Ever find yourself freezing in the office?
I do. Aircon is brutal.
These days, I am sat right in the firing range of not one, but two aircon units, both aimed at my right arm. The one behind me is lethal: when it goes polar, I shiver, wrap myself in my scarf, put my coat on, and kick myself for not bringing fingerless gloves in with me that day either. Or a duvet.
Bottom line is, I have an icicle for a hand, am generally cold, and it’s damned uncomfortable.
Last night, something happened to my right arm. I have no idea what, and vaguely remembering, I think it was aching when I was trying to get to sleep. This morning, I needed my partner’s help to get dressed. And I’m having significant trouble using the mouse, especially with the added freezing air blown right at my sore back, shoulder and arm. If I knew where the controls for the aircon were hidden, I would turn it off, its effects are so debilitatingly uncomfortable. Just as well that I do not.
Joking around with colleagues yesterday, who were also freezing, we suggested that we all bring in electric blankets, plug them into the mains and watch the fuse box (and our facilities manager’s face) melt. We laughed. But I kept thinking… some kind of energy would help.
And I remembered my nukeable puppy, a lovely microwaveable plush toy. It’s not electric, but it stores heat and dissipates it over a long enough time. Except perching a puppy on your shoulder is tricky.
So I offer you: the microwavable shrug…
My biggest challenge when “charging up” the puppy was to keep it away from the (even slightly) food-sprayed walls of the microwave. So if I make one (you’ll want to follow Seamstress Sophie for updates on that), maybe I’ll add some kind of USB-powered heating to it, rather than make it microwavable.
In my best Jeremy Clarkson voice: What could possibly go wrong?
Doing some research:
As I mentioned to you in person, my office, in the uncharted backwaters of the no-man’s-land between Newport and Cardiff, also has that problem. The aircon under which I sit has two settings: Arctic and Antarctic. I frequently take jumpers into work during the summer, and during the winter, thick woollen hoodies knitted by Tibetan yaks. When you kickstart your idea, be sure to let me know.