I'm cold

Japan has been hit by a cold front. It is probably not very serious and where I live we get very little snow but still, I am freezing!!! My complaints annoy Tetsu to no end.

This is what I wake up to in the morning. Do these photos even capture what I see?

This LOOKS like a lovely impressionist painting. No. That is my bedroom window. It is the view of the forest looking through the window AND ALL THE FROZEN CONDENSATION ON THE WINDOW!!!

A few of our windows and doors have been frozen this week and we have to bang and thump at the frame in order to even get out the back door.

When I grumble that I don't think our house has insulation, Tetsu retorts that there's nothing that can be done about it now. When I suggest that there is such a thing as putting in double windows, he just shakes his head and tells me to think of the cost. And besides there doesn't seem to be insulation under the floors either so not a lot of good new windows would do.

"Isn't this the 21st Century? There is such a thing as central heating in America."

This is hitting below the belt on my part. We are not in America and Tetsu tells me to count my blessings; a lot of people in the world live in worse conditions.

And so we let the water run all night so that the pipes don't freeze. We bang windows to open them in the morning. We move our little space heaters from room to room. By the way, we aren't poverty stricken. Many of my friends are in the same boat. The advice from them is:

"Use a squeegee every morning to catch the condensation."

"Keep a towel along the window sill to sop up the moisture."

"Spray the area with alcohol to keep the mold at bay."

Japan has the technology to make refrigerators that will talk to you! Why don't they just construct a warm house for the normal resident.

If I had one of those refrigerators that talked to me, it would probably say,

"Close the door. You're letting all the cold air IN!"