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I'm cold. All the time. My body tends to extremes. When I'm active I warm up, but when I'm inactive I cool down. No really, like very cool.
In winter, the environment is around 72°F. That's too cool for me when I'm inactive. Which is most of the time. Like when I'm at my desk at work all day. Or when I'm reading, or at my computer at home. Or doing almost anything around the house (like doing the dishes, for example. Too cool. I wear three layers in the winter. Usually a long-sleeved button-down shirt, with a long-sleeved undershirt. At work, I keep a summer jacket at my desk, and wear that most of the day. At home I'm probably wearing the undershirt with some combination of sweater and sweatshirt.
There is a lot of air moving around my desk at work. There's a vent over my head. I've got it mostly blocked up, but I can feel the air. I'm very sensitive to temperature variations, so I notice that the left side of my face and my left shoulder is colder than my right side. The cold sinks through my jacket. My (exposed) fingers are cold. I need to see if the empty cubicles in the area have the cold air moving like in mine. I'd hate to move, but the situation is getting desperate. I've taken to wearing my outside winter coat in the afternoon.
The building maintenance manager retired, so I no longer have help in the thermostat department. He was a nice guy, so he'd respond and maybe fix or adjust something. Or maybe pretend to fix something. Or maybe tell me there was nothing he could do. But the people who are now in charge won't help me. The person who's job it is to fix it doesn't see a problem since everything is working properly. I used to be able to adjust the temperature myself, but too many people messed with the settings, so they locked it up.
It seems that heat-averse people always win, in the battle for the thermostat. I think that being cold is invisible, while being too warm causes obvious symptoms. Sweating, for example. And sweating is icky. And people who get too warm get very uncomfortable, very quickly. Whereas us cold people just put on more clothing. And even if you're shivering, you're simply cold, just like you always are. I like to keep the house at 80° in the summer. That's when it becomes warm enough that I can take off the long-sleeved shirts (that is, when I'm inactive and my body cools down). But that's the temp at which Cindy starts to feel uncomfortable. And by 85° her face flushes and she starts panting. So we compromise at 78°. That's only six degrees warmer than winter, and people can't understand why I can't go from three long-sleeved layers to a single short-sleeved shirt.
Last night I was chilled by bedtime, just by being inactive, that I slept in a sweatshirt, in addition to what I normally wear to bed. I expected to wake up sweating, at some point, but I never did. The family room is warm when we have a fire going, but there's only so much time I can spend in there. Plus, there's a fan that we use to circulate the air, so that keeps me cool.
I feel like I go for weeks sometimes, without ever getting warm. I don't really get Seasonal Affective Disorder from lack of light. I get SAD from lack of warmth.
In winter, the environment is around 72°F. That's too cool for me when I'm inactive. Which is most of the time. Like when I'm at my desk at work all day. Or when I'm reading, or at my computer at home. Or doing almost anything around the house (like doing the dishes, for example. Too cool. I wear three layers in the winter. Usually a long-sleeved button-down shirt, with a long-sleeved undershirt. At work, I keep a summer jacket at my desk, and wear that most of the day. At home I'm probably wearing the undershirt with some combination of sweater and sweatshirt.
There is a lot of air moving around my desk at work. There's a vent over my head. I've got it mostly blocked up, but I can feel the air. I'm very sensitive to temperature variations, so I notice that the left side of my face and my left shoulder is colder than my right side. The cold sinks through my jacket. My (exposed) fingers are cold. I need to see if the empty cubicles in the area have the cold air moving like in mine. I'd hate to move, but the situation is getting desperate. I've taken to wearing my outside winter coat in the afternoon.
The building maintenance manager retired, so I no longer have help in the thermostat department. He was a nice guy, so he'd respond and maybe fix or adjust something. Or maybe pretend to fix something. Or maybe tell me there was nothing he could do. But the people who are now in charge won't help me. The person who's job it is to fix it doesn't see a problem since everything is working properly. I used to be able to adjust the temperature myself, but too many people messed with the settings, so they locked it up.
It seems that heat-averse people always win, in the battle for the thermostat. I think that being cold is invisible, while being too warm causes obvious symptoms. Sweating, for example. And sweating is icky. And people who get too warm get very uncomfortable, very quickly. Whereas us cold people just put on more clothing. And even if you're shivering, you're simply cold, just like you always are. I like to keep the house at 80° in the summer. That's when it becomes warm enough that I can take off the long-sleeved shirts (that is, when I'm inactive and my body cools down). But that's the temp at which Cindy starts to feel uncomfortable. And by 85° her face flushes and she starts panting. So we compromise at 78°. That's only six degrees warmer than winter, and people can't understand why I can't go from three long-sleeved layers to a single short-sleeved shirt.
Last night I was chilled by bedtime, just by being inactive, that I slept in a sweatshirt, in addition to what I normally wear to bed. I expected to wake up sweating, at some point, but I never did. The family room is warm when we have a fire going, but there's only so much time I can spend in there. Plus, there's a fan that we use to circulate the air, so that keeps me cool.
I feel like I go for weeks sometimes, without ever getting warm. I don't really get Seasonal Affective Disorder from lack of light. I get SAD from lack of warmth.
