[Magdalen] ATTN The Scotts !!!

[Scott Knitter]

Yes, we're in an apartment, in which 10 years ago or so, the owners had
individual furnaces and air conditioning installed in each apartment,
taking up half of our nice hallway closet. Some apartments needed extensive
soffit work installed to house the air ducts; being on the top floor meant
a lot of this could be done in whatever crawlspace is above our ceiling.
Then they shut off the boiler-and-hot-water radiator system and have been
removing the radiators when people moved out. We haven't moved out, so I'm
sure we're the last ones with the radiators. Heat with the radiators was
free (or included as building overhead in our rents) but now is
individually billed by our natural gas provider, Peoples Gas (ha, ha...but
that's what it's called). But of course now we can have programmable
thermostats. And central air in the summer! Glorious. And of course now we
pay for electricity to run the system and for air filters if we remember
they need replacing.

I think the owners who installed the furnaces thought they'd "go condo"
with the units, but then they went almost into foreclosure until a buyer
stepped up at the last moment. They've kept these as rental apartments.

On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 7:58 PM Juli Tarsney <juli at tarsney.net> wrote:

> Scott, I thought you lived in an apartment? Or condo? But you have to worry
> about your furnace? We replaced ours last week – the blower stopped
> working, and we naïvely thought it could be repaired – but it wouldn’t have
> been worth it; the furnace was too old. Nice to know the one we have now is
> under warranty for a while :-)
>
> On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 7:11 PM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > 7pm CST: Temperature in Chicago is -1F, wind chill -22F.
> > So that's -18C, wind chill -32C.
> >
> > Max temp tomorrow (Wednesday): -11F. Wind chills tonight down to -60F. I
> > think at some point Fahrenheit and Celsius converge, or maybe it's just
> > that below a certain point on both scales, it just doesn't matter.
> > I'm running the bathroom faucet on a dribble (with a plastic cup placed
> > sideways beneath it to lessen the noise) to help prevent the pipe from
> > freezing. May dribble the kitchen faucet as well, and the bathtub too.
> > Furnace has fresh filter and I'll set it down a couple of degrees for the
> > night so it gets some rest occasionally. Would be no worries if we still
> > had the hot-water radiator heating. Still got the neato old radiators in
> > each room but the system behind them is long gone. We used to have to
> warn
> > people not to burn their left leg as they used the loo. LOL
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 12:39 PM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > BTW, they're saying five minutes to frostbite once the wind-chill
> warning
> > > goes into effect at 6 p.m. CST today, and throughout tomorrow. That
> means
> > > it's even dangerous to go to the local market on foot without covering
> > > every bit of skin. Goggles would be good. Glad I won't need to make
> that
> > > short trip.
> > >
> > > On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 12:35 PM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Right...One of the joys of full-time telework (and there are many) is
> > the
> > >> ability to work even when somewhat ill or when snowed in, as long as
> the
> > >> data pipes don't freeze. :)
> > >>
> > >> On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 11:40 AM Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com
> >
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Glad you're safe with provisions! Wish it were a day off for you as
> > well
> > >>> but I'm thinking not : (
> > >>>
> > >>> Stay warm! It's unseasonably cold here but no freezing yet. I'm
> amazed
> > >>> at some of the temperature variations all over the country.
> > >>>
> > >>> Lynn
> > >>>
> > >>> On Jan 29, 2019, at 9:27 AM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Hi from Chiberia! Here cometh the Polar Vortex. <ominous chord>
> > >>>
> > >>> I did trudge the two blocks to our nearest supermarket last night to
> > get
> > >>> some potentially essential provisions: a frozen pizza, mac & cheese,
> > >>> pancake syrup, sliced gouda, and high-fiber cereal. And a freshly
> made
> > >>> Bosnian cheese-filled pastry thing (like a spinach pie only without
> the
> > >>> spinach, I guess). Obviously I did not run my shopping list past a
> > >>> nutritionist. But I feel prepared not to leave the house until at
> least
> > >>> Thursday. Cats have enough food, wet and dry.
> > >>>
> > >>> Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the historic record-low wind chill day. The
> > >>> lowest
> > >>> I can remember experiencing is -56 while a student at Michigan State
> U
> > in
> > >>> East Lansing. There was something so essential I had to brave the
> wind
> > to
> > >>> walk a block to the Mini-Mart convenience shop. Can't remember what;
> > >>> perhaps generic chicken franks? Rum? Cans of Tab? Anyway, that level
> of
> > >>> wind chill defies all thicknesses of sweaters and multiple shirts and
> > >>> undershirts. Not to mention the exposed bits of my face. But I did
> have
> > >>> to
> > >>> expose my eyes to see where I was going, at least periodically.
> > >>>
> > >>> Won't be venturing out in that tomorrow. I pray for any who have no
> > >>> option:
> > >>> no place to go, or heaven forbid a fire or something that requires
> > >>> evacuation. But the city is doing a great deal to make warm places
> > >>> available: every police station, 66 field houses in city parks,
> > off-duty
> > >>> CTA buses, libraries, our neighborhood's wonderful indoor park/gym
> (The
> > >>> Broadway Armory), and I'm sure more will open up as needs arise. Some
> > of
> > >>> the kinder bus drivers are amenable in such weather to bend the
> rules a
> > >>> bit
> > >>> and pick people up who wave them down, even if they're not strictly
> > >>> standing at an officially marked bus stop. Actually, I hope they all
> do
> > >>> this. (Normally, even in torrential rain, a driver will point to the
> > >>> stop a
> > >>> block ahead and make the person run to it if they want to board, or
> > wait
> > >>> for the next bus...a few do have more mercy than that, but some draw
> > the
> > >>> line sharply either because they're a-holes or because of safety
> > concerns
> > >>> with nonstandard boarding points.)
> > >>>
> > >>> Anyway, lots of school closures (the Chicago Public Schools are
> waiting
> > >>> until tomorrow to close...I'm sure they'll get angry responses from
> > >>> parents
> > >>> about being open today). Current conditions: 1 degree Fahrenheit;
> wind
> > >>> chill is minus 16F (what it feels like in the wind).
> > >>>
> > >>> Thank you, Mike, for thinking of us Scotts here in
> > >>> soon-to-be-historically-cold Chicagoland!
> > >>>
> > >>> On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 7:09 AM M J _Mike_ Logsdon <
> mjl at ix.netcom.com>
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> >>>> It's 3:30 am here, so you might already be in the thick of
> what's
> > >>> being
> > >>> > predicted for Chicago "tomorrow".  -51 degrees !!!<<<
> > >>> >
> > >>> > I must have misheard.  But still, damn cold!
> > >>> >
> > >>> > M J (Mike) Logsdon.
> > >>> >
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> --
> > >>> Scott R. Knitter
> > >>> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Scott R. Knitter
> > >> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Scott R. Knitter
> > > Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Scott R. Knitter
> > Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> >
>


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA