Slice of Life: I'm Tired of Being Cold

I'm tired of being cold --- and, yes, I wrote this in June!

This morning I am sitting on my couch curled up in the corner seat wrapped in a fleece jacket.  Yes, it's June in Ohio, but I'm cold.  I started on the patio because it was warmer outside than inside, but it started to rain so I had to come back into the house.

I'm considering disconnecting the air conditioning.  Do you think my family would notice?

When you live in Ohio, you are cold from November until late March.  You learn to live with it.  You build fires in the fireplace, drink hot coffee, and make lots of soup.  During these months, I tire of putting on coats, boots, scarves and mittens.  I tire of sweaters and leggings under my dress pants.  I tire of cold winds and icy conditions.  Cold just becomes a way of life.  My car doesn't like the cold either.  It has a warning light when the temperature gets to 37 degrees fahrenheit.  This always makes me laugh as 37 might be considered warm in January.  We spend months in endless brown and white with temperatures well below 37.

When the calendar turns to April I know I will soon find relief.  You'd think that I could be warm in June when temperatures near the upper 70s and into the 80s, but in Ohio people love air conditioning.  I'm convinced they love to keep houses and buildings as cold as the wintery days about which we complain.

My husband, whom I love dearly, likes the house colder than I.  I can't imagine why his mediterranean blood would like it so cold.  I find myself putting on jackets, wearings shirts with sleeves, and keeping socks on my feet just to wander around our house.  I've tried to find a warm spot, but our air conditioning is much too efficient.  When I go to bed at night, I often have to turn on my side of the heated mattress pad just to get warm.

All of this cold, makes it hard to dress to go anywhere.  If you're going to be inside, you might as well reach into your fall clothes stack.  You'll need pants, sleeves, and maybe a sweater to go just about anywhere.  This, of course, is complicated if you plan to be inside and outside.  Outside the temperature might be over eighty degrees, but inside feels like sixty.  It's like living in a freezer.

I'm cold everywhere.  I keep a blanket on the couch in the summer.  I have a jacket in my car, just in case.  When I was younger my grandma was quite a fashionista.  She wore pant suits of yellow, blue, and mint green.  Even in the summer she would have on a long sleeved blouse and a suit jacket.  I couldn't understand it.  Wasn't she hot in those outfits?  Now, I'm actually considering purchasing a few pant suits for summer.  Maybe, like me, she was always cold in the summer.  Maybe it's a genetic disease.

Whatever it is, I'm tired of being cold in the summer.  I just wish my fellow Ohioans could realize that summer is the time for us to store up enough warmth in our bones to last us through the long months of winter.  I just wish I could convince everyone to keep their spaces just a bit above meat locker temperature.  I just want to be warm.

It's Tuesday!  Today I'm participating in the Slice of Challenge hosted each Tuesday at Two Writing Teachers.  Stop by today's round-up and join the fun!