives for the Japanese baths -- traditionally Japanese didn't heat their houses.
I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service
My landlord got the furnace company here very quickly when our heat pump broke. All the repairmen did was break the thing permanently, then get fired. We've got heat back now, but it took three weeks.
Oh, man, that does suck. That happened to us last year, right around this time, too. You wouldn't happen to have a fireplace...that really helped us. Unfortunately, other than that, I can't think of anything to add to what others have already suggested. I am interested, however, if the surly repair guy actually tells you that you should have been able to intuit the problem yourself.
I have no idea how cold a house has to be for the pipes to freeze
About 32 degrees Fahrenheit or so.
I once lived in a house with a poorly insulated cellar, and the pipes froze down there. On someone's instructions (the plumber? the landlord?) I opened up the faucets. The pipes carrying the water unfroze (melted, some would say) before the drain, and so I returned to the house to find the bathtub overflowing, with water running over the side, onto the floor, and and into a heating vent in the floor. When I went down into the basement to see where the water was going, there was ice all over the floor, and cascading down from the heating duct. Fun to see, if it's not your house.
Space heater and electric blanket = you'll be just fine. Hot baths are nice, though.
I once had the heat go out in an apartment in winter, and spent 24 hours running the oven full blast with the door open, and mostly sitting on the step stool right in front of it, reading.
"I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service"
Actually, I've realized this is untrue. I've lived in a couple of cheapo houses that didn't, as well as the ones I listed that did. Not that anyone cares, even me, but I hate letting a statement I realized was false stand.
Besides, the ones that didn't were pits. (I've been in this tiny studio apt for the past couple of years.)
Since my wife and I aren't too bright, I believe the first winter after we bought our first house we went on vacation for a week and turned the heat completely off. Fortunately we had a friend coming over to do work on our house while we were gone. He realized what we had done when (a) it was really cold inside the house and (b) he noticed that our big goldfish was swimming in a tiny amount of water, the rest of its tank having iced over. He turned the heat back on to 50 or so, and told us later that our pipes probably would have frozen, and our house would have been flooded with water, within 24 hours. Somehow my wife and I had never heard of this "frozen pipes" thing. The fish, by the way, lived for some years after that.
Our power went out this morning, but happily only for about an hour.
Well, my sister-in-law's grandfather fell asleep in a snowbank and lost 1 or 2 joints from each finger. You can buy a livable house around there for $3,000.00, though, if you're not a sissy about cold.
There is something to be said for living in a place where you can be reasonably comforatable year-round in a house that has neither a furnace nor an air conditioner.
There is something to be said for living in a place where you can be reasonably comfortable year-round in a house that has neither a furnace nor an air conditioner.
And there is EVERYTHING to be said for living in a place that doesn't require heating or a/c. Although, really, very few places actually *require* a/c. Adobe and a good cross-breeze can deal with a lot of heat.
SWEET LIFE-GIVING WARMTH UPDATE: What luck! There was a genuine problem (a leaky seal between fuel line and pump) that required a (simple, but tool-involving) fix. Thanks, home warranty!
Damn, I was looking forward to you liveblogging death by hypothermia. Seriously, glad it was an easy (and it sounds like free to you) fix.
Adobe and a good cross-breeze can deal with a lot of heat.
I actually had to look up "adobe." The only Adobe I know is Acrobat.
Parental/paternal/prenatal is a cool set of anagrams. There is or was a brand of bottled water named "Great Bear." When I looked at it I was struck by the fact that each of the two words has a homonym that's also an anagram of the original word.
More anagram fun: after Shilpa Satoskar left my law firm to move to D.C., Peter Katsaros moved into her office. "Satoskar" and "Katsaros" are anagrams. What are the odds of that?
I want to market a brand of soda called Groot Beer with the slogan, "Groot Beer: great bare!" and pictures of naked people slurping beverage through phallic strawa.
Tell me, Osner, what declension is "strawon"? Near as I can figure, the only one that could work is third, as strawon, strawinis, in which case, the plural would be strawina.
