It is 26 degrees out this morning.
And while that isn't really cold-by New England Standards- for here the world may as well be covered in a glacier. It isn't that bad out really, you just dress for the weather and you are fine. However the Californians who have moved here are likely to get frost bitten due to the incessant need to walk around severly under dressed (short-shorts, t shirts, wafer thin jackets, flip-flops). Seriously, it is nearly January. Take a clue from the fact that your fingers are apt to fall off in a mo, and put some more clothes on.
Inside, we should be fine, turn on the heat for a little while, wear maybe an extra layer or a sweater, warm socks and everything ought to be fine.
I wander over to the window to peer out at the weather... See what I am up against for my long trudge to work (across the street).
'Wow, it is really cold over by the window.' I check the other windows... They are all freezing. Cold windows no surprise, So I put a towel at the base of the truely coldest. And call up maitenance.
The issue it seems, is that there have developed cracks around the frames of all of my windows. This isn't all that surprising, they had to build this place to withstand earthquakes, the frame to the window more or less "floats" in it's mount in the wall. So the up side is the windows wont buckle and break in an earthquake. The downside is that the window's fram rattles all the time, and air can easily pass through.
Now, two months ago I called to have the windows re-caulked, and they came and looked at them and did nothing. As though the thought of doing it is the same as actually doing it...
Now it is the end of December and it is cold. And I call again, and they have recaullked the windows. Yay! it only took two months. But it is 26 out. Which means the caulk isn't so much as drying, as very slowly kind of dripping out of the tops of the frames. It might just be too cold for the caulk to dry.
I wanted to complain about the cold air coming in through the unused outlets too, but that can be band-aided over with some outlet covers. And since the caulking is really another bandaid, I really don't hink there is much else that can be done.
Or that they would be willing to do.
They don't insulate things out here well. Steel walls and gypsum walls on a whole do not hold in heat well. Quick to build I suppose, and survives earthquakes well, but keeping the people warm in their homes, I think not.
