In Focus
Humidity is the enemy during the summer and our savior in the winter.
The minute the furnace kicks on, the air in the house becomes incredibly dry and I have to dig out the humidifiers just to breathe.
One of my biggest issues is waking up in the middle of the night because my nose and throat are so dry I can’t sleep. I’m prone to nosebleeds, which I also wake up with occasionally.
The worst part is it’s not even that cold yet.
I have a humidifier that runs in my bedroom non-stop, but at night it’s just not enough. I have a second one that shoots hot steam, which of course is near my bed and makes the room warmer. If it gets too warm, it is also hard to sleep. We turn down the furnace at night, but I run a fan to circulate the air and try to keep my room cooler so I can sleep. The window also gets cracked open. This tends to work for me for the most part.
The humidity helps more than just me. The two house panthers, King and Salem, quickly developed dandruff as the season changed. The humidity helps their skin. And Latte, my Calico who is the loudest cat in the house, is currently experiencing kitty laryngitis. She’s learning the harder she tries to meow the more it hurts. She’s had steroid shots, is on antibiotics and is finally starting to improve, but she is also sleeping in my room at night because the humidity helps her throat.
Typically, since I leave my bedroom door open because of the cats, the cool humidifier runs constantly as it never reaches the desired humidity level. And the hot one usually shuts off by the time I wake up.
I woke up this morning and was quite warm. I turned off the hot humidifier and caught a glimpse of my bedroom window. It was covered in moisture. I also noticed how quiet it was. The cool humidifier had actually shut off, as the humidity level had been reached. As I walked to the stairs, all the windows were covered in moisture and it was quite muggy. The minute I descended the stairs I was hit by the chill from the main floor. It was quite the temperature difference.
The thermostat showed 63 degrees. My room was definitely much warmer. Taking a closer look at the windows upstairs, the edges were actually frosted inside. Frosty windows come with the territory as the cooler temps move in. Another sign of the changing seasons.
Looking on the bright side...at least I haven’t seen any Asian beetles on the windows recently.
I have a feeling we are going to be in for a long, dry winter. Guess we’ll see...
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