My Latin grammar and vocab are both shot to hell. Not only did I think that 'Cat' should have been nominative, I also thought that 'felis' was the nominative singular.
(I contemplated finding an online vocabulary list and trying to translate that last, but figured finishing up my time and getting out of here was a better idea.)
I have not read all of the comments, but I did want to add that the Perseus project also has a Latin grammar that you can search. I believe that it is Allan and Greenough.
Also, thiis. "Shortly after his father's death in 1960, the eighteen-year-old Delany dropped out of his first year of City College and at nineteen married a high school friend, a talented eighteen-year-old poet, then at NYU, Marilyn Hacker."
It encompasses. As would a similar sunnary of my own life, and probably yours,
I was thinking of noting the piece to Bob, but I thought it would be over-obvious. It's still great, though.
Can you not go to a hotel?
Posted by winna | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:30 PM
cold room? --> hooker + cheap hooch = heat!
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:37 PM
Are there no workhouses?
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:38 PM
Hey, you get to find out if this is the best-case scenario.
Seriously, this sucks. Any colleagues who will have you over?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:41 PM
Who cares about me? What about my plumbing?! Actually, I have a space heater and blankets.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:41 PM
Who cares about me? What about my plumbing?!
You know, in some municipalities, even if a tree is privately owned, you're allowed to take fruit from branches that overhang public land.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:43 PM
I have a space heater and blankets.
You could sleep underneath a pile of Hickey Freeman suits.
Seriously, this is not funny stuff, it's an emergency. Unless you live in Miami. Can't you get someone over now?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:49 PM
I guess that's a second for Michael's advice.
Geez folks, he has a space heater, you don't have to baby him.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 9:53 PM
You know, I have a warm, romantic fire and the chinatown bus runs till 3am.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:00 PM
The space heater is good. An electric blanket would be awesome.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:00 PM
If he freezes to death on the bus, it's sort of a wash, isn't it?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:02 PM
You could warm up a couple of water bottles, tuck in your blankets tightly, and put the bottles at the foot of the bed. I've never done this, but I've seen it suggested for camping in cold weather (substituting sleeping bag for blankets).
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:05 PM
If you start getting really cold, I'd just take a nap if I were you. It'll be warmer in the morning; just find a comfy spot.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:07 PM
If you don't have anything to warm the water with, use pee.
ben, the bus has a heater, you know.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:07 PM
9 - That sounds like an offer to warm your pipes.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:09 PM
ben, the bus has a heater, you know.
Yeah, but if you try to take it from the driver, there'll be trouble.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:16 PM
You can lull yourself to sleep with this thread from Making Light which might just have well have been called "How People Die of Hypothermia".
Posted by DonBoy | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 10:30 PM
I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service; no charge for service, just the annual fee, as I understood it. I had reason to resort to this in Brooklyn, Long Island, East Lansing, and Seattle. I think the house in Boston had the same, but we never had to use it. I think.
Never having owned property, I have no further idea about how this works or how otherwise usual/unusual this is. But you might want to look into that sort of thing, possibly.
Posted by Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 12-21-05 11:59 PM
Take very hot baths, if you have hot water. It really helps. That's one of the motives for the Japanese baths -- traditionally Japanese didn't heat their houses.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 5:14 AM
If your fingers stop working, use a pencil in your mouth to dial 911.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 5:28 AM
Who cares about me? What about my plumbing?!
For future reference, leave the water running. Along with propping open the flapper in the toilet and leaving the shower dripping.
The hot water heater should keep going which will help keep everything else warm. Just remember to keep hot & cold running.
ash
['It's not the temperature, it's the motion.']
Posted by ash | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 6:10 AM
I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service
My landlord got the furnace company here very quickly when our heat pump broke. All the repairmen did was break the thing permanently, then get fired. We've got heat back now, but it took three weeks.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 7:37 AM
Oh, man, that does suck. That happened to us last year, right around this time, too. You wouldn't happen to have a fireplace...that really helped us. Unfortunately, other than that, I can't think of anything to add to what others have already suggested. I am interested, however, if the surly repair guy actually tells you that you should have been able to intuit the problem yourself.
