And another thing...

[fpb]

...don't ask for something; you might get it. After 67 years of "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas", the good Lord has given Europe and North America exactly what we asked for... and look at us now.

Comments

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

Once again the climate in Northern Ireland is milder than the rest of the UK. No snow this morning in Belfast, althought there was sufficient for my daughter to make a 'Snow Penguin' yesterday morning.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

Looks wonderful from here.

...whether it will last till Christmas...we'll see.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's beautiful here!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Beautiful and CENSORED expensive. The heating is ruining me, and the thought of two or three more months of this terrifies me.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Well, as the Norwegians say, there is no such thing as a bad weather, just bad clothing. I'm a little sad that is actually not quite cold enough here to warrent the use of my Nordic wool sweater (occassionally referred to in my posts as "the uber sweater of love") or shearling slippers (except in the kitchen - it's above the garage and has a colder floor than the rest of the house).

I remember my first winter when we moved to Brindisi - the winter I wore a windbreaker most of the season (except Christmas & New Years which we spent in Germany) while my friends all wore heavy wool coats ...

I'm sorry you're cold. I will think warm thoughts for you.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm not cold. But my bank account is shivering!

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Depending on whether your flat gets much sun and what sort of restrictions your landlord imposes regarding window air conditioning units etc., you might want to look into getting a passive solar heater for your window.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

My flat has, by chance, a virtually perfect east-west orientation. One side gets the early morning light, the other the evening sun. I never get it at all when it is at its brightest and warmest.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I know one Norwegian who would throw something at anyone who says that. She is a big tall strapping person - and hates snow with a vengeance. Me, I can easily live with cold as such; I was brought up in the north, with many mountain holidays (I much prefer the mountains to the seaside), and statistics say, and my memories confirm, that winter is colder in Milan than in London. Plus, I did my military service in L'Aquila, in the mountains of central Italy, and let me tell you that winter up there is the real thing. No, my problem is purely financial. Energy prices seem to have doubled since last winter, or else I have forgotten how to run things to save. Either way, I don't like it.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Yes, running things to save is a bit of an art. We have a programmable thermostat for our furnace, and a "smart meter" for our hydro (electricity for non-Canucks). We pay less for energy used during off-peak times. We're also on a pro-ration program with our natural gas: we a pay a little more in the summer in order to take the "bite" off the increased usage in the winter.

I also close off the doors to rooms I'm not using (mostly at night) so we don't heat them unnecessarily. And I open all the curtains on the windows that are getting direct sunlight, to take advantage of the radiant heat, while closing them on windows that are not in the sun (and I'm not looking out of).

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

Do your utility companies over there have a 'winter savings plan'? I signed up with that for my gas bill, so instead of paying $10 a month in the summer and $250 a month in the dead of winter, I pay a flat $118 a month year round.