12/4/14 8:28 PM

I don't like to sleep too warm either. My sleeping temperature isn't a very comfortable temperature to be up and move about (55-60). So getting up to such a cold room is just NOT very inviting!

So, my bedroom stays relatively cold. I only heat it up for the 30 minutes I'm getting up. Once I'm done with shower and changed, the room goes back to being a freezer.

12/5/14 10:49 PM

My parent's place was an old farm house. When we first moved there in 1956, it had the classic, wooden frame, single pane windows, loose enough to rattle with the wind. Yes, you could scrape frost off the glass on the inside on a cold day. Also, the ancient hot air furnace had only one register on the second floor - in the bath room. Through most of the winter when we got up for school my brothers and I would be pushing and shoving to get dressed in front of the register. If one of us tried to lock the door to use the facilities with a little privacy, the rest would scream bloody murder until Mom had to intervene and command the door be unlocked.

Then out the door to stand at the school bus stop that was several houses down the street. No waiting inside to stay warm - if the driver didn't see you there waiting, he'd simply drive by. I can remember the occasional below zero morning when your toes would go numb. You'd have tears in your eyes with the pain of them defrosting on the bus.

And yet I remember it now with great nostalgia, just like Jean Sheperd recalling his "Ralphie" days in A Christmas Story.