Cat-Tales...Winter is on the way

A few weeks ago I posted about the signs of Fall...they are continuing and I suspect we are almost into winter.  The clocks have rolled back, it was dark when I started my day again today, and dark when I woke up from my 1 hour catnap after work.  Time to up the dose of the Vitamin D pills (as we all should when we are not getting enough sunlight).

There were a few more telltale signs I have noticed -- when I walked across the tile floor this morning a rather unusual thought broke into my normally concentrated thoughts of coffee.  It was "Socks.  I think I need to put on socks."  Definitely a sign that we are well into fall and nearing winter.  I pulled out my toque for Rugby a couple of nights ago -- I am not ashamed to wear a toque in Bermuda...nor was I alone, or without envy from the toqueless.

Another sign is that every year about this time I start commenting on noticing the cold and my Canadian friends gently suggest that I should zip it or risk bodily injury.  I think we can check that off the list for this year already as well once I hit publish on this.

I have also dragged the electric blanket out of the closet, but only had to use it once so far.  Fortunately I remembered my fleecy long sleeve pajamas (with penguins, as all good winter jammies require penguins or polar bears no matter how old you are -- thank you Tonya for that Christmas present), which will ward off having to plug in the blanket for a few days or weeks, depending on whether we get another cold front or not.  For now, recall that there is no central heating in Bermuda homes, I have been comfortable with just using the dehumidifier.  A dehumidifier is an essential household appliance in Bermuda.  I went for the large model with a 10L reservoir.  In my first apartment in Southampton, an older unit, it was pulling a full 10L of water out of the air in the unit every night.  In my newer apartment, it has much less work to do, but typically I see the room at close to 80% when I turn it on.  While I sleep/desiccate it will get the humidity down to about 58%, serving the purposes of making the air less damp and therefore less chilly and kicking out some heat as energy though the process.  This also bodes well for the contents of the closet as well, as anything that sits undisturbed in a closet with the humidity and darkness of a closet will get mouldy pretty quickly.  I once pulled out a pair of green fuzzy boots...they used to be black suede.  So, a dehumidifier will save you from having to dress like Oscar the Grouch and keep you warmer and dryer than you would otherwise be.

I also have a couple of biological indicators of fall and winter.  They are called Lexi, Aiden, and Harry.  I noticed the other day that Lexi had really fluffed up...she is positively puffy, much to her dismay, as anything that makes her cuter and more likely to be petted just makes her furious (or shall i say furrious).  Like it or not she is even fuzzier and softer than usual, so I am pulling out my long sleeve tops from the drawers and hanging them in the closet as well.

Lexi is extra fluffy for Bermuda winter

Aiden and Harry, also known as the Panthers, do not have the ability to puff up with their fur type...but I did find them synergistically coiled into a single cat unit on the bed the other day...and I realized even they think there is a chill in the air.

siamese panthers

I hope my Canadian friends have a a nice warm Chinook and no snow, so that I may be spared their wrath when they read this.  Chalk it up to me having sympathy chills with you...as they said when I got here, it takes the Canadians a few years to get the cold out of your bones!  I do know I am lucky to be able to enjoy the view of the Bermuda Blues as opposed to frozen lakes...and will focus on some nice beach photos these next few days.

A snapshot from North Shore Road last week