Didn't want to be your ghost

[sovay]

1. Alan Turing has been pardoned. Better if it had been in his lifetime, but still.

2. My diagnosis of Raynaud's is official. I didn't go looking for it; the dermatologist this morning informed me that the problem with my feet is chilblains, asked me a question about my colitis and a question about the color of my hands in winter, felt their temperature after five minutes' walk through cold rain, and that was that. There's not much to do about it medically, as I'd thought; I'm not going to start taking vasodilators in winter. (I am going to invest in serious fucking socks.) Now I get to deal with a problem with my feet that I thought had gone out with central heating.

3. It is my grandfather's yahrzeit. Not by the Hebrew calendar, which would have been December 1st this year; but he died on the morning of the 24th in 2011, so my mother and I lit the candle this evening. I was in Lexington, decorating my family's tree for Wednesday. (derspatchel and I do not have a tree of our own this year, partly because our house is still full of boxes, partly because it turns out that our driveway shrub disappears under a snowfall. It's become visible with the rain in the last couple of days, but I am still sad that we didn't at least run some rope lights around it. It would have been unequaled in pathos since A Charlie Brown Christmas.) It's a completely different tree from last year, but they always are. The star of David of heavy amber pressed glass—my grandparents' gift, my first ornament—still goes on the tree first.

I have yet another chip in my left front tooth. I spent most of today running around in the rain with Rob, buying candied fruit peel for my mother and books for a variety of people. I've had very little time to myself in some ways recently (and now we're heading into more holidays), but it was a good solstice this weekend; the sun came back. I didn't go away.

Comments

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation for fingerless gloves. I keep a pair in my car and in my office, as week as at home. I also buy smallish men's size will sucks to sleep in and its made a huge difference. I also find remembering to massage my hands and feet before bed (sometimes with a nice fragrant oil like lavender) behind get the blood flowing before sleeping. It's a lousy thing to deal with. I'm sorry you have it, too.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Wow, typing on my phone is terrible. Wool socks! Not will sucks!

[sovay]

Wool socks! Not will sucks!

That is an excellent typo.

[sovay]

I second the recommendation for fingerless gloves.

Check. I had thought they were inefficient, but maybe I will invest in a Dickensian winter look after all.

I also find remembering to massage my hands and feet before bed (sometimes with a nice fragrant oil like lavender) behind get the blood flowing before sleeping.

And this I hadn't even thought of. I put on a fairly heavy-duty hand cream before bed, because otherwise the skin cracks and chaps badly in winter (and other times of year), but it never seemed necessary to do the same for my feet. Cold hands are more immediately awkward. I can walk miles through snow when I can't feel my feet, whereas I can't type when my fingers get too numb—I prioritized and my feet are almost always cold, including when I go to bed. Lately I just tuck them up against derspatchel. Possibly it would be kind if I did something about this.

It's a lousy thing to deal with. I'm sorry you have it, too.

Thank you. It appears to be much more common than I'd thought!

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

During cold weather, I wear fingerless gloves to bed! I agree with you that covering fingertips can be important; fingerless gloves are meant mostly to keep one's pulse points at wrist and thumb-joint warm and covered, but it's not enough sometimes.