Temperatures in Ajijic going way down tonight.....brrrrr!

As of 8:30 this evening, the temperature was 11 degrees Celsius. It's supposed to go down to 6 overnight! Brrrrrrr!

Better than -20 though.........and the brighter side is we know it won't last long.

Just think about those 30+ days in May.

I'm actually enjoying this cooler weather! For the first time in 18 months, since we moved down here, I'm thinking of wearing a sweater. What a novelty! But first I have to find my sweaters - they have never been unpacked!

slainte39 wrote:Just think about those 30+ days in May.

I have been, Slainte. This morning I tugged up leggings under my flannel nightgown and put trousers over that. Then put on a thermal long-sleeved undershirt and heavy-weight hooded sweatshirt and fleece slippers just to go downstairs. I thought, “I can’t wait to be complaining about the heat in May!”

Oh those 35 degree days in May that just sap your energy and make you toss and turn all night trying to sleep.  

At least now, you can pull the covers up to your chin and not dare move  for fear of exposing some part of your anatomy to the elements.

The older you get, the less the range of tolerance for temperatures until the pine box. (happy thought)...

Do we have cooling temps coming here?
Here is what's happening to me on a simple minded level:  We moved to Ajijic from San Miguel in late February of 2008.  We bought a very old casa with a working wood fireplace and no other heat source.  In 2009, we didn't need a fire until sometime after Christmas, and we used a half cord of wood.  The next year, we needed a fire earlier.

Fast forward to the winter of 2016, when we burned 6 and a half cords of wood, starting even earlier. This year, we used up the half cord already and just called Saul to bring another load.  I had to buy an electric heater to keep a small office room habitable during the day now. Tomorrow, I'm having a plumber install a gas heater in the central 'all purpose' room with the higher ceiling where I normally spend most of the day.  It used to be the central courtyard but was covered over sometime along the years.  The other ceilings are around 8 feet.

Go figure about what's happening.  Global cooling in some places with warming in others??  Or just a normal weather cycle.  I understand that Europe was freezing cold during the Middle Ages.

The longer you live in a warm climate the thinner your blood becomes so when it gets cold for a couple of weeks you really feel it. I have some friends here currently from the great white north traipsing around in shorts and t-shirts......

CanuckBob wrote:The longer you live in a warm climate the thinner your blood becomes so when it gets cold for a couple of weeks you really feel it. I have some friends here currently from the great white north traipsing around in shorts and t-shirts......

Granted about blood thinning, but you'd think that after all my years here it would have bottomed out. My jaws drop when I see those Canucks and their scanty outfits. Oy!

I wore shorts all winter for the first couple of years here too. Not any longer though.......

And for some reason, you do feel the cold more when you get older.
Went to brunch a couple of Sundays ago with visiting friends. She had on a sleeveless cotton dress and bare feet in sandals... I had on corduroy pants, fuzzy socks with my sneakers, a t-shirt and a big fuzzy sweater over it. Made me colder just to look at her.
Yet I remember us, the first couple of winters in San Miguel, wearing shorts and sandals too and wondering why everyone local was all bundled up.
I think my personal thermometer is busted.
I'm putting in solar in January so I can have an electric heat producing wall fireplace. Those 20 pound propane tanks for the portable heater are getting heavier every year. I just filled one and it cost 180 pesos. Last January it was 135 pesos. If the sun can't warm me itself then I'm going to use it another way.

I'm sitting here with a long sleeve t-shirt and leggings, then sweatpants and a hoodie over top, along with socks and slippers. And I'm still cold!

Me too.
My phone says it's gonna be 45 tonight. . .

Trailrunner wrote:Me too.
My phone says it's gonna be 45 tonight. . .

I see your phone is hooked up to mother nature . Can you give me her URL?

my parents were snow birds 40 years ago, and when they visited me in the fall one year when I was still NOB, they said we gotta go it is cold. It was only 55 degrees, we grew up in near Detroit, in Michigan how could you be cold I asked, now I know after 8 years down here, we are freezing, except for the two propane heaters, now I know what they were talking about

DaveP wrote:

Trailrunner wrote:Me too.
My phone says it's gonna be 45 tonight. . .

I see your phone is hooked up to mother nature . Can you give me her URL?

To reach Mother Nature: www.helpyouarekillingme.org  Or: #stopkillingme

This is what I did last night and it made an enormous difference... not sure it will work in really high ceiling houses though. Mine are 10 feet high and no bovedas.
I turned the switch on the fan in the kitchen and in the bedroom to reverse the blade rotation. That will kick the warm air off the ceiling (remember that hot air rises) and circulate the warm air. I had the portable propane heater going in the bedroom (before going to bed) and all four burners going on the stove. My house is pretty much open concept except for the bedroom and bathroom. We got amazingly warm very quickly compared with the last few nights. The bonus was that it was still reasonably warm in the house this morning (with no fans and no heaters/burners going overnight) and we're doing fine with just two burners on the stove going and the small kitchen fan going.

edited to add: After changing blade rotation, the fan should be on a lazy low speed.

Great suggestion! I always turn our overhead fans on when our fireplaces are lit.

It has been cold. 10 or 11° near my house but 5° at the bottom of my property. It usually is colder in January. I have been using my space heater and oven.

I'm a big fan of filling socks with rice, then tying them off. Microwave them for a minute and you have the most wonderful handwarmers (or feet, or wherever). I keep meaning to sew nicer covers, but really, the socks work well.

Gosh Cypress. I live up high on the hill in Ajijic and it only went below 10 once, and then it only got down to 9 C. Right now, it its 14 outdoors and 20 indoors and I didn't use the fireplace last night. Oh its is 8:30 in the morning and last night, it might have been as low as 11 or 12 C last night

I hope that it gets warmer where you are. I know that I have been looking for cold air leaks into the house and blocking them. But I will never be 100% successful.

Las t week it was -12 in Toronto. you don't get no sympathy.

It's all relative.

Canada_Mike wrote:Las t week it was -12 in Toronto. you don't get no sympathy.

But Mike, it wasn't -12 C. INSIDE the houses in Toronto. No insulation and single paned leaky windows in most houses here make for a heating challenge. The plus side for us was that there wasn't any SNOW here.

True enough. When the inside temperature is in the mid teens it is a bit chilly. Even a few candles burning warms things up a bit in a small room.