Commuting - Winter sucks

I have enough equipment to bike in -2C fine, it's plenty warm.

The problem is my kitchen is too cold, my bathroom is too cold, I'm hiding under a kotatsu, I mean hell I don't eat. I eat breakfast at work, I don't pack a lunch, when I get home I'm hungry and I don't go in the kitchen to cook because it's way too cold in there to prepare food for cooking. I actually wear the wool biking gear in my apartment o_O

No breakfast means no biking, not to mention I can't wake up in the morning because I'm eating two small meals a day now. :twitch:

Cold poisoning overrules starvation. So now I don't bike commute, primarily because I sleep a lot from not eating. f*#* Oh well, at least I can annoy the wrong-way riders by honking my horn at them; I need something louder than a bike bell on my bike.

Car sucks. I mean it's fun but I'd rather be driving a car on a race track. For the open road I want an ebike or a motorcycle.. or both. I shouldn't have to take this much of a visibility penalty just because I don't feel like pedaling for 45 minutes on an empty stomach through the biting cold :notamused:

Space heater? Turn your thermostat up?

Dude, that's not healthy. You gotta eat enough.

Suck up the bills and up your heat.

Space heater? Turn your thermostat up?

Can only run a space heater in one room; I'm within 400 watts of throwing the breaker here, evidenced by the breaker throwing if I don't disable the space heater before activating the 400W spin dryer.

Running central heating above 50 degrees turns my heating bill from $60/mo to $250/mo because the apartment isn't insulated (the outside facing wall of my bedroom is the same temperature as the brick wall on the outside... the hallway-facing interior walls are close, too, because there's airflow through the empty space inside them).

Look on the bright side...imagine if you actually lived in a cold climate.

Wear more clothes. Turn on the oven and cook to warm it up.
Can't bike without breakfast? Cuppa joe and head out the door every morning. no problem
I don't understand how cold would stop anyone from eating? I sleep in a tent and sit on a little platform in a tree dawn/dusk in the Northwoods for 8 days of deer hunting - never had a problem eating.
I don't pay $250/month for a older 3 BR ranch in WI in the dead of winter. I haven't even turned my furnace on yet. I tell the kids to put a sweater on.
Maybe it's time to look for a different living space to occupy.

It doesn't sound like winter sucks. It sounds like you place sucks. :D Fix it up or move.

But still.... No reason not to ride (or eat). I find a warm breakfast makes me feel better in the winter.

Yeah . . . what they said. Your place of residence has a problem, and it's not the weather. If you're renting, complain to the landlord. If you own, fix it or move.

BTW -- more food in your system makes your body's reaction to the cold more effective.

just telling him to move is kinda like telling a manic depressive to just cheer up...it's probably not that easy.

just telling him to move is kinda like telling a manic depressive to just cheer up...it's probably not that easy.

True it's not. I spent two years preparing to be car-free, and it involved moving out of a house I owned. It's not easy, but it's possible.
(I'm now car-free, as of yesterday)

One way to approach the indoor cold is a one-piece insulated suit. I have a snowmobile suit I wear indoors when needed. It beats the heck out of layering. Zippers all the way up all over for easy in & out, even with boots on.

Get a Snuggie

WUT?

Meh. Move somewhere that's really cold and then tell us about it.

Buy an extra sweater, and some more wool socks.

And maybe some nuts, while you're at it.

Because they're high in healthy, unsaturated fats and proteins, they don't require cooking, and the added fat and muscle will warm you up. :D

MTFU
When I was a student we had a really cold snap and the toilet bowl froze, my toothbrush froze, the water pipes froze, so we melted snow from the garden. It was so cold, I ate one of my flatmates.
You need to have a big, hot breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats or museli and hot milk with plenty of honey or syrup. At night you need to go to sleep on a full belly to stay warm.

MTFU
When I was a student we had a really cold snap and the toilet bowl froze, my toothbrush froze, the water pipes froze, so we melted snow from the garden. It was so cold, I ate one of my flatmates.
You need to have a big, hot breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats or museli and hot milk with plenty of honey or syrup. At night you need to go to sleep on a full belly to stay warm.

Frozen or cooked?

MTFU
When I was a student we had a really cold snap and the toilet bowl froze, my toothbrush froze, the water pipes froze, so we melted snow from the garden. It was so cold, I ate one of my flatmates.


Damn! :eek:

Bike Trainer!

Second house for the winter, somewhere in the Tropics, perhaps the Caribbean?





The Pacific Ocean has a moderating influence on the coast.
50f the low in summer , becomes the high in winter,

unless a weather system pulls the cold air behind the Cascades,
out the Columbia Gorge. then it Ices up.

