Does your wife ever get used to the cold?

[Neonred 3,461]

I'm the USC and I've been living in south Florida for about 25 years, so for me anything below about 72 degrees is too cold. I've gotten up some mornings and thought I needed to turn the heat on, but looked at the thermostat and noticed it was 70 in the house. On those rare days when it gets below about 60 I've got the long underwear on. The wife does insist that we must sleep naked, so I invested in a mattress pad heater with dual controls. FANTASTIC. Now we are both happy.

[Helen Louise Pile 80]

I am always cold. I have found that wearing good clothes and having a well insulated house make all the difference.

My husband is from Fairbanks, Alaska so to him, everywhere in the contiguous US is warm!

I trade the damp cold of Scotland for the many hours of winter daylight here in the lower 48! I can't believe how great is it that the sun rises before 8 am every day here in Vermont, even if it's much colder than Scotland!

I think adjusting to hot temperatures is more of a challenge.

[rogerj 0]

OK, I give... What are pajamas?

[Operator 1,927]

OK, I give... What are pajamas?

Thats what babies and lau tai tai wear to bed.

[Operator 1,927]

My wife's family has a long history of weather forecasting in China and she laughs at the local weather guessers here. "why do they try to be so detailed?", "who could take this pig-face guy seriously?"

I guess because the weather is so similar here she really had no problem adjusting. She does not like the idea of central heat and air "too wasteful and not green" but does not complain when its on.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Just out of curiosity and to hear some funny stories , "How long did it take for your wife to adjust to the cold."

My wife's been here since last February and still likes to sleep in her jacket and pants. One thing that makes me laugh is it will be 35 degrees and she will be bundled up to the max and will have open toe sandals or flip flops. lol. Share your stories if you have some.

Coming from Warsaw to Houston is not precisely hardship! She is in awe that there is "no" winter here. It can get to 30 (Farenheit) here, but even now we are in the low 60s in a 'cold' day.

On the other side, I keep saying that her opinion of Houston might change after her first Summer next year, when we get to 110 and 100% humidity.

To put things in perspective, her favorite joke (that I'm going to butcher probably): Jan calls to check on Piotr in his cabin during a particular cold day, and asks "Piotr, is it cold in there?", and Piotr replies, "No, cold outside, here -40 (Celsius)"

[ryna 132]

I am always cold. I have found that wearing good clothes and having a well insulated house make all the difference.

My husband is from Fairbanks, Alaska so to him, everywhere in the contiguous US is warm!

I trade the damp cold of Scotland for the many hours of winter daylight here in the lower 48! I can't believe how great is it that the sun rises before 8 am every day here in Vermont, even if it's much colder than Scotland!

I think adjusting to hot temperatures is more of a challenge.

Funny you should mention the daylight. My wife had the hardest time adjusting to the sun rising so late (a little after 7 AM here right now) and, during the summer, setting so late (almost 9 PM here). Now that it's winter, she misses the extra daylight in the evenings. I tried to explain to her that it was far more pronounced up North. Growing up so close to the equator, the length of the day and sunrise/sunset times (+/-15 min. over the course of the entire year) didn't change much for her in Colombia, so that really was her biggest adjustment.

Luckily for her, she arrived in Florida during the winter where the temps are close to what she was used to in Bogotá. She was able to get used to the Florida summer little by little as the temps crept higher and higher. After 6 months of the 90s, she now tells me it's cold when it's 75 degrees outside. That's when I remind her that it's still warmer than Bogotá's usual 60-70 degrees.

[UK_Fan 192]

for us, it's the other way around. i am from Magadan, Russia, which is one of the coldest regions in the world and it snows 8 months out of the year and the temperatures drop way way waaaaaay below 0 degrees Celsius. But i've been living here in SE Kentucky for over 6 years and winters are very mild by russian standards, but out of all my american friends, i am the first one to put a thick coat and scarf and warm boots on. People, including my husband, would still be walking around in light clothes and here i am, looking like Ralphie's brother from Christmas story haha.

People always ask me if i should be used to cold weather, but around here, they don't know what cold weather is ahah, so i'm always prepared!

Edited December 17, 2011 by MariyaB

[cdneh 3,112]

I am from Canada, and spent nearly 20 years in NZ. I have lived in Scotland and Northern Canada as well.

No matter where I have lived, I am cold. I am a hot house flower I guess I found the damp cold in NZ to be the absolute worst, it goes right into your bones. They don't have central heating there either, as a rule. I remember reading in bed at night, wearing my heavy bathrobe, a hat and gloves, and I could see my breath inside the house. Here at least I crank crank up the heat lol..

[UK_Fan 192]

I remember reading in bed at night, wearing my heavy bathrobe, a hat and gloves, and I could see my breath inside the house. Here at least I crank crank up the heat lol..

oh my goodness, i can't believe they live like that there lol. is it normal for them? I would die!! i'm so cold-blooded (in a different sense), there is no way i could stand that!

[cdneh 3,112]

oh my goodness, i can't believe they live like that there lol. is it normal for them? I would die!! i'm so cold-blooded (in a different sense), there is no way i could stand that!

It is. Many older homes haven't got any insulation, and so no air con for the most part in private homes, and you don't see a lot of places with window screens either.

The houses I lived in all had open fireplaces in the lounge (living room). That is mostly how people heat. I had a small electric heater I used to turn on in the morning in the bedroom, while I got dressed. Nothing like getting up at 0500 for work when it's cold and raining out I had a mattress pad that was heated, and I hated to leave my nice warm bed.

Some of the newer houses are being built with under floor heating, and heat pumps, but the cost of electricity is so high there that the average person limits the use of plug in heaters. Running just a couple of small heaters for a month would see our power bill double, pretty close to $400.

[J&N* 68]

Cut her some slack please, it's not just the cold, it's also how dark it gets so early ad how gloomy it gets, she's probably used to warm days with sunlight until 7 pm.

I moved to Chicago from FL 6 months ago and it's not even winter yet but it's hard to get used to, I hear from native mid-westerns how they've lived here all their lives and still not used to the winter here and every winter they complain about, so be understanding if she's out of her comfort zone. I experience some depressed feelings because of how cold and dark it is and a lot of people go through that (Seasonal affective disorder). I know a friend who moved from LA to Chicago and after 4 years reached her breaking point and moved back to LA.

Some people are just not cut out for the winter.

[Andy and Pui 16]

My wife has been here since the end of June and she got experience the cold and snow for a few weeks here and then had to return to Thailand for a family emergency for two weeks and I am picking her up on Tuesday. I have a feeling this winter will be hard for her this year since she gradually got used to the cold and then left for two weeks and is now coming back. In Thailand they consider 20c COLD which is about 68f here. When she was packing she took most of all her cold weather clothes and only a small amount of warm weather clothes. I asked her why she was doing that and she said because it will be cold in Thailand. I talked to her after she got to Bangkok and she said it is HOT here. Once she got back to her village she said it was cold there.

[Dan & Jenni 457]

Just out of curiosity and to hear some funny stories , "How long did it take for your wife to adjust to the cold."

she never did manage to adjust to the cold... so i finally gave in and let her out of the walk in freezer

Edited December 17, 2011 by Dan & Jenni

[HowardandFlorence 0]

Moving from Accra Ghana to Fairbanks Alaska was a big change for Florence. We bought a warm coat before we left Accra so she could deal with shock of getting off the plane in Alaska. We had a cold snap here in Fairbanks last month. It was between -30 and -40 for a week. She took it well but did complain some. Now, anything above zero is manageable. She still sleeps in long thermal underwear. I think the short days have been just as difficult as the cold for her.