What’s your comfort zone? I thought about this when I was doing some work inside the house and I realized I was sweating. I went to the thermostat and knocked it down a degree. This engages the heat pump and the circulating air is cooler than normal.
I have learned that in our situation, running the air handler fan 24/7 is a great benefit. The amount of electricity used is negligible compared to running the heat pump you have airflow which helps evaporate any sweat on the body, and the temperature in the house is much more constant.
Here in mid-South Carolina, we keep the temperature set at 74 in the summer and 68 in the winter. When we lived in Wisconsin, the winter temperature setting was more like 65 degrees in winter to reduce energy costs.
I have been amazed by temperature for many years. First, we live about 294 degrees Fahrenheit above the coldest possible temperature, Absolute Zero. This is the temperature where the movement of atoms stops. I have heard that it is a crazy world down there, but I digress.
Working our way up from 70F, we humans begin to get uncomfortable at 100F give or take. Lower if the air is humid, preventing our sweat from evaporating, and higher if the air is dry. The early astronaut candidates were tested in heat chambers to see what a human can withstand. The story is that a tray of cookies was placed in the chamber at the beginning of the experiment and the baked cookies were removed when done. We are tough creatures… for a while. I wouldn’t want to be in a cold chamber while making ice cream though.
On the cold side, I start to shiver at about 50F when wearing shorts and a T-shirt. So my comfort zone is from 50-100 degrees Fahrenheit. The comfort zone of the sun is about 2-4 Million degrees, so no vacations there.
But what about your other comfort zones? How big is your personal bubble? You know what I mean, some people, especially those from foreign cultures, have a much smaller personal bubble and get a bit too close when talking to you. Of course, an angry person may get in your face knowing that the closeness will make you uncomfortable.
How about your spiritual comfort zone? I am aware that many people reject the concept of a spirit world. A quick search shows less than half of Americans believe in ghosts and spirits. But for those of you that do, do you feel imposed upon by the spirit world? Are these bad spirits, a.k.a. demons? Are they good spirits, a.k.a. angels? Do you have a spiritual comfort zone?
A comfort zone that I have struggled with over the years is the exercise comfort zone. As a youngster, I hated structured exercise. On the other hand, I rode my bike everywhere and wandered through fields (back when an abundance of open fields existed in suburbia) for hours. I’m better now and realize how important regular exercise is.
OK, it’s time to be brave and write a comment down below. What are the comfort zones that you are touchy about? Maybe you live in Hawaii and you have a molten lava comfort zone. (Yes, I just made that up.) Maybe comfort zones are tied to phobias.
Next time… details on my growing of yeast. I’m still working on Islam.
More Than a Writer 