Sunny Days, Freezing Nights

The world here is still snow covered a week later. The days have been bright and sunny in icy blue cloudless skies and the sun feels warm coming in the windows. Outside, though, it has barely gotten above freezing so the snow and ice remain. I see, through the updates from friends on Facebook, that most people are living with the same conditions. The TV and newspaper here announced at the end of last month that it was officially the coldest winter in 30 years! Isn’t it funny that you never hear the words “Global Warming” any more? Now it’s “Climate Change” ha! I’ve always thought it is the height of arrogance to think that humans can affect God’s Creation in a catastrophic way. And that’s all I’ll say on that...

Now I know what it means when they say “soaking up the sun”. We’ve had quite a few sunny days and it’s been wonderful. It really lifts the mood. In the morning I can open the blinds and the sun shines directly in the window while I’m sitting in the bed having my morning coffee. As I said, “soaking up the sun”. I feel like I want to absorb it, consume it while I can. That’s the thing; the sun here is so infrequent you have to take every advantage of it you can. It’s really been a long, grey, cold winter. There are still clouds out there and once, just earlier this week you got the “double sun” effect which was quite remarkable. I’m sure Robbie could explain it scientifically but it looks like there are two suns behind the clouds.

I guess, till I lived here, I always took the sun for granted. Even in Whidbey Island where it could be quite rainy, we got sunshine more often than here. And the rain was a softer, green, misty type. I’d love to go back and live around Seattle again or back on Whidbey Island.

It’s “Pie Week” here in the UK but of course, pie here doesn’t usually involve fruit and isn’t sweet. More like what we’d call a pot pie. Antony Worrell Thompson (you may have seen him on cooking programs over there) is making a steak pie on the Morning Show and I’d call it more beef stew with a biscuit on top. The Morning Show, by the way starts at 11:00! Now that’s more my idea of when the morning starts! Now there is a show earlier called “Good Morning”. Guess it’s not so “good” later??

Even though it has been sunny the temperature is still below freezing most every day and especially at night. The snow hasn’t melted a bit and is still deep in the back to the garage but I had to find a way to get out there and do some laundry because we were running out of clothes, especially underwear and pajamas.
Tuesday before the nurse came, I made a short foray outside to see how hard it would be to get to the garage.

When I went downstairs, I had a lot of tidying up and cleaning behind Robbie. to do. I just can’t understand someone who can walk out the door and leave things in such a mess. He was in a hurry to catch a bus because he had taken the car to the service station to get its annual MOT (inspection). So, I know he was in a hurry but how long does it take to brush toast crumbs off a counter, really? He had also left all the recyclables still sitting on the counter so I thought I’d take them out to the bin at the side of the house.

The steps and walk in front are clear as is where the car was so I got by there just fine. From there to the back door it was snow-covered and icy but I made it holding on to the rail every step. My hand got quite numb, though, as you can imagine, gripping frozen metal! Later, after the nurse had left, I lowered the laundry basket out the back door because the back steps were a little slippery. I wasn’t about to chance them so I then walked out the front and around. The challenge was after I got around to the back door, carrying the very heavy basket to the garage in the snow and ice.

I knew I couldn’t manage it by carrying the basket because I had to follow in some of Robbie’s icy steps to the door and I needed my cane to balance and keep me from falling. The snow was crusty and hard-surfaced so I hooked my cane to the handles of the basket and pulled it behind me like a little sled. Slowly and carefully we made it to the garage that way. May have looked funny but it worked for me! I did end up with quite a bit of snow in my shoes a couple of times but I was able to do a load of whites and pajamas done.

The nurse was not happy with the state of my leg at all. She said there was a lot more “sluff” (or is it spelled “slough”?) on it than when she had last seen it. I know from past (and long) experience that this isn’t good because it inhibits new skin from growing where it should. With two discouraging trips to the clinic the last two weeks, I wasn’t really optimistic this week to go on Thursday but it actually turned out positively. I’m sure it was all the prayers! I had put out an appeal on Facebook for people to pray again for me and I know that was what helped so much.

So this week, the nurse said that it looked better, not as red (and not as painful to me) and was “granulating” again (the start of new skin). What a relief! So we’re going to just continue with the treatment we’ve been doing all last week and see if it keeps improving. And I think I’m supposed to be putting it up more because the district nurse also asked me if I’d been “doing too much”. I did have a bit of a reaction Thursday night when we got home from the clinic. I described the feeling to Robbie as “fiery insects crawling all over my skin biting me”. It was pretty maddening and made me quite cranky. Luckily for him he went to sleep on the couch while we watched TV and escaped my bad mood!

One new thing has been occupying my time and efforts: Twitter. I have been Tweeting and getting Tweets from all kinds of people and groups. Sounds daft doesn’t it? I had set up a Twitter account almost a year ago but hadn’t really done much with it because I couldn’t quite figure it all out. Then I keep hearing about people Tweeting and how much they love it and so I revisited it all. Little by little I’ve been exploring it. I was able to set it up on my mobile phone which I hadn’t been able to before and I also can get updates from Facebook which I really like. I don’t feel tied to my computer to keep up with friends and families and news.

Now the mobile phone I have is about as ancient as you can get (well it seems like it anyway) and it’s even broken now (flip phone that only flips on one side) and it’s a pay-as-you-go which I hate but even I can get Twitter and Facebook on it. I still haven’t been able to figure out how to directly message people from it, maybe I can’t but I can receive messages and updates and Tweets. Ok, ok, I’m a techno-geek, I know it. I just don’t want to have the feeling that I’m in the horse and buggy while the rest of the world is whizzing by! I like to try new things…maybe it keeps me young!

One funny thing about that before I let you go: I heard a comedian on TV say he had joined a new social networking group that was a combination of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. It was called “You Twit Face”. I thought that was worth a chuckle so hope it gave you a smile! Lots of Love and Warm Thoughts, Janet