Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 09, 2023

But he’s willing to spend hours outside to make an army of monstrous snowmen.

Calvin always finds ways to feel the heat, so what’s he complaining about?

We have an agreement at our house. Spouse sets the thermostat and I adapt. Fortunately for me, she prefers it cool, so I can add layers. Also fortunate that she doesn’t like it COLD, just a couple or three degrees below my preference.

By contrast, when I was working on my thesis I had to do my programming on the “head” of a machine that was in the computer machine room. They kept that room at about 55º and I wore long underwear (top and bottom) and winter coat and watchcap. I also built a tray for my feet that had 1" if Styrofoam. And wore gloves with the fingers snipped off. THAT was awful.

My house is 78, year round. BUT my bedroom is 65 degrees from 1 am to 9:30 am. AC and heat go off after 11 pm

Calvin, if it wasn’t that cold, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about.

Wait, what am I saying?

All together now, it builds character……….

If I tried that, Mom would bring one of her quilts and wrap me in it and let me sweat for a while.

I thought all mothers just said, “Put on a sweater”!

Be patient, Calvin. Your parents will change their minds when they come down with the flu.

I’m with Calvin here. Cannot stand a cold house. My thermostat is set on 74, winter and summer.

Calvin feels the cold more because he has a lot more surface area relative to his volume.

Yeah, but if mom’s cold, everyone has to put on a sweater.

It builds character.

Why do everybody have to be so stingy when it comes to keeping the house warm?

and it’s only November, wait until REAL WINTER kicks in!

My son complained that we kept the house too cold in the winter. We told him to wear something warmer than shorts and a T-shirt.

We have a his and hers thermostat in our house:

Mine is marked off in degrees Fahrenheit. Hers has two settings: too hot and too cold.

Calvin you are a rookie, do the puppy dog eyes and ask for a cup of hot chocolate. Sheesh, buy them books, send them to school, then they come back and tell you Pi r square, igdit!! Pie are round, corn bread are square. Thank you, thank you, I’m here the rest of the week. . .

My favorite version of A Christmas Carol is the one from 1984, starring George C. Scott as Scrooge and David Warner as Bob Cratchit. When Bob asks Scrooge if he can put more coal on the fire, Scrooge answers, “These are garments, Mr. Cratchit. Garments were invented by the human race as a protection against the cold. Once purchased, they may be used indefinitely for the purpose for which they are intended. Coal burns. Coal is momentary and coal is costly. There will be no more coal burned in this office today, is that quite clear, Mr. Cratchit?” I have this memorized for my daughter, because sometimes she seems to think that we can keep the house warm enough for her to go around dressed like it’s summer.

We live in an older farm house heated entirely by a 1923 wood furnace, to which we’ve added a couple of fans to help distribute the heat. As such, we have temperature zones. If you’re cold, sit near the fire. If you’re hot, go to one of the adjacent rooms where it’s usually several degrees cooler.

A six year old can show his theatrics to his mother. And this six year old is charming little fella.

Build a fire in front of the chair.

Comfort levels are relative to our desires. Look at Calvin’s dad: He’ll get up early in bad weather to go biking or fishing because that’s what he wants to do.

Others stand outside in the cold on Black Friday waiting for the stores to open because they want to get a “good deal” on something.

I would not do what Calvin’s dad does nor the Black Friday shopper.

Well, maybe if Calvin wasn’t always wearing short-sleeved T-shirts in the winter, he wouldn’t feel so cold inside!

When I was a kid, the apartment I lived in was heated by a coal burning stove in the kitchen. My job was to take the ashes downstairs to the bin and pick up another bucket of coal.

This was Brooklyn, NY 1950’s not out on the plains 1850.

The front room (3 rooms away in the railroad flat) got cold enough that ice formed on the INSIDE of the window. Given the temperature differential, we should have had a thunderstorm mid-way down the apartment.

How my mother managed to cook using that stove, I’ll never know. You just didn’t turn a dial and have fire. You had to build a fire and wait for it to “catch.” You could manage the heat by moving the coals around and also playing with the flue . Cooking meals in the summer meant heating the kitchen for several hours.

Calvin the drama ham.

Calvin has his tiger to keep him warm, where is Hobbes.

I have always found women to be the ones who complain about the heat.

never once will I ever have regretted keeping my home as comfortably warm as I like! Your money does not go with you, nor can you frugally freeze yourself to wealth – it is a small-minded holdover trope aped by those with Dicksonian tendencies. The truth is older homes are inefficient, and climate control post-fireplace is still a relative luxury. My 100+ home is kept warm enough to please myself and my birds. When you are an adult, live how you like.