The Heating Season

Will I ever be warm again? I feel like I’m camping – a damp coldness has crept into my bones and I find I can’t feel warm no matter how many cups of tea I drink or how many sweaters I put on! It turns out that our apartment, being under the jurisdiction of Columbia University Housing, has a ‘heating season’ – Oct to May. But only if the outside temperature drops below 55 F! I still can’t convert from Fahrenheit to Celsuis, but I do know that, while the autumn nip is in the air, it must be over 55 F.

One week later…

The heating season has begun. We were woken up in the early morning by the sputtering sounds of a radiator long asleep and now stretching into action. In spite of my attempts to clean what seemed like years of dust off the radiators, the air hangs heavy with the pungent smell of burning grime.

In a few more days, our apartment will become stiflingly warm. We open the windows slightly to regulate the temperature. (We have no thermostat, just a temperature sensor. I’m not quite sure what the sensor’s purpose is.) Unfortunately, we must close the windows in the evening as the autumn rains return, lashing heavily and at a rather steep angle. I guess this heralds another round of broken, cheap umbrellas. NYers seem to have a disposable-goods attitude towards everything!