Your father’s winter
January 30th, 2008,I’ve heard this winter in the Upper Midwest described as “your father’s winter” - meaning it’s like a winter in days of yore. Or perhaps, to be gender-neutral, we should say this winter is “your parents’ winter.”
We’ve had a handful of days here in southern Minnesota, including this morning, that have begun with temperatures around 16 below zero - thankfully no colder than that. That’s cold enough. Currently we’re reaching the nadir of a cold spell that is supposed to moderate in a couple of days.
Making things worse, I’m having some circulation problems in my hands and feet - a numb tingling that follows exposure to cold. Is it the result of some allergy medication that I’m taking? Some of the medical literature leads me to think that, and I will see a doctor today. Is it Raynaud’s disease, a condition my father has had, in which the body has an exaggerated response to cold temperatures? Is it the result of biking in twenty-degree temperatures? Is it because I haven’t been exercising enough? Or am I just getting old? Time will tell, and I can only hope that I’ll be able to resume a reasonably active life outdoors in winter.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 am
I’m sure warmer temperatures - in the 20’s, say - will make you feel better, Bill.
Yet I wish I could spend one day in that sort of Jack London cold. The feeling is incomparable, and focuses the mind like nothing else.
MB
April 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] Back in the end of January I wrote about problems I was having with my hands and feet in cold weather. As time went on, I noticed that the end of my nose and the tops of my ears were also affected. I found the latter odd, since I rarely have my head uncovered outside in the winter. [...]