Heat Season Off to Chilly Start

Random image: Bas-relief leaf on Park Avenue sidewalk.

Ask most people (especially landlords) and they will say heat season starts Oct. 15.

Not true in Plainfield.

When the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees, the inside temperature must be maintained at a minimum of 68 degrees, from Oct. 1 to May 1.

Some years it's still warm outside through most of October, but yesterday was cold enough to send me scurrying for a down vest and a scarf. I took a couple of jackets out of storage and reminded myself to go shopping for a good new winter jacket.

Turning on the oven didn't quite do the trick of warming my small apartment, which seems to have two or three temperature zones. The coldest part was in the low 60s yesterday, making me feel like staying under the covers long past time to get up.

This year may be especially rough for tenants as landlords attempt to keep heating costs lower than usual in these hard times. I wonder what will happen with tenants of the city's biggest landlord, with all his financial woes. Tenants do have rights, but they seem to be hard to enforce in urban centers.

Meanwhile, wool and down are my favorite things just now.

--Bernice