December 4, 2007

• Little Things

  Several people have asked if cold weather makes my breathing difficulties worse.  I have noticed that when I write about temperatures, whether I mention “cold” or not, comments mention “cold.”  Cold, as I learned in school, is nothing — the absence of heat.  Heat is relative, and the answer to that question about whether cold affects my breathing is, “yes and no.”  My comfort zone is somewhat lower than average, I guess.  I wilt in hot weather, and “hot” to me, since I have acclimated to Alaska, begins in the low seventies Fahrenheit. 

  Before I realized, this past September, that I had pneumonia (It doesn’t seem that long ago, but I tracked it back through blog entries.), I thought my breathing difficulty was just the usual seasonal thing, when allergies and myalgic encephalitis / chronic fatigue immunodysfunction syndrome combine to make me gasp and wheeze each year.  It happens twice a year:  in spring when the air is full of pollen, and in fall when it is filled with mold spores.  This year, it worsened as rainy weather began.  That was my first clue that there was something different going on with me. 

  Rain usually washes the air clean and gives me some respite.  Each winter, when freezeup comes and the ground gets covered with snow, my allergies get some relief.  Then, when the temperature goes to twenty below zero Fahrenheit or colder, just sticking my head out into that cold, dry air takes my breath away.  Below freezing, down to zero or so, seems to be my lungs’ favorite air temperature — outdoors.  Indoors, the lungs just have to yield to the skin, the ears, nose, fingers and toes, and whatever part of me it is that loves having green growing things in the house.

  One can dress in insulating clothing to withstand low temperatures, but the only relief from temps that are too high is escape.  The winter of ’93/’94, that Doug and I spent in the Four Corners of the U.S. Southwest, there were a few times that we needed to escape into an air conditioned building for a while.  Remembering the time I caught myself wondering what the place would be like in the winter has helped me console myself for not having the opportunity to migrate every year like the snowbirds.

  Somebody affectionately advised me here to dress warm.  (Please excuse my not quoting and linking.  Just blogging is top priority, and I’ll probably get back to the old routine eventually.)  I laughed as I read that comment, sitting here at the keyboard in my snow boots and polar fleece socks, sweat pants and two sets of underwear, one of them long and wooly, three layers of shirts and a polar fleece jacket, with two hats on my head.  If it had been truly cold in here, I’d have dug up the fingerless gloves.  One of my major winter gripes is over the difficulty of typing or turning pages in mittens.

  The two hats are something new for me.  Last winter, I had a Norwegian wool skullcap that I wore day and night.  Sometime between the winters, my nightcap got lost.  Mentioning that in one of my nightly conversations with the Old Fart, I asked him to put the word in with the Dumpster Deva and be on the lookout in thrift stores for a nightcap of appropriate size and shape for me.  Then, one recent chilly evening, sitting propped against pillows backing on the north wall at the head of my bed, I was so uncomfortable from the chill that I asked Doug to check the hat rack in the hall and try to find me a hat.

  Doug found one I’d forgotten I had, a big floppy reversible thing made of two layers of polar fleece.  One side is black, the other cornflower blue.  It has a low crown and a wide brim.  The brim flops over my forehead to my eyebrows, covers both ears and my neck in back.  It’s okay for sitting around the house reading, but interacts badly with the pillow for sleeping.  Then, on his next-to-last supply run, Greyfox brought several hats he had found.  One of them is a simple hand-knit skullcap I can pull down over my ears, a shade of blue a bit lighter than that of the floppy one.  I sleep in it now, and pop the floppy fleece hat on over it when I get up.  It may not set any fashion trends, but I can live with how I look because of how they feel.

  

  • 2:49 pm
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