Too Damn Cold

I'm sitting here in my office slowly freezing to death. No, there isn't any malfunction in the heating system. This is just life in the north. At least for me since I passed by 35th birthday. I am cold all the time from the first of December until sometime in April. Right now, I am wearing a winter coat, yet I cannot feel my fingers. My feet are two blocks of ice. I wear hat and gloves in the house and wrap up in blankets, and still I am cold. I sleep under so many blankets that the weight makes it hard to even breathe, but I'm still cold.

It didn't used to be this way. I grew up in a house that used wood heat. My dad hated the utility company and would go to any length to keep the furnace from ever running, which included keeping most of the house around 50 degrees F. On cold nights, I could actually see my breath in my bedroom. Not a problem. More recently, I would go to deer camp with some friends and live for a week in a tent with minimal heat in below-zero temperatures. It would get so cold at night that I would wake up in the morning with a layer of "snow" on my sleeping bag from the moisture in my breath freezing on contact with the air. No big deal.

Then I hit 35 and everything started to go to hell. Every winter I layer on more clothes. Now I even wear a stocking cap to bed. This year is the worst yet. Nothing works to keep me warm. I'm done with this. You can call me a pussy if you want to, but you will have to yell really loud if you want me to hear you; this time next year, I will be sitting in a nice warm place.