Brrrrrrr – It’s a Westerly Wind

Usually my high-rise apartment is boiling hot. The building acts like a chimney and all the heat rises up the building to the upper floors. So my lofty high-level apartment is an oven at best.

I even occasionally run the air conditioners in winter. It really gets that hot up here.

But not in the latest cold snap. The winds are blowing from the west and that means I’m actually getting quite the breeze through my windows. Usually the wind is blowing from some other direction – so I get no ventilation.

Figures – we’re in one of the coldest months of the year, breaking record low temperatures even – and the wind has to blow into my pad.

So, while the average temperature of my apartment hovers around the 25-30C mark, these days its way down around 15-20C.

It is actually quite cool here – which is rare.

Now that I have experienced the heat and the frigid cold, I actually like it cold better. In cold temperatures, I can just add another layer of clothing to keep warm. When it is hot –there was nothing I could do. Once you take off all your clothes, there isn’t much else you can take off. That’s why I got air conditioning – the neighbors kept complaining about my nudist colony. Well, most of the neighbors, except for that cougar above me. But that’s another story. . .

Cold is hot.

Though now it is so cold, I wish it were hot out so I could turn on the A/C. Even with long johns and a sweater on, I can still feel the cold.

This all makes me wonder though – why in our high-tech society can’t my property management get the temperatures perfect every time around? You’d figure it is in their best interest to keep the temperatures not too hot, nor too cold.

When I run my A/C, I’m using up electricity. I don’t pay for electricity – so it’s no skin off my back. However, the property management firm does – so it costs them money. Same goes for the cold – if I were to use a space heater, that too costs them money.

I know my building is old, but it is one of the best maintained buildings in the city. I ought to know, I shopped around like crazy before moving in here. Most apartment buildings in this city fall into one of two extremes – either the property management firm doesn’t give a rat’s ass and lets everything go to hell, or – as in my building – they take exceptionally good care of the building.

When I was looking for a new apartment, I remember walking through one with the property manager. He told me they just painted the walls. Though obviously they hadn’t – I could see paint chips the size of old rusty Buicks peeling off the walls, and there were water marks on the ceilings (indicating pipe problems).

I went through another apartment building and the place was a dive – paint peeling, scratches on the hardwood floors, exposed wires and pipes. I asked if they were going to fix it up before the next tenant moved in. Nope. Nadda. We don’t do that. But if you want to, hey go ahead – they told me. Yeah, right – I’ll get right on that. NOT!

When I moved into my place, they repainted the all the walls, re-did all the floors, sanitized the kitchen and bathroom and even sprayed for creepy crawlies – all before I moved in. Though the place didn’t need most of that stuff – it was already in top shape. Here, they just do that as standard procedure before anyone moves in.

And they don’t stop there – they actually vacuum and wash down the hallways twice per week, and whenever I have a problem, they are right up to fix it.

So, why can’t they get my apartment to stay the right temperature?

Oh well – I’ve managed to improvise.

Where are my matches?