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In this Discussion
- 1234 November 2012
- distant_shoe November 2012
- flossy_log_lady November 2012
- freddy November 2012
- kdawg December 2012
- Leland November 2012
- lolo November 2012
- Loose_Thread November 2012
- Lucy November 2012
- Matthew November 2012
- MirandaJuly November 2012
- Nick November 2012
- Schlabe November 2012
- the_owls November 2012
- UncleBoatShoes2011 November 2012
- YoursTruly November 2012
- zin December 2012
Winter Coping Tactics
It's wet and grey. So wet and so grey. I'm having trouble getting my shoes and rain gear dried out reliably overnight so I can put it back on. Sometimes on the weekend I accidentally don't leave the house. My feet and hands are constantly icy.
Let's talk solutions!
1. Does anybody have any lighting recommendations? Is a light box the way to go? Are there particular bulbs you like? How long are you supposed to do light therapy every day, and do you just sit there?
2. Food! The root vegetables are arriving. I got inspired by some New Seasons deli treats, and have been roasting up cubes of root veggies and make salads out of them. Also, bean soups. What have you been making?
3. Staying warm. Been heating up the buckwheat pillow to bring to bed. Also, in-floor radiant heat is lifechanging...but sadly it doesn't help once I leave the house. I think it's time to get the silk long underwear out again, and maybe start adding a vest over what I'm wearing every time I leave the house.
4. Exercise. The hardest one. Tips?
5. Books. I am really feeling like going gothic/creepy to match the weather. Been thinking about rereading Jane Eyre, Turn of the Screw, and The Yellow Wallpaper. You?
Let's talk solutions!
1. Does anybody have any lighting recommendations? Is a light box the way to go? Are there particular bulbs you like? How long are you supposed to do light therapy every day, and do you just sit there?
2. Food! The root vegetables are arriving. I got inspired by some New Seasons deli treats, and have been roasting up cubes of root veggies and make salads out of them. Also, bean soups. What have you been making?
3. Staying warm. Been heating up the buckwheat pillow to bring to bed. Also, in-floor radiant heat is lifechanging...but sadly it doesn't help once I leave the house. I think it's time to get the silk long underwear out again, and maybe start adding a vest over what I'm wearing every time I leave the house.
4. Exercise. The hardest one. Tips?
5. Books. I am really feeling like going gothic/creepy to match the weather. Been thinking about rereading Jane Eyre, Turn of the Screw, and The Yellow Wallpaper. You?
Comments
IF you can make it on a Saturday, I recommend stopping into Sunlan for 20 minutes. "The Light Lady" knows her stuff. Light is a very personal preference... starting with a Neodymium and full-spectrum bulb, each in 60 watts, is an easy way to try your preference. Then you are just replacing different lights in your house in different locations. Different lights have different colors... we associate blue light with sunrise, and yellow light with sunset...