Windchill, Weatherproofing, and Frostbite

Absolutely nothing of interest happened to me this week except on Monday when my fingers almost got frostbitten.

Weather forecasters everywhere were predicting -25 to -35 degree wind chills, so naturally, I decided then was a good time to go to my landlord’s and weather proof her windows since she’s been gone all winter. I decided to forgo gloves because it’s only thirty feet away, and I couldn’t find any.

The weatherproofing attempt was quite comical. I had to tape plastic over the really drafty window in her front door. The door was so cold that the double-sided tape that comes in the box was rendered useless. But, stubborn as I am, I got it to mildly stick to the door before attempting to stick the plastic up. As hard as it was to stick the tape to the door, getting the plastic to stick was impossible.

So there I was at 9:00 at night in an empty house wrestling with a giant sheet of plastic wrap with little remnants of failed sticky tape surrounding me before I finally said screw it. It’s not happening tonight.

Defeated, I bundled up and left the house. I had to set the weatherproofing supplies on her porch momentarily in order to lock the deadbolt and naturally, the wind knocked the box into the foot of snow in the bushes.

Instead of rushing home to get out of the cold, I now had to climb my way through the snow and ice in order to rifle bare-handedly through the bushes to grab all the stuff and then trek across the snowfield in-between our houses.

In addition to it being freeze-any-liquid-immediately cold, my hypothyroidism makes things worse. I am cold sensitive. What’s cold to a ‘normal person’ is Antarctica to me.

I liken the pain in my hands to crushing a fire-hot coal in your palm. The heat from the garage (which isn’t even heated, just the lack of wind made it feel warmer) amplified the stinging before my hands hit the real joy of my 70-degree apartment. Once inside, it felt like someone was pouring boiling water over my hands continually for a good ten-minutes. And let’s not forget that my hands were redder than the tomatoes in my fruit bowl.

All-n all, it was a very painful ten-minutes until the numbing set in that was all the more appreciated considering the whole reason behind subjecting myself to those conditions was a big fat failure.

Moral of the story, stay inside when it’s cold or at least dress appropriately. You skin will be thankful.

**I managed to successfully put up the plastic today with lots and lots of duct tape. Duct tape is impervious to cold. **

Of Shovels and Snow

We got about a foot of snow yesterday, which wasn’t all that bad, and I really enjoyed it. I made a snowman, got to exercise in a way other than the treadmill—shoveling heavy snow really is a full body kind of job—and I got to snuggle up in sweats with some hot cocoa.

I am a child at heart

The only thing to dampen that mood was that fact that the future-hubs had to work the next day and we couldn’t ignore the driveway. Calling it a driveway is being generous. It's really a small road complete with a couple twists. 

 

This is part of the driveway post plowing this morning. Already a couple inches covering it. 

The landlord only left us with one shovel, so shoveling became a whole day event. The hubs and I had to take shifts because it was cold and impossible to do that whole thing in a single effort.

Sleeve shot, but accumulation
atop the grill. A couple inches were from the snow storm that
we got a couple days ago. 

 My first turn wasn’t bad. I got about an average driveway length done, and I was feeling pretty confident about this situation. Unbelievably hungry and tired, but confident.

Our neighbors were out too. And by neighbors, I mean the houses in front of us separated by our driveway. Lucky them and their short driveways. One house was also rocking the shovel and I felt a small sense of camaraderie. The other neighbor with the shortest driveway had a snow blower. He’d come out of his house, snow blow for fifteen minutes and be done with it.

By my third time, after my first length of driveway was now covered in another two inches of snow, I watched as my neighbor rolled his snow blower back into his garage once again in full view of both me and our other neighbor shoveling with far less enthusiasm than earlier this morning.

And I thought to myself, what the hell happened to being neighborly?          

There's an air conditioner
under there

 Looking beyond the fact that snow blower guy could’ve easily done the neighbors driveway in the same amount of time as his, he also had a shovel sitting unused in his garage. This neighbor knows that we’re a couple, must’ve taken notice to our shorthanded situation, but does he offer that shovel?

No, no he doesn’t.

What the hell?

I was raised in a household where my dad would just do nice things for other people. Someone not have something and he does? Why don’t you borrow it? Need help? Sure, I can help. To this day, he goes and shovels out my grandma.

At my old rental, my neighbors had a snow blower, too. During really bad storms, they’d come without a word and help with snow removal because they were nice people.  

Snow bank my dog plowed through this morning. If you look closely just in front of the highest point, you'll see where here chest indented the snow as she sunk into it. She didn't expect it to go so far. Pure terror on her face. Hilarious for mom to see. 