Try to find an infrared heater, if you don't have one already, they work better with less energy.

As stupid as they are they look pretty warm (i wouldn't know or anything :))
Get a Snuggie

Maryland seems like it is plenty cold enough to complain.

I can only say that at one point, my wife and I had a shotgun shack that we were renovating for one of the salesmen at the local paper I was on the copy desk of back in the early 2000s. It had zero insulation, 2 windows were broken and it had zero heat.

You'd think that wouldn't matter in Central Texas until you had to sit through a winter where you had to have the gas stove on, with sheets covering all the doorways other than the bedroom and the kitchen. We took showers without a waterheater that winter and survived. Hell, I still ran a marathon that year - and trained for it to keep warm.

Eat more spicy foods. More soup and drink more coffee.

If the snow fall would be enough to build an Igloo, build one. I've heard its warm inside it.

I have enough equipment to bike in -2C fine, it's plenty warm.

The problem is my kitchen is too cold, my bathroom is too cold, I'm hiding under a kotatsu, I mean hell I don't eat. I eat breakfast at work, I don't pack a lunch, when I get home I'm hungry and I don't go in the kitchen to cook because it's way too cold in there to prepare food for cooking. I actually wear the wool biking gear in my apartment o_O

No breakfast means no biking, not to mention I can't wake up in the morning because I'm eating two small meals a day now. :twitch:

Cold poisoning overrules starvation. So now I don't bike commute, primarily because I sleep a lot from not eating. f*#* Oh well, at least I can annoy the wrong-way riders by honking my horn at them; I need something louder than a bike bell on my bike.

Car sucks. I mean it's fun but I'd rather be driving a car on a race track. For the open road I want an ebike or a motorcycle.. or both. I shouldn't have to take this much of a visibility penalty just because I don't feel like pedaling for 45 minutes on an empty stomach through the biting cold :notamused:

Bake some lasagna.

Will kill two birds with one stone.

Wake up a little earlier and have a hot breakfast... oatmeal kicks some serious butt.

If you're in an apartment, doesn't the landlord have to provide heat and hot water? That's how it works in NYC.

Maryland seems like it is plenty cold enough to complain.

About it being too cold to eat? People have been making and eating breakfast in unheated and underheated housing for millennia. OP seriously needs to HTFU, put on a coat and hat, and cook some damn oatmeal.

This sounds like a RENTER or TENANT issue, not a bicycling issue.

This sounds like a RENTER or TENANT issue, not a bicycling issue.

lol...tell us how you really feel.

If you're in an apartment, doesn't the landlord have to provide heat and hot water? That's how it works in NYC.

Don't know about MD but here in AZ it's not required. I think they are required to provide water, but I paid the gas bill to heat it. Some apts come with "free" utilities but you know they just factor the costs in.

I get the feeling that he was venting more than he was looking for solutions but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway.

My brother is about a decade older than myself. He bought me a "Hot Pot" while I was living in a college dorm. Talk about a useful gift. It's perfect for heating up some oatmeal, soup, hot chocolate, ramen noodles, tea. etc. I'm sure you could put it on a timer and keep it in your bedroom so you'll wake up to something warm to eat first thing in the morning.

For me the "internal fire" is the best for keeping warm on those cold days. Ride hard. Know that you're going to be a little cold when you first get on that bike, but you'll be plenty warm by the time you get to your destination.

Psychologically, the toughest mornings are when it's dark, I'm laying in bed and I can hear the wind howling out of the NW. Add some cold rain to that and, yeah, getting out of bed and putting my riding clothes on isn't easy. I've done it long enough to know that once I'm one the bike it's not nearly so bad as I think it's going to be.

If I did not have birds my house would be cooler than it is... I like temps in the low to mid 60's while they need things just a little warmer, and my wife keeps her house at this temperature.

We both run a little hot and it is not a big deal to wear slippers, a sweater, or a nice wool robe if one is feeling a little chilled and we both have heated mattress pads as neither of us likes sleeping in a warm bedroom.

I love my rice cooker as it also does a great job of cooking oatmeal... set it up before bed and turn it on in the morning and by the time you have showered and shaved the oatmeal is ready.

This is about the time of year that I start wearing some clothes to bed. Helps keep me warm, and I'm ready to go that much sooner.

Psychologically, the toughest mornings are when it's dark, I'm laying in bed and I can hear the wind howling out of the NW. Add some cold rain to that and, yeah, getting out of bed and putting my riding clothes on isn't easy. I've done it long enough to know that once I'm one the bike it's not nearly so bad as I think it's going to be.