Posted by annie | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 8:46 AM
I guess it's too late to apply for a grant to study somewhere warm over the winter?
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 8:50 AM
I have no idea how cold a house has to be for the pipes to freeze
About 32 degrees Fahrenheit or so.
I once lived in a house with a poorly insulated cellar, and the pipes froze down there. On someone's instructions (the plumber? the landlord?) I opened up the faucets. The pipes carrying the water unfroze (melted, some would say) before the drain, and so I returned to the house to find the bathtub overflowing, with water running over the side, onto the floor, and and into a heating vent in the floor. When I went down into the basement to see where the water was going, there was ice all over the floor, and cascading down from the heating duct. Fun to see, if it's not your house.
Posted by Tyrone Slothrop | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 9:12 AM
About 32 degrees Fahrenheit or so.
It has to be much colder than that, actually.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 9:14 AM
The pipes should survive until morning, and then some surly repair guy can …
They might be surly. You do, however, ask people to feel your pipes.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 9:15 AM
Space heater and electric blanket = you'll be just fine. Hot baths are nice, though.
I once had the heat go out in an apartment in winter, and spent 24 hours running the oven full blast with the door open, and mostly sitting on the step stool right in front of it, reading.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:02 AM
Ah, it is only in the fifties.
I take back most of the concern I was feeling for your impending icy doom.
Posted by winna | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:26 AM
Not bolding the introductory word or phrase of your update contravenes unfogged style.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:39 AM
Do you have any fleece? That is good for combatting the moderately low temperatures.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:41 AM
I have no idea how cold a house has to be for the pipes to freeze,
Labs, I'm guessing from this that you didn't double-major in physics.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:41 AM
When the heat failed once over a very cold New Years weekend in Somerville, MA, a goosedown mummy bag and thoughts of Maureen Dowd kept me warm.
Posted by bill | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 10:55 AM
"I've been lucky enough to never live in a house where the landlord didn't have a contract with the furnace company that guaranteed 24-service"
Actually, I've realized this is untrue. I've lived in a couple of cheapo houses that didn't, as well as the ones I listed that did. Not that anyone cares, even me, but I hate letting a statement I realized was false stand.
Besides, the ones that didn't were pits. (I've been in this tiny studio apt for the past couple of years.)
Posted by Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 11:58 AM
Since my wife and I aren't too bright, I believe the first winter after we bought our first house we went on vacation for a week and turned the heat completely off. Fortunately we had a friend coming over to do work on our house while we were gone. He realized what we had done when (a) it was really cold inside the house and (b) he noticed that our big goldfish was swimming in a tiny amount of water, the rest of its tank having iced over. He turned the heat back on to 50 or so, and told us later that our pipes probably would have frozen, and our house would have been flooded with water, within 24 hours. Somehow my wife and I had never heard of this "frozen pipes" thing. The fish, by the way, lived for some years after that.
Our power went out this morning, but happily only for about an hour.
Posted by Frederick | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:17 PM
Well, my sister-in-law's grandfather fell asleep in a snowbank and lost 1 or 2 joints from each finger. You can buy a livable house around there for $3,000.00, though, if you're not a sissy about cold.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:25 PM
There is something to be said for living in a place where you can be reasonably comforatable year-round in a house that has neither a furnace nor an air conditioner.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:42 PM
There is something to be said for living in a place where you can be reasonably comfortable year-round in a house that has neither a furnace nor an air conditioner.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:42 PM
Something to be said twice, even.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:44 PM
Damn. Tried to fix the typo on preview and somehow managed to post both versions. I blame George Bush.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 12:45 PM
Our power went out this morning, but happily only for about an hour.
Did it bring back coffee and a newspaper?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 1:26 PM
So whatddaya want, LB, a groan? Would that make you happy?
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 1:30 PM
How about a banning?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 1:30 PM
Ooh, a banning! Round up the villagers and torches!
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 1:34 PM
I was actually just hoping that everyone would wince silently. But getting banned is good too -- I'm still well behind SB.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 2:07 PM
I thought that kind of thing was supposed to be hissed.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 2:12 PM
I think that LB should be traded to Little Green Footballs for a fucktard to be named later.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 2:56 PM
Noooooooooooooooo!!