Not this neighbor, though. There were no concerns given to those around him. His driveway was clean and that’s all that mattered. Which is fine. I don't expect help. But, I couldn't help but notice just how much he wasn't giving.

Luckily, some guy with a snowplow drove by trying to make a buck by helping out those in need. Being a day away from getting paid, we naturally had $2 to our name, so we couldn’t pay what he was asking and didn’t fault him for passing us by.   

But this guy, being a genuinely awesome person, took pity on us and as he said “consider it my good deed for the day” came and plowed the whole driveway for free.

The bottom of the trees are buried. Pretty though.

Not only did that ensure that the hubs could get to work this morning, it reminded me that while some people can’t see past their own front yards, there are some really great people who do.

 I hope our plowman gets something great in return, and I will find a way to pay it forward. Maybe I’ll run into him again when my pockets are a little less empty or he’s in need and be able to return the favor.

I hope everyone else weathered the storm as well as we did and maybe you were blessed with a good Samaritan coming to your aid.

The Last of 2013

November has come to an end, and I have to say, it was a mixed bag of tricks. 

I completed NaNoWriMo--well, I surpassed 50,000 words. I still have two scenes to write. But it’s still a win in my book!

I was approved for a car loan but couldn’t actually find a car. My current vehicle is a spectacular piece of crap that created too much negative equity to have a payment anywhere near the realm of reasonable. Goodbye my beautiful SUV with two moon roofs. I can’t live in you, so I can’t see paying half my rent to take you home. 

I spent Thanksgiving seeing all my family and most of my friends. I pigged out on meatballs, ham, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie while still managing to lose three pounds. But, my fiancé’s grandmother is in a coma, so it wasn’t all happy reunions. 

It also snowed there, which was a nice change up from our rainy, dreary scenery. What a difference 2 hours makes when it comes to weather. 

I plan to make December an awesome last hoorah to the craziest year of my l life so far. I hope these next 31 days are the prep work for something great. 

Oh, and I got a tree. My first real one since my childhood at home. The scent of pine is bringing so much nostalgia with it, I feel like I should have pig tails and be sleeping on my Barney sheets. 

Happy December!! 

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I'm still alive

My poor tree after the big snow storm

I realize that I have disappeared from the bloggerverse for quite some time now, but I have a good excuse. 

My last post was about my very uninformative ER visit, which was the beginning of all this. At the time I had no idea what was wrong with me and I wouldn't know until last Friday. After seeing numerous doctors, getting more coordination and vision tests than I care to remember, and three MRIs, I finally had my answer. 

I have a vertebral artery dissection (VAD). Basically, what I thought was a mysteriously pulled neck muscle a month ago turned out to be a tear in one of my arteries from my neck leading to my brain. The day I went into the emergency the first time with what I thought, and the doctors thought, was a migraine, was actually what my neurologists says might have been a little stroke. I won't ever know for sure considering I have had no long lasting symptoms aside from a small issue with short-term memory but I fit the bill in every way. 

All that said, I am now healing. I have to take baby-aspirin like an old person to help makes sure I don't get any clots, but I should be back to normal soon. I am still dealing with some off-balance feelings every once in a while, but my vision finally came back completely around a week ago and I am close to a week no headache or neck pain. 

Still, there's that possibility that I could get a clot and have a large stroke, so I won't feel completely confident until I go back for another MRI in a couple months and they tell me that it has healed. 

Needless to say, I was advised to never see a chiropractor, to be very mindful of over-stretching my neck or any sudden and strong neck movement. Oh, and I can't do any sit-ups; there goes my  washboard ab dreams. 

All-in-all, I am happy that it wasn't anything worse. Even though I have no health insurance and have basically just amassed an unbelievably large amount of debt (we're talking two ER visits, one CT scan, more blood work than I think blood in my body, and two MRIs-I didn't have to pay for the third), I'm glad it prompted me to finally go get some glasses; I am thankful that everything else came back saying that I am healthy, even if I do have a little extra stuffing around the middle. Mostly, I am just relieved that after three weeks of seeing doctors and getting poked and prodded, I have not been back to the hospital in almost a week and I am feeling like myself again. 

As for "Compose Yourself," I am going to give myself another week to fully recoup, since I have a midterm on Monday anyways, but I will be back at it next Monday.  

Anybody else ever had an artery dissection???

Winter Photo Drop

We've been getting a lot of snow lately, so I thought I'd share what I've been seeing.

Park near my house

Abandoned School after a big snow/melt

Backyard snow

Park again

Hard to see ducks subjecting themselves to the cold instead of flying to warmer weather.

My backyard

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