It's cold in here

[layla]

The fire in the boiler apparently didn't catch when I fed it this morning, so it and the house have been sitting all day at -20(ish) with no source of heat. And it's freakin' cold in here. The thermostat goes down to 50F, and the needle is huddling cozily at the bottom of the scale.

I have a pretty high cold tolerance, but this is less than comfortable. It's so cold I don't want to type. All I want to do is huddle. But I have to finish Freebird for tomorrow.

At least it's not literally below freezing in here. Water sources actually *would* freeze in the cabin when I was a kid.

*shiver*

Comments

[neosquirrel.livejournal.com]

It's funny how people ask, "which can you put up with more, extreme heat or extreme cold?"
I don't really think anyone can truly "tolerate" either one more, unless it actually affects their environment as well-- and by that I mean, frozen pipes or wilted paper from humidity.

Still, the things we do fo our art! Too many a time since I started the strip I find myself finishing at three in the morning-- usually its because of my sudden need to color an entire strip. I still wish I could locate the paint bucket on my Photoshop CS-- there's NO WAY they got rid of it! (Not to mention I can't seem to draw lines anymore in it either unless they're perfectly vertical or horizontal, and that's only because I shift-hold dragging a brush across the screen).

I'm rambling again.

*headdesk*

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I can actually help you with both of these! I have CS2 and I assume it's the same, because I ran into both problems when I switched from PS5.

The paint bucket is located (for some inexplicable reason) under the gradient tool.

The line is a little trickier, but you can do it. Third tool up from the bottom, on the right side of the toolbar, (under the Type tool) is a rectangle. If you click on it, there are a whole bunch of different shape tools, including a line. Now, in their default state, they just draw a mostly useless vector shape. But you can make them draw pixels. Select the line tool from the drop-down, and go up to the tool bar at the TOP of the screen, where the tool options are. At the far left there's a drop-down with presets (you don't need that) and right next to it are three little icons: a square with open corners, a square with open corners and a pen tool in the middle, and a square with NO open corners (the rightmost of the three). If you hover the mouse over this one, it says "fill pixels". Select it. Now your line will function as the line tool used to.

[neosquirrel.livejournal.com]

O holy paint bucket... *bows in awe*

Okay, so one major pain in the ass down...

But that line tool... It works as you said... but the damned thing spins like a top! I want to just pick a point, drag it out, and WHA-BANG, done.

WHY did they try to fix something that wasn't broke?!

Tankyouveddymuch.

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

Wow, this certainly takes me back! I'm glad my Dad was always on top of keeping our wood burning stove lit -- at least, if it didn't catch, I don't remember. Our cabin was well insulated, but small, and I remember lying in bed shivering waiting for the chimney to heat up the bedroom a little more.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

You guys had wood heat? Cooool. It's always nice to not be the only one! Out of curiosity, where was this?

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

Way Upstate New York. I grew up in a little town called Chazy. Dad hauled logs out of the woods and made a cabin from scratch, and for most of my childhood we had a wood burning stove (he eventually upgraded to oil base board heat. I think the worst it would get up there was about -15 at night in the winter, not nearly as bad as where you guys were, I think! :P Still plenty chilly though!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! I knew that upstate N.Y. was woodsy, but I never knew it was *that* woodsy. What was it like -- were you guys actually in town, or out of town in the rural boonies, and if so, how far out? I hope you don't mind me being nosy; I'm just always interested to meet someone who grew up similar to how I did.

Also out of curiosity, where is Chazy relative to Ithaca? That's where my sister lives. I know it's farther down the state, but I've never been out to visit her and I'm kind of vague on the geography in that part of the country.

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

No problem! I love talking about living there. :) We were in the boonies -- about 30 minutes from Chazy, which was a pretty damn small town, and 40 minutes from Plattsburgh, which was a slightly bigger damn small town. :P I'm not so sure where it was in relation to Ithaca, but we were about 15 minutes from the Canadian border into Quebec. I loved growing up there, but it's very povery-stricken, and there aren't many jobs to go after.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I remember coming home from Christmas many years ago to find our oil had run out and the cabin was sitting at -65.
This is not a good time to be without heat. Do you have it running now? Our effel stove does a good job most of the time but when it gets this cold we fire up the wood stove as well. I really enjoy wood heat.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the randomness. Coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

*laugh* It wasn't random; it was quite pertinent! And yeah, -65 is REALLY FREAKIN' COLD ... especially inside. We did have a couple of times when I was a kid when we'd come home from a trip to town to discover one weather-related disaster or another ... one time the door blew open and all the houseplants froze solid, for example.

Our door actually blew open last winter -- luckily, I think it was only about zero at the time and the temperature in the house didn't drop below freezing during the time we were at work.

Things are much warmer now; the boiler heats right up once the fire gets going. I do kinda miss having a wood stove in the house, though, because even when you have those internal freezing episodes, you can get the fire going and then huddle up to the stove while the house heats up. Wrapping around a lukewarm radiator isn't quite the same.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And watching wood fires is just entrancing. :)
Thadd chopped a whole bunch of firewood for us last night. Originally I wondered why he waited until it was this cold, but he told me it's his favorite temperature for chopping wood because you barely have to apply any pressure and the logs fly apart.
As far as huddling up to a radiator, I remember when I was a kid on cold mornings my sister and I used to huddle up in front of the heater vent and wrap a blanket around us directing all the heat into our blanket pocket. At least we did until my mother found us and made us let the heat get into the rest of the house. :)

[dewgeist.livejournal.com]

Wow...glad you got it fired up! We are having issues with our boiler too. It cuts off in the middle of the night and come morning, no hot water until I sweet talk it. Parts are "on order". The house only drops to about 60-64 though. I *really* wish we had a good 'ol luddite approved wood stove as a back up heater.