The Need for Heat

Last week the temperatures were below zero several days in a row. The sun was shining and the sky was blue, but it was cold. It was then that I discovered that all three methods of heat are necessary here in Russia. So we begin with the central furnace. This is impossible to regulate. If you turn the thermostat up to 70, the temperature gets up to 85. If you turn it down to 60, it’s freezing.

So the secondary version is the baseboard heaters. These are dangerous. You can heat up a room in a few minutes flat, but it turns out that they burn blankets and pillows with little evidence but an odd smell. It’s only after a few hours of this oddity that we ask ourselves, “what is that smell?” I would love to blame it on the kids, but I burned my organza pillow shams all by myself.

Number three is the fireplace. My husband and I both grew up tending wood furnaces in our childhood, so we know how to build a fire and keep it from smoking. Except, of course, when you happen to burn paper from Russia that is coated with a strange plastic and smokes like crazy. We also have to wonder what the heat is worth when it is roaring so loud that my man calls for a squirt bottle and a shovel.

This week it is 15. It’s incredible what a warm up that is. Number Two was outside in the snow with his friends for three hours yesterday. Most of the time I stay pretty toasty in the house, but today I took a bike ride to the Sport Center to visit the Solarium (aka sunbed). Best 300 rubles I’ve spent. I got to listen to soothing music in Russian and when I left to rejoin the tundra, I had a little tan line.