Monday, October 21, 2019

Steam Heat

Dog is camera shy. Sunday morning at Lake Hiawatha, three blocks from my new house. Can you see the steam on the lake? It was 40ºF / 4ºC.

Ha! I've been hoisted on my own petard--serves me right too.
I'd just complained about carelessness with facts, and three of you called me on my own carelessness in doubting that Americans keep their houses cold enough for tea to steam.


Thanks, everyone!
I looked it up, naturally, and discovered that other factors besides temperature determine water condensation--there's also humidity and air pressure. The temperature doesn't have to be very low if the other factors are right.
I was thinking the air had to be near freezing.


My apartment for the last seventeen years was near freezing (ice would form on the inside of my windows), but I guess my hot liquids never steam because I add cold milk.

Anyway, I wasn't doubting many of us keep our houses on the cool side (though above freezing); I was expressing annoyance with certain clichéd phrases, which for some reason includes almost all phrases about coziness.
I don't mind all clichés, but those get up my nose--like cutesy marketing copy--the pumpkin spice of clichés.


Another dog walker at the lake on Sunday.^

I'm loving my new neighborhood, and having a dog to walk encourages me to get out into it. I don't have to walk him, but housemate doesn't walk her dog every day--she lets him out in the fenced yard––so he's started to look to me in hope...

3 comments:

  1. Silly one! How could you have not noticed tea...coffee...soup...hot food...just about anything steaming inside?
    You must have forgot.

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  2. Don't worry; you didn't fail to notice what a gorgeous photograph this "landscape with dog walker" was asking to become: it means your eyesight is perfect. A steaming hot picture indeed!

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  3. BINK: I need to write fiction and learn to pay attention to such physical details.

    TORORO: Thanks! I was pleased too (and I did wait to snap the photo until the dog & man were in the clear, so their silhouettes would show).

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