Darkoshi

fighting an imaginary enemy with front pockets on my shirt

2022-04-03T06:32:54Z

frocket: a front pocket, usually on a shirt.

sciamachy: an act or instance of fighting a shadow or an imaginary enemy.
sciamachy: shadow-boxing; fighting that is futile or make-believe.

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My shirt, it has two frockets; two frockets has my shirt. And has the shirt not two frockets, then is it not my shirt.

(allusion)

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I cut my hair short today because my reflection was bothering me. Otherwise I would have waited til the weather was warmer. Now my head feels cold so I put a rag on it.

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toasty

2022-01-28T07:21:27Z

I've started having what must be hot flashes. They don't last more than a minute or so. I feel the heat mainly in my torso, easily abated by untucking my shirt.

It is an amazing feeling, like all of a sudden Wow! I'm so toasty warm like a little heater! Where did that come from? Who knew I had it in me?

I also still get chilled at night sometimes in spite of having plenty of warm blankets on me. But having a folded electric blanket at the foot of my bed to warm my feet up is heavenly.

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maybe that's not September (chills)

2021-09-04T18:49:44Z

I'm sure the fleece sheets helped, but I wasn't cold at all last night, and almost too warm. I kept one window open until I went to bed after 5am. Maybe those "night-chills" I sometimes get are the opposite of "night-sweats" but somehow also caused by perimenopause.

This page: Night Sweats and Chills in Menopausal Women*
says that chills can be caused by exercising or otherwise getting too warm before going to bed. That wasn't the case for me.

*My browser URL bar chopped the URL off at "night-sweats-and-chills-in-men", which surprised me and made me double-check what I'd been reading about!

This page: Are Premenopausal Cold Flashes a Thing?
says "Cold flashes most commonly run their course fairly quickly and usually pass in a few minutes at most. But in some cases they can last up to 20 minutes."

Mine are usually longer than that. I can be in bed with warm covers for what feels like hours without getting warm. Yet even then, just like in winter, I'm loathe to get out of bed to fetch warmer sheets or blankets, thinking that I'll surely warm up more quickly by staying under the (what ought to be warm enough) covers than getting up and chilling myself even more by doing so.

In the summer, the idea of getting out the electric blanket to warm up my feet just doesn't *seem* right.

So I still don't know if it is related to perimenopause or not.

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well, that's September

2021-09-04T00:44:23Z

According to the WU site, it only went down to 72 degrees F last night. But I was unable to get warm after going to bed and had a hard time sleeping, even after I pulled the warmer blanket over me. I went to bed way too late, which is likely partially to blame.

Now tonight it's forecast to go down to 58 degrees. So I'll put the fleece sheets on the bed at least for the next few days. I should maybe still open the windows quick and air out the heater too in case I need to use it in the night.

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nicely convenient

2020-12-20T00:18:29Z

You know what is really nice? Storing the step stool right next to the closet where you often need to use it to reach the high shelf. I never noticed what an inconvenience it was before, having to fetch it. Instead, I turn around intending to go fetch it, and there it is already!

Another nice thing is when you're outside at midnight in the icy cold air taking photos of the sky, and when your nose starts getting cold, having a big face-covering mask that you can put on to keep it warm.

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New Year

2018-01-04T08:09:50Z

I've seen SW:The Last Jedi a second time, and have added some updates (tagged in italics) to my review post (many spoilers).

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I've finished putting hex fencing all around the bottom of Qiao's fence, to keep the dogs from digging out. I'm not convinced it will stop them, but it should slow them down. I'm almost finished putting small-mesh fencing all along the top of Qiao's fence, to keep the small dog from climbing out.

It's been very cold here these last days (below freezing), though not nearly as cold as in other places. I've found that as long as it is dry and not windy, I can work outside without the cold bothering me. My warm hooded winter jacket, along with my headband/earmuffs and fleece or flannel-lined pants, keep me quite warm. The worst part is that my nose is incessantly runny in cold weather. I have to blow my nose every few minutes, which leads to the skin around my nose getting dry and chapped. This year I've been applying lotion and creme to the skin, which has helped a lot. Not much cracked skin so far, and hardly even any blood in my snot.

For that matter, this was the first year I can recall not having any allergies during Fall and Winter. I'm not sure why.

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Qiao's internet went out shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, and was out for over 2 days - AT&T finally got it working again this morning. I hate that when that happens, there's no place to check to find out what caused the problem, and what the current status is, and how long it will really take to get fixed. The automated phone message you get when calling customer support just says there's an outage affecting the area that should be fixed in 24 hours (but it wasn't).

When there are power outages, SCE&G is so much better in that regard. You can call an automated number to report the problem, and you can find out how many people are affected by the outage, and how long the remaining estimated repair time is. You can even choose to get a call-back to notify you when the power has been restored.

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heat

2017-01-09T07:34:09Z

Something in the gas furnace (heater) broke today. Upon opening the bathroom door after having taken a shower, there was a light smoky smell in the air. Nothing in the house was burning, singed, or smoking, and the outside air was clear. Then I noticed the heat was no longer coming on. And upon sniffing the vents, even though the air was no longer blowing, the smell was stronger there.

So I have to get someone to come out and check that. (The hardest part is always getting someone to do it. I still haven't even gotten that gutter fixed, which got broken a year and a half ago; I stopped being concerned about it after 3 people said they'd fix it and then didn't.) I have no idea if it's something small that needs to be replaced, or if I might end up needing a whole new furnace. I will check tomorrow to see if there's a label that says how old the current one is. The outside A/C unit is 18 years old, so it wouldn't be surprising if the furnace is that old too.

In the meantime, I pulled out the oil-filled electric radiators, dusted them off, and am using them to keep warm. They're doing pretty good considering I only set them on medium. I always worry that putting them on high might trip a circuit breaker, even though that's not happened so far.

It's in the 20s (F) tonight and tomorrow night. We had a light dusting of snow here on Saturday morning, but it was mostly gone by the time I got out of bed. Originally, the forecast was calling for 2 to 3 inches of snow.

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achy ears in cold weather/wind

2016-10-01T19:06:15Z

In cold/cool weather, when I go for walks or do yardwork or anything else outside, or even just stand around in the cold for a longer period, my ears start to ache. If I don't cover them, it turns into moderate to strong pain. This happens even when it isn't very cold - I'd estimate it starts around 60 degrees and below, but it also depends on the amount of wind. Once I go back inside to someplace warm, the aching slowly subsides for around 15 minutes, and then I feel better.

To avoid all this, since my college years at least, I've worn ear muffs, or in recent years, a headband with ear muff material sewn to it on the sides. I used to feel self-conscious, wearing turquoise ear muffs when the weather was in the 60s or 50s and the sun was shining. But the headband I wear nowadays is brown, matching my hair color, and I'm no longer self conscious about it. If I don't have my headband, putting a small rolled up ball of tissue into each ear helps somewhat, though that is uncomfortable for other reasons.

No one else I know appears to experience this condition. But now I found a forum thread with several other people who have the same or similar issues!

Ear pain when running with cool wind

When I was a small child, I had tubes put in my ears. They never fell out on their own later like they were supposed to, so I had some minor procedure to remove them (which might have been simply putting wax-dissolving solution in my ear? I don't recall the details).

On airplane flights, during ascent and descent, pressure builds up in my ears and becomes painful. I have to close my nostrils and blow, to equalize the pressure. I think this is more common, as my family members were the ones who taught me to do the blowing thing, and they always did it too.

So I've always suspected the issue with cold weather was due to my eustachian tubes not functioning normally, or being narrower than usual.

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