Back when things were still real, a setting of 72 on the thermostat was normal. Whether summer or winter, 72 degrees was very comfortable. Don’t mess around with it! Oh, sure, there was always that person who was too hot or too cold in every house and every office. They always found a sneaky way to kick it up or knock it down.
We had one fellow at work, a rather large person, who was always hot. He was constantly turning the temperature down to 68, sometimes even 66. One summer four of the women who worked near him asked for portable heaters for their work areas. Instead I had plastic locks installed on all the thermostats thinking that would deter Mr. Hot. He figured out that each one had little holes in the plastic shell that allowed air to flow through which was sampled for temperature. He straightened a paper clip out, ran it through the little air hole and managed to turn the thermostat dial. And then we took the little dials off.
Nowadays, a popular saying going around about one’s age is “Today’s 60 is yesterday’s 40.” It’s happened to thermostats, too. There’s definitely been a conspiracy between the thermostat manufacturers and the government to pull the temperature wool over our eyes. Today’s 78 setting is yesteryear’s 72 in summer. A setting today in winter of 67 is yesteryear’s 72. That bugs me.
Why is it that most women don’t understand thermostats of any kind? If they come into a chilly room they’ll turn the thing up as high as it will go. Conversely, if the room is hot, they’ll dial in the icicle setting. I guess they think it will work faster that way… Same goes for water heaters.
My wife has an unusual thing about sleeping temps. In winter months she’ll open one of our bedroom windows, get in bed and cover up with two, sometimes three heavy blankets. In summer she only uses one blanket.
She excuses this weird behavior away with, “I can’t breathe unless I have fresh air.”
Meanwhile I’m dying while we’re heating and cooling the entire neighborhood.