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 3:32 PM
I want coffee and a newspaper, thank you.
And there is EVERYTHING to be said for living in a place that doesn't require heating or a/c. Although, really, very few places actually *require* a/c. Adobe and a good cross-breeze can deal with a lot of heat.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 4:05 PM
Adobe and a good cross-breeze can deal with a lot of heat.
And when adobe is unavailable, beer is significantly better than nothing.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 4:38 PM
What, you don't have a tool?
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 12-22-05 8:38 PM
SWEET LIFE-GIVING WARMTH UPDATE: What luck! There was a genuine problem (a leaky seal between fuel line and pump) that required a (simple, but tool-involving) fix. Thanks, home warranty!
Damn, I was looking forward to you liveblogging death by hypothermia. Seriously, glad it was an easy (and it sounds like free to you) fix.
Adobe and a good cross-breeze can deal with a lot of heat.
I actually had to look up "adobe." The only Adobe I know is Acrobat.
Posted by Frederick | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 10:34 AM
Adobe / abode. And underutilized play on words.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 10:59 AM
I actually had to look up "adobe." The only Adobe I know is Acrobat.
What, you never saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure?
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 11:01 AM
Adobe / abode. And underutilized play on words.
Parental/paternal/prenatal is a cool set of anagrams. There is or was a brand of bottled water named "Great Bear." When I looked at it I was struck by the fact that each of the two words has a homonym that's also an anagram of the original word.
Posted by Frederick | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:19 PM
What, you never saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure?
Nope.
More anagram fun: after Shilpa Satoskar left my law firm to move to D.C., Peter Katsaros moved into her office. "Satoskar" and "Katsaros" are anagrams. What are the odds of that?
Posted by Frederick | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:22 PM
The Great Bear commands us to greet beer with the phrase, "grate bare!".
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:23 PM
I want to market a brand of soda called Groot Beer with the slogan, "Groot Beer: great bare!" and pictures of naked people slurping beverage through phallic strawa.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:26 PM
(Sorry -- a bit pretentious to use the Latin plural of strawon -- if I was going to I should at least have italicized it.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:28 PM
Tell me, Osner, what declension is "strawon"? Near as I can figure, the only one that could work is third, as strawon, strawinis, in which case, the plural would be strawina.
Maybe you were thinking of the Greek?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:29 PM
Rats.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:33 PM
Rats
Mures, surely?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:36 PM
fele abessente mures ludunt.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:42 PM
I am outclassed and will retire.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:50 PM
Quare non 'felis' dixis?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:54 PM
I am outclassed and will retire.
Sic semper, uh, pedantis.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 12:59 PM
"felis" non est ablativus.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 1:00 PM
Ex verboro meo declinatio verbi "feles, felis" progreditur sic:
feles, felis, feli, felem, fele
feles, felium, felibus, feles, felibus
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 1:04 PM
My Latin grammar and vocab are both shot to hell. Not only did I think that 'Cat' should have been nominative, I also thought that 'felis' was the nominative singular.
(I contemplated finding an online vocabulary list and trying to translate that last, but figured finishing up my time and getting out of here was a better idea.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 1:10 PM
The Perseus Project has a searchable Lewis & Short.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 1:21 PM
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 1:56 PM
Shortest comment in history?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 2:38 PM
Unicode Chinese not enabled.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 3:30 PM
I have not read all of the comments, but I did want to add that the Perseus project also has a Latin grammar that you can search. I believe that it is Allan and Greenough.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 12-23-05 4:22 PM
Also, thiis. "Shortly after his father's death in 1960, the eighteen-year-old Delany dropped out of his first year of City College and at nineteen married a high school friend, a talented eighteen-year-old poet, then at NYU, Marilyn Hacker."
It encompasses. As would a similar sunnary of my own life, and probably yours,
I was thinking of noting the piece to Bob, but I thought it would be over-obvious. It's still great, though.
I remain an egg.
Posted by Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 12-25-05 5:11 AM