counter

Wednesday 15 February 2012

The Big Chill

Once I went to a football game with two teenage boys. It was November and it was cold! I, being aware of my mortality by then, wore several lawyers of clothing with a touque and scarf and warm boots. They, being unaware they were mortal, wore short winter jackets, touques and running shoes. I told them they were going to freeze. "Yah", they said, "but we will look cool."

At half time, they disappeared. I found them in the men's washroom, under a heater that was hanging on a wall, wrapping toilet paper around their feet, inside their runners, to keep their feet warm. I started to laugh and said, "Right, you guys look real cool now!"

Years later, one of them told me they had never been so cold. On the other hand, I had been as warm as possible, while sitting for an hour, on a metal seat, and a temperature of about -12C (5F). Even as a teenager, I would never have dressed so poorly that I would have had to have used toilet paper for insulation. I just never let myself get too cold. That is, until now.

The hand and foot on the affected side of my body (right side) get extremely cold at around 3 in the afternoon. The cold lasts about 2 hours. Toilet paper is no help, nor are hand warmers or mitts. Nothing helps. My right hand in particular gets so cold that it becomes very painful in the wrist. Oddly, my hand doesn't feel cold to my wife and it doesn't matter what the air temperature is or that I am trying to warm it up in some manner. I looked up "cold hand" in the PD forums and found other people who suffer the same symptom. It is just another of PD's little jokes, but I am finding it more and more difficult to appreciate the humor.

No comments:

Post a Comment