The other morning, around 6am, I woke up to the sound of hissing. (I don't think Billy knows how to hiss yet, so I knew it wasn't him.) I got out of bed and realized it was coming from the radiator in my living/bedroom. I know it's a radiator only because I asked. There are pipes running from ceiling to floor in my kitchen and bathroom, and the radiator with its tall metal coils in a corner of the bedroom. There was a hissing noise coming from all three places. At 6am in Boston and 3am in San Diego, anyone who could help assuage my fears of gas poisoning were asleep. Sleepiness got the best of me as well, and I went back to bed, hoping that the hissing was normal radiator behavior.
Turns out, it is normal radiator behavior. The thing has kicked on twice now, hissing for awhile, then going quiet again. I've learned that steam is pumped through the pipes to heat the whole building. Since I'm on the top floor (thank you, no upstairs neighbors), my apartment should get the warmest in the winter. This will either be a relief to my thin Southern California blood, or I'll spend the winter with the windows slightly open.
The temperature in Boston hasn't gotten that cold yet. It's been ranging between the 50s and the 70s during the day, and sometimes into the 40s at night. I bought new sweaters, tights, and scarves, then we had a warm week. I enjoy seeing the struggle as one season tries to wrest control from another. I always have an umbrella and a warm top layer with me.
As an aside, I often look up words when I'm writing, just to make sure I'm using them correctly. I just looked up the word "wrest," and here's what I got from dictionary.com:
1. to twist or turn; pull, jerk, or force by a violent twist.
2. to take away by force: to wrest a knife from a child.
I'm sorry, but does it seem like a good idea to wrest a knife from a child? You could slice his little fingers off.
Since I now live in a baseball-loving city and can hear the games from my apartment, I've been following the Red Sox. I don't watch the games, but I listen to the news and people chat about it. Coming home the other night, I got off the T (subway) right as tens of thousands of fans were emptying the stadium heading home. It's amazing to see so many people at once, and almost all of them wearing Red Sox gear.
(Billy just woke up and sleepily came over to curl up in my lap. He's so sweet.)
If I understand correctly, there are three tiers to the playoffs. The Red Sox beat LA in the first round, so now they're in the second round with Tampa Bay. Game 6 is tonight. To make it to the World Series, they have to win tonight and tomorrow. Last Thursday, the roar from the stadium was pretty loud at 10:30pm. The game hadn't started until 8pm, so I knew it would be on for awhile longer. I shut the bedroom windows and went to sleep. At 12:30am, I woke up to the song, "Everybody's Working for the Weekend," and I knew the Sox had won and that the contest would finish up this weekend. At the same time, Sunshine texted to ask if it was loud here, since the Sox had just won. Yup, sure was. I'll be bummed out when the post-season finishes, as I gotten a little connected to Red Sox Nation.
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2 comments:
Although in Hawaii and as far from as a radiator as can be, I seriously was dying with laughter reading "The Mystery of the Hissing Apartment"
It's OK, my pa and I were just as dumbfounded by the water dispenser machines and kelp in SD.
Hope you're well,
Live from Kauai, 6 hours behind you
Woohoo Phillies!!
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