How do you feel about cold weather?
As someone who always has felt the cold. Remembering planting icy feet on husbands back many years ago to warm up. I’d say I have always felt the cold.
Yet curiously having been born during one of the country’s worse winters on record I do sort of feel an affinity with it.
Could never really ignore the chance of a snowball fight & more lately trying to capture frozen landscapes.
Still little did I know that life had a somewhat nasty surprise waiting for me in the form of a condition called scleroderma with a side order of Reynauds phenomenon.
For those not in the know. This form of Reynauds seems to present in conjunction with an autoimmune condition.
Unlike primary Reynauds which tends to be limited to the winter months. This is something I now live with all year around. Indeed I almost crave the cold conditions as at least if I am wrapped from head to toe in warm layers no one notices.
Once you start going out on a warm day with your winter coat & gloves you start to attract the wrong kind of attention.
I am now in possession of the most impressive range of warm gloves, thermal tops & other ingenious garments with various thermal properties.
Currently I love going out on the back of the motor bike as again I can layer up & no one seems to think a heavy warm bike jacket on a warm day as odd as an ordinary coat for some reason.
It’s bizarre to think that the cold can potentially cause my hands to reach a level of numbness that renders them useless yet in some ways it’s easier to manage than in the warm weather because layering clothes is so much more difficult.
It’s also harder to avoid the staring & judgy questions when in a thermal top & hoodie when the temperature is high.
Over the weekend we camped in a small tent having ridden to the site on the bike. Careful clothes juggling meant my hands were fine. Came home & was doing the chores the weather still warm & made the mistake of touching washing out of the machine & bang my finger tips started to go numb.
So I am left with a kind of love hate relationship with the weather. The jury is still out on whether I prefer the hot to cold.
For me the battle to keep my hands from becoming numb & increasing the risk of me losing the blood supply permanently is a daily battle. I am resourceful though so currently working on many ways of trying to keep this under control.
If you spot someone who is wrapped up on a warm day maybe just try to be kind & not make them feel any odder than they already do.
Meanwhile I’m getting ready to go to the pub so the main question is what gloves to wear with my dry robe!
