It’s suddenly wintry-cold here: night-time lows in the low 40s F, day-time highs only flirting with 70 F, and then just briefly for a moment in the afternoon. It’s time to sleep warm — break out the quilts — and dress warm — it’s flannel-shirt weather — and abandon going barefoot, in favor of (if you are me) savoring the warmth of shearling-lined moccasins (which are also kind to my huge and painful bunions). Yes, there will be pictures.
But I will be brief. Like my previous two postings, this is a Posting Through Pain; the middle finger on my right hand is no longer visibly inflamed, but the first joint is still hugely swollen and painful — and, now, so are almost all of the joints on both of my hands, so typing is harrowing, and I can manage only brief bursts of writing at the keyboard.
Quilt time. Yesterday I pulled out one of my quilts — the university quilt, made from t-shirts from a few of the universities I talked at (many years ago):
(#1) On this entertaining creation, see my 12/10/19 posting “The university quilt”
The institutions represented here:
Northwestern U, U of New Mexco, Brigham Young U., Georgetown U, U of Kentucky, American U, Harvard U, U of California at Santa Cruz athletic teams, U of Pennsylvania, U of California at Davis, U of California at Santa Cruz, U of North Dakota
(#2) L.L. Bean flannel shirt, in the color / pattern Admiral Navy
Sheepish moccasin time. As here:
(#3) The L.L. Bean indoor / outdoor shearling-lined suede moccasin
They’re warm and wonderful, very kind to hallux valgus, and surprisingly sturdy. I have a pair on my feet as I write this. Since I got a long and attentive pedicure yesterday (I’m incapable of cutting my toenails, need professional care), I’m sporting happy feet.
November 12, 2023 at 8:07 am |
“Wintry cold” is a relative term. We had our first temperatures below freezing of the season last night.
November 12, 2023 at 9:23 am |
Of course it is. A long night with temperatures below freezing is a disaster here, with huge stretches of plantings (of semi-tropical and tropical plants that flourish in this climate) killed off, pipes frozen, and so on. It has occasionally happened here, and it’s monumentally destructive. And hardly anyone has clothing appropriate for such low temperatures.
If you intend to disparage local responses to the weather I reported as dismissible because it’s nothing like the cold weather you get, then you’re just being mean-spirited.
I complain about the grave disabilities in my right arm and hand and the chronic (occasionally acute) pain that comes along with the damage to my ulnar nerve, and it does not assuage me in the slightest to be told that most people in my situation would have died or had that arm amputated. In fact, it makes me angry as hell, because it dismisses my complaint as inconsequential.
November 13, 2023 at 7:23 am
I assure you that I had no intention of disparaging your (or anybody’s) response, and I’m sorry if I gave that impression. I was just slightly amused by the different meanings of “wintry” (see also Floridians’ interpretation of that concept), most likely influenced by the fact that I have lived in the Northeast my entire life.
November 13, 2023 at 7:57 am
To RC: Thank you. There’s an attitude that I mock as “I complained about my withered leg and excruciating sciatica until I met a man who had no legs”. I get many variants of this mindset leveled at me, sometimes even by nurses, and I find them insulting. In any case, I’m sensitive to offense in this area and quick to throw up defenses.