I hear you! :)
It is a lot easier to go into cold rainy dawn after a hot cup of coffee with milk. That's what gets me going! :)
And the thought of a booring bus drive as an alternative - YACK! :/

"I'll get a guitar and a lover who pays me,
if I can't be a star I won't get out of bed!" :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlOje4ly4hg&ob=av2e

Doesn't driving defeat some of your perceived savings by not heating your apartment?

How much of that 250$ a month goes to gas and maintenance of your car?

You need a copy of, Walden....

This is about the time of year that I start wearing some clothes to bed. Helps keep me warm, and I'm ready to go that much sooner.

My wife and I have heated mattress pads and having one of these means you can turn down the thermostat at night, stay toasty, and still come out ahead on your utility bills.

It also helps with my back issues to have a bed that doubles as a giant heating pad although even with this I keep the temperature quite low... it's just enough to take the chill off the sheets.

Look on the bright side...imagine if you actually lived in a cold climate.

It pretty much comes down to HTFU when it's -2C and it's causing problems. Count your blessings that you were born during this century!

It pretty much comes down to HTFU when it's -2C and it's causing problems. Count your blessings that you were born during this century!

-2C is a balmy winter day here... just imagine if one lived where it actually got really cold but can understand that compared to our ancestors we have it pretty good as we usually turn on the heat and don't have to shovel coal or chop wood.

My great aunt and uncle lived in a log cabin they built when they got married in 1932 and lived there until they were in the eighties and never had central heating... the wood stove was always burning in the winter and it was one of the coziest homes one could ever hope to be in.

The indigenous Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego are thought to have not adopted the practice of wearing clothing until introduction to European culture. From Europeans they got clothes, and smallpox. Before they were extinguished by disease, they lived in rudely erected grass huts and open canoes, and had likely done so for thousands of years.

Naked. In a subpolar oceanic climate. Paddling around in an open canoe. In the ****ing Straight of Magellan.

Homeboy, you describe Baltimore as if it were Camp IV of Everest. Maybe you should move to my neck of the woods or something? We get maybe two days of freezing a year here.

"Antarctica was cold, but at least I wasn't stuck in a brutal MD winter."
--Ernest Shackleton

http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads//2011/08/georgia2.jpg

Get a Snuggie

Another vote for a snuggie.

-2C is a balmy winter day here...
I spent some time working in Bangladesh during the "winter". It reminded me of September on the prairies, except many of the locals were wearing parkas at +10C in the mornings. I guess a lot of it is acclimatization.

Living on the prairies I also tend to forget that people on coasts have to deal with dampness during the winter instead of skin cracking dryness.

If you're in an apartment, doesn't the landlord have to provide heat and hot water? That's how it works in NYC.
Yeah. That's how it's SUPPOSED to work. Unless of course the landlord is one of those s**ts that cares ONLY about pocketing the money and could care less about the tenants.

Start off by talking to the landlord. If that doesn't work, go to a Citizen's advocacy group that specializes in stuff like this. If that doesn't work, see if you can get the City to do an inspection. There's no reason you should have to live like that. Lastly... Be persistant.

Get a Snuggie

No, don't get a Snuggie....get a Forever Lazy - https://www.orderforeverlazy.com/?tag=im|sm|go|tm&a_aid=011&a_bid=534434b0

/sarc

WARNING! Video plays once the page loads.

What do you heat with that it is $60 a month? My heater is natural gas, and it will spike to $30 in the months ahead. We like it toasty, so thermostat set at 85 and turn it off when the chill is out of the air then turn it off.

As far as breakfast goes, granola bar and banana. Quickest and cheapest breakfast I could ever have.

i have lived near lake dillon, co and used to work at the dundalk marine terminal when its windy in the winter. md weather is not cold. tape up the windows on the smallest room with plastic put the electric heater on there it will be warm.

I spent some time working in Bangladesh during the "winter". It reminded me of September on the prairies....

So the Riders gear up for a losing season in Bangladesh as well?
Go BLUE! :lol:

Seriously !! You need to eat some fat. Forget about the "roadie diet".. it just won't work in winter time. You need to eat some animal fat. Bacon grease is your friend. Eggs fried with bacon grease and some cheese and sausage. Yummy !! Just look at all the primitive tribes that lived in cold climates. Animal fat was the most important thing in their diet. Lettuce and beans is not enough. You need to eat animal fat so that your body can produce heat.

Come to California so you can forget about all of that nonsense!

- Slim :)

"Antarctica was cold, but at least I wasn't stuck in a brutal MD winter."
--Ernest Shackleton

http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads//2011/08/georgia2.jpg

In Newfoundland, Canada, there's an historical site that was the original North American settlement of Lord Baltimore. He spent one winter there, said, "screw this noise" and settled in what's now Maryland instead. True story.