We're fast approaching the coldest part of the winter here in New England. For those of you who live in the area, or have family or friends here, you've probably already heard about the October snowstorm of 2011. (If you're a "Vicar of Dibley" fan, it was The Great Storm, not to be confused with a moderately windy night.)
Courtesy of Apple
The storm did a great deal of damage around our property, including sending a beautiful maple tree crashing into the solar arrays we use to heat our home. The damage to the arrays hasn't been fixed yet; that will likely be a spring project. That means that for the foreseeable future, our primary heating system is defunct. In the meantime, we're relying on a pellet stove and supplementary oil heat. To keep the cost down, we turn off the pellet stove and the oil heat every night, and turn them back on when we get up in the morning. Our cats haven't spoken to us since late November.
Bear with me; I do have a point here, and it does involve the Magic Mouse.
It takes time for the house to warm up every morning; unfortunately, I'm in my home office long before the indoor temp approaches anything near comfortable. When I sit down at my Mac, the surface temp of my Magic Mouse is about -12. Putting my hand on the mouse's touch surface is scary, not unlike licking a flagpole in February. I'm afraid that one of these mornings, my skin will stick to the cold, hard surface of the mouse and not let go until July.
I considered mittens, but the touch surface isn't really mitten-friendly. I'd try another mouse, but I'm really fond of the Magic Mouse, although I'm fonder of it when it's warm. I tried the Magic Trackpad, but it's just as cold as the Magic Mouse.
My solution is to drink lots of steaming hot coffee. I hold the mug in my mouse hand whenever I don't need to use the mouse. I'm reading web sites more slowly than usual these days, but hey, whatever works.
And how are you dealing with the challenges of winter?