Cold Comfort

So, one thing I didn't mention in my last entry is that it is really, really, really cold in my apartment. (You may think, "what does that have to do with an entry about Moscow?", and you'd be right – but since my apartment temperature is basically the only thing I think about these days, I was still tempted to somehow work it in.)

When I left Taganrog, this was not a problem, as it wasn't very cold here – probably right around freezing – but now the temperatures are in the low teens and we have a relentless east wind blowing in off the bay. Unfortunately, my apartment windows face the bay, and I'm on the ninth floor, where it seems (may the meteorology gods smite me if I'm wrong) the wind is even stronger than at ground level. This has caused my apartment's temperature to drop from its usual "merely chilly" into the range of "intolerably cold." I don't have a thermometer, but I'm guessing it's in the high 50's in my living room and the low 50's in my kitchen.

Of course, dedicated readers may remember that I taped my windows back in October. On days that are merely cold, not windy, that sort of helps, but the problem with taping your windows with masking tape is that the adhesive, already not exactly the greatest in the world, breaks down completely when hit with the combination of cooling surface temperatures and cold air currents of any strength. So the windows are still nominally taped, but that hasn't stopped it from being breezy enough that the candles I had burning yesterday were guttering.

So the reason I'm writing about this (besides the fact that it's the only thing I can think about) is that this morning my landlady called and suggested that I move in with them for a week or so until the windy weather passes. I can't decide what to do – on the one hand, it would be nice to be warm for a while, but on the other, I think I might like my independence too much to be able to just move in with people I hardly know. If it weren't the holidays, this wouldn't even be a problem, since I could just hide out at work or the library all day. Hopefully some kind of solution will present itself before 7 p.m., when I'm supposed to call and let them know what I've decided. In the meantime, I'm going outside to warm up.