Last winter when I moved into a drafty, previously-unheated, cement-floored apartment I was cold, as I said. I brought in four heaters- two of them were the oil-filled radiators, one was a small ceramic heater that blew heat around and one was an oscillating tower that used radiant heat. The tower put out the most heat, by the way.

I wore a coat and hat indoors. But I was still cold. Friends offered me haven but I had a dog and a cat and didn't feel free to leave them. I was fine overnight but the daytime was a misery. The temperature outdoors was in the teens (F) with a strong wind.

The apartment is one level, flat-roofed, attached only by one wall to a small apartment house. No heat reaches the apartment from the outside.

It FELT like it was freezing but the indoor temperature was actually in the mid-50s- I DO have a thermometer. I know the difference- years ago I shared a mountain cabin one winter with two brothers, Until my brother mended it, we could see the outdoors through the one-wall construction and every morning the water bucket was skimmed over - or worse - with ice.

Not to downplay feeling cold- hypothermia can set in at lower than optimum temperatures.

All this to say that when one does NOT have a thermometer, the chances are qute good that the temperature is not freezing. Last winter it was irritating but also oddly comforting to me every time I saw that the thermometer read 50 degrees.