Oof

[ewt]

So, yesterday I did some errands. And carried too much. Again - a week ago I would not have been able to manage as much, I even managed most of the day without limping. But I still carried too much, and now my left hip is angry at me, as well as my arms. Oops.

Today the plan is to mostly flake out, and then go to Aikido in the evening. I'd very much like to play in the snow as well, and may decide to do that instead of Aikido as Aikido happens every week and snow like this does not happen every winter, not here anyway.

I think it was about 2003 when we had maybe twice as much as this; I remember walking to students and them being surprised that I'd turned up, I remember helping push a woman's car into her own driveway - and her disbelief that this would even work, as she'd never experienced being stuck in snow or mud before. I remember spending a magical hour or so playing in the snow with a couple of my piano students, the sheer joy of running around in it. I don't think I'll be doing anything quite so active today - I really do need to rest after yesterday - but I shall make a point of getting outside and playing in the snow while it is there.

I'm finding myself having to hold back from shouting, "wimp!" to those of you complaining about the cold. You'd think I'd get used to the different attitudes toward weather in this country - just as, well, you'd think the Brits would get used to the fact that yes, the temperature does go below 10°C in this country regularly enough that it's a good idea to be prepared for it. But never mind; there are as many of you enchanted by the snow as complaining about it.

I do reserve the right to laugh at people who try to drive in this weather without snow tyres. Fules.

It's difficult to explain how much better I feel, knowing what is wrong with my joints and why I have pain. Being able to do something about it - to a point - is even better. Oh, it still pisses me off, but at least I know I can probably re-gain previous levels of fitness, and at least now when something hurts I know why. I can make informed decisions about what I do and know approximately how it will affect me; nothing is ever 100% consistent, bodies aren't like that, but yesterday I knew that I was carrying too much and I was able to decide whether it was worth it to do it anyway, or whehter I should just go home and flake out. Treatment on Monday was particularly helpful as well, I think, and the exercises probably make a bit of difference too.

First I took a bag of old clothes to a charity shop. Fear my decluttering. Then...I bought a couple of books - Roger Philips' mushroom book, which I didn't have and which is apparently a classic, and also jPod by Douglas Coupland. Both are big and heavy. I bought some Sculpey so that I can make pen grips that will fit on my very nice pens, the pencil grips I bought will just fit on a standard pencil but not on my nice pens, and I like my nice pens damnit. I bought 1000m of black thread, since I seem to be getting into the sewing a bit now and running out of thread is a pain and it's cheaper per metre to buy more anyway. I bought some groceries from a hippie shop. I bought some theory books for students, and a volume of Brahms lieder for myself, so I can give the library's copy back. And I'm a sucker, so I bought some silk in a second-hand shop.

Between all that and paying for not one, but THREE Palm LifeDrives (who wants to buy one? Let me know!), my bank account hurts at the moment. It will get better, though.

Tomorrow, or possibly this afternoon if I'm up to it, I'm going to spend some time putting stuff up for sale on eBay. I've got a couple of pairs of hairfalls done that should go up, for example.

Right, enough of this, time to go play in the snow while it's still falling. Gently.

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

As vatine (who is Swedish but resident in this country) has pointed out (http://vatine.livejournal.com/187017.html), snow tyres would only come into use about 2-3 days each year and therefore not really worth stocking by most UK suppliers except in more remote regions such as Wales and Scotland where regular heavy snow is more the norm.

And most of the ones complaining about the cold are too young (or simply weren't in this country at the time) to remember the really freezing cold winters we had prior to the 80s, when it was quite normal for temperatures to drop down to -10°C around the middle of January and stay down there until mid-March or later. The UK has had over 20 years of very mild winters, and yes - there are a lot of wussy wimps who have gotten far too used to their central heating and double glazing and who have never experienced what it's like to wake up with frost flowers on the inside of their windows.

February 2003 was when I kept the District Line running when all the other lines were FUBARed. I'm kind of proud to note that the District Line is the only one running anything like a normal service thus far, even though my stint as Line Controller was 3 years ago.

[redcountess]

How did you manage to buy three LifeDrives???

