I Don't Like BEing Cold

It's not so much that I mind it when it's cold outside. The whole issue revolves around whether I can get warm. If I'm up and moving about, most of the time that is not an issue. As soon as I cease to be moving around, and it's cold, I my feet and legs start getting very cold. They'll do that when I sit here at my computer... but not as badly as they do at church. I guess the fact that the area under our pews at church is not carpeted makes some difference. Also, it's just not often that the sanctuary is well heated. (I'm sure that's because the anticipation of warm bodies helping raise the temperature is taken into consideration and the fact that some people seem to always be hot.) I take a bag with me to church that has TWO fleece covers and leg warmers. I generally need all of them in the winter time and at least some of them in the summer.

Just the fact that I need them in the summer time is enough to make me think I have a circulation issue. But when I go to bed at night, I KNOW I do. I have to wear socks to bed even on the hottest summer night or my feet get so cold I can't go to sleep. So, you can imagine what it's like when we have a really COLD winter night. Last night was "cold enough". I was glad I did not live any further north than I do. Alabama is fine most of the time but not last night. Last night's weather report in my email said:

SAT FEB 11 2012 ...DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILLS EXPECTED OVERNIGHT...

A VERY COLD ARCTIC AIR MASS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD SOUTHEASTWARD OVERNIGHT...WITH LOW TEMPERATURES FALLING INTO THE 15 TO 20 DEGREE RANGE FOR MOST LOCATIONS. THE COLD AIR TEMPERATURES...WHEN COMBINED  WITH A PERSISTENT NORTHWEST WIND AROUND 10 MPH...WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILL VALUES FALLING TO BETWEEN 8 AND 12 DEGREES. IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF NORTHEAST ALABAMA AND SOUTHERN MIDDLE TENNESSEE... TEMPERATURES WILL BE COLDER AND WINDS WILL BE STRONGER...WITH WIND CHILLS APPROACHING ZERO. ANYONE VENTURING OUTDOORS THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT IS ENCOURAGED TO PREPARE FOR DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILLS BY DRESSING APPROPRIATELY AND LIMITING TIME SPENT OUTSIDE.

I was SO COLD. I had on socks and leg warmers, an electric blanket (which only gets warm) and----in addition to my normal covers-- a heavy knitted afghan. And I couldn't get warm. I was lying there wishing I had a heater when I remembered, "I do have a heater!!" So, I got up and found it, turned it on, and it wasn't long until my room was no longer like a freezer. (My room is very hard to heat. The way our duct system works, the duct that brings heat to my room is backwards off the main duct system and so the fans that blow the heat don't blow directly this way. I'm not sure how it works, but I guess I only get what air backs up. The two rooms on this end of the house are both that way, but my bedroom is on the north side of the house so it doesn't even get the benefit of the southern sun.) Anyway, I finally got warm and actually before the night was over I had to take covers OFF me.

I love being warm enough. I've said many times that my favorite word since I've got old is "cozy". I love being cozy.

Changing the subject...

Work is like a different place now that I'm not in charge of a department. I don't even know what I'll be doing until I get there and when my time is up, I can just leave. I don't have deadlines hanging over me-- orders that "should have been finished last week", deletes that "should have been finished a week ago", department recovery "before you leave, and do it perfectly because we mya have a visitor tomorrow", and no more department head meetings. I walked in on the tail end of one that was going on when I came to work on Thursday... in the breakroom... and I was SO HAPPY that I was NOT involved. I found out later that one of the main things learned in that meeting was that "breaks will be scheduled". I really believe if it could be done legally, they'd try to figure out how to eliminate them altogether.

Anyway, my work is varied. On Tuesday I worked in fabrics-- without a lunch and only about a ten minute break. On Wednesday I put out freight in scrapbooking. On Thursday I redid the back clearance wall. And yesterday I alternated between doing deletes for scrapbook, wearables, and jewelry and going to the registers. Later I got a cart and gathered up stray merchandise from where it was discarded all over the store and put it away. One thing about my new "position" is that I do a whole lot more walking around. As long as I can keep my feet and knees working right (I've had some issues there, the extra walking will be good for me.... especially since I'm working on losing weight now that I have more time to think about it. (I've lost 8 pounds in two weeks by "counting calories"...more accurately described as limiting calories by counting them.)

Church today and then I'm going to eat lunch with my brothers.

Yesterday, I did call my manager and ask if I could go into work a little later so that I could keep Braxton. He was so sick. And Tim was having his last game--if they lost-- of the season with his little darlings. It was so cold and I knew Felicia would want to go to the game. I was afraid she'd take Braxton out in that cold. I should have known better. When I got there, she'd already made arrangements for someone else to stay with "the babies", but since I came, they went to the game too.