darkoshi

In sub-freezing weather, to prevent plumbing pipes from bursting in case the water freezes, I leave the indoor faucets dripping. Both the hot and cold water, as I read in the past on a plumbers' forum that (counterintuitively) hot water pipes may be more prone to freezing than cold water pipes.

To dampen the sound of the dripping faucets, I used to put a sponge in the sinks to catch the drips. That worked pretty well. But perhaps it depends on the type of sponge. Lately I've been noticing that once the sponges are saturated with water, the sound of drops falling on them gets fairly loud too.

So I have switched from sponges to brushes. For example: dish-washing brushes, tub-scrubbing brushes, or plastic hair brushes. I lay them under the drips with the bristles facing upwards. The bristles break up the water droplets into small trickles of water, preventing much of the thump thump thump sound.

Winter is Coming - lyrics

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.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/666144.html

Qiao could use something good to keep his feet warm.

This Medisana Foot Warmer looks good to me, but is from Germany and requires a 240 volt power supply. My German grandpa always had a single-houseshoe-for-both-feet like that under his desk, except his wasn't electric. The Medisana one is for sale on eBay, but for it to work over here, I'd need a 110-to-240 volt transformer too, and I'm not sure it would be worth it. The reviews for this product on the German Amazon site are mostly positive, but as with many American products, some purchasers got ones that didn't work to begin with, or which failed after a certain amount of time.

There are some USB-powered ones from China that don't sound very good.

The only similar American products I can find for slipping both feet into, don't cover the heels, and/or are only made for small feet, and/or don't warm well based on reviews. And they mostly include vibrators/massagers too.

A few weeks ago, I had the great idea of taking my old electric blanket, folding it over and placing it at the bottom of the bed under the top sheet and blankets. That way, with the blanket heated up, we could slip our feet inside the folds and warm up our feet. It was so nice to get into bed and feel that warmth on the feet, rather than waiting for my feet to warm up the slow way, which sometimes took hours (even with our fleece sheets which are much warmer compared to cotton sheets).

Yesterday, the electric blanket control unit started making a buzzing noise, so it probably isn't safe to use anymore. The blanket must be over 10 years old, even though I hadn't been using it for most of those years.

I checked for alternatives to put at the foot of the bed, but it seems that my original approach was best - I'll get a new electric blanket and fold it over again. I only found a single product, this Serta Foot Warmer, which has a pocket for the feet. But the top layer of the pocket isn't heated - it's plain fabric. Pah. I'm spoiled now, and want heat on both the top and bottom of my feet.

Then I looked for heated slippers for Qiao. I thought that plug-in ones would be simplest to use, for when he's sitting down. But I couldn't find any good electric corded ones (only some flimsy USB ones again), so maybe we'll try some that heat up in the microwave instead.

The whole time I've been doing the above searches, my feet have felt cold to me, even though when I reach down to touch them, tucked in under my legs as they are with me sitting cross-legged, they actually feel warm.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/643776.html

Sudden-onset cold. I woke up this morning after 4 hours sleep, feeling a scratchiness in my throat, realized my head wasn't feeling so great either, and pretty much around then, my nose started running.

I was really feeling lousy at that point, but finally fell back asleep for a few more hours. That helped a lot, except for the runny nose. Hopefully this cold will go away as quickly as it arrived.

Usually when I start feeling the inklings of a sore throat, I start taking garlic and vitamin C pills. That way, it generally doesn't go beyond a scratchy throat. I haven't had a runny-nose type of cold in so long that I don't even remember which medication is best. If I recall, all the ones that clear up my nose also make me drowsy.

My mother was right about something. She'd been telling me about how wonderful "facial tissues with lotion" were, when you have a cold. I thought that meant that the tissues were damp, and that it was like rubbing lotion into your skin while using them. That didn't sound good to me. But she gave me 2 boxes anyway - this was a while back. It turns out to be dry tissue like normal, but feels smoother, with less friction. Definitely good to keep your nose from getting sore when you're blowing it all day.

Two other good things about this winter compared to previous years:

1. The skin on my hands has been much less dry and chapped. Probably largely due to the warm, wet weather we had up through the end of December. But I've also been using ShiKai "Borage Therapy" Dry Skin Lotion on my hands before bed when the skin is dry, and it really seems to help. Maybe there really is something special about the borage oil.

2. When I blow my nose, there's not been any dried blood in my snot so far this winter. Again, the warm, wet weather probably kept my nasal passages from drying out and cracking and bleeding like they usually do.

2017/04/29 Update:
As suggested in the comments, the Kleenex "Cool-Touch" tissues feel even better on a sore nose than the regular tissues with lotion do. They are my top choice now for that.
But, (note to myself) - don't get Puffs brand "Plus Lotion" tissues. I have a box of them, and they are fine for normal usage, but when I had a cold, they felt pretty rough on my nose, almost just like regular tissues.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/643216.html

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Entries tagged with winter

To dampen the sound of dripping faucets

an appropriate song

achy ears in cold weather/wind

foot warmers

cold tissue lotion nose

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