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I, um, bid on three at once on eBay. I did not think they would sell for such a low price, but they did. Oops, etc, so now two are for sale (as soon as they arrive in this country anyway).

[karen2205]

I don't think the snow out here is quite as substantial as you've had in London, but I had three conversations with people yesterday who weren't sure what they'd be doing today as it all depended on whether it snowed or not! (to be fair, I don't think anyone really knew where the badly affected areas would be until it actually started to snow)

I had to drive to work today to bring the car for Melinda's son to collect; it took me 15 minutes to get all the snow cleared off the car before I could start driving anywhere and I felt sort of guilty for disturbing the pristine white snow covering the windscreen and roof (and yes, I did clear all the snow off the roof, I know lots of people don't and that strikes me as pretty foolish). It's not sufficiently snowy here to need snow tyres, IMO.

It's snowing fairly lightly here (with an interlude of sleet) and I could sit quite enchantedly staring out of a window, watching it swirling around, but I have work to do:-(

I am a wimp, but it's not actually all that cold here (or at least I'm not cold because I've got the layering principle sorted with longjohns, a vest, normal clothes, a thick winter coat (not even a proper outdoorsy one, a black wool/fabric one that looks smart), couple of scarves, two pairs of gloves, a balaclava, a hat and walking boots. I did manage to lose my silk gloves yesterday while emptying my bits and pieces out of the car which is irritating, but not insurmountable (and they did have holes/ladders in anyway).

Knowledge is power - knowing you've got hypermobile joints doesn't cure them, but allows you to develop strategies to manage them.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

This is only the fourth heavy snowfall I've experienced and I'm almost 40.

(if we omit the Winter of 93/94 in Philadelphia)

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

This is, at least, reasonable snow. OK, it's wimpy to anyone from large swathes of North America, but at least there's some depth--normally London can't cope with a centimetre.

BTW, I'm from New York and never had snow tyres, and was fine--although because southern NY is freeze-and-thaw, and the roads are heavily travelled, we don't get much accumulation on the roads. (Even upstate is fine on major roads--NYSDOT is incredibly fast with the plows and gritters.) What causes traffic chaos back home is ice. Ice-under-snow is the worst--super dangerous because you can't see it, just feel it.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

People really do adapt strongly to local conditions, especially where they are raised. Susan Roaf published some very interesting studies on 'what people find tolerable' ranging from the Equator to the Poles - which barely overlap, of course.

So glad to hear about your increasing health insights!

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

Well, apart from the 3 hours it took me to get to work today (1.5 hours from Hendon to Golders Green! ie: broken train between Colindale and Hendon C got moved, the line was reopened and then the first southbound train broke down... between Colindale and Hendon C...)

Err, what was I saying?

Apart from the extra long commute, I did see something I've never seen before whilst waiting in the cold (and at least it was dry cold): 6-pointed snowflakes! The type they have in children's books and all over Australian Christmas cards!

(Yeah, alright, it's just new for me!)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I think that's one of those "walk to Golders Green" situations... it wouldn't take 90 minutes even in the snow.

Yay for six-pointed snowflakes. :)

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

As has been repeatedly said, it doesn't get this cold often enough for people to think it worthwhile adapting..

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

For "cold", also read snow, etc.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm still going to laugh at the ones who get their cars stuck. There's not adapting, and then there's being completely oblivious to the gap between one's experience and one's surroundings.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

How low is low? I'd really like to upgrade my Palm to one with bluetooth.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

I've got to say this now ... what bugs me is people wrapped up like they're going to the Arctic in hats, scarves, gloves, portable tents and the like, when most of them were running around in skimpy tops a few days ago when it was much colder due to the wind and horrible rain.

Am I the only person who thinks it's much warmer when there's snow than it usually is?

[owlfish]

I have all this fabulous clothing with me that I haven't been able to wear since it hasn't been COLD enough. I'm not just talking lovely coats - although I have one of those, ankle-length and purple, which is too warm. A couple of my historical period-based dresses are made of insanely warm fabrics and really are too warm to wear unless it's close to zero or, even better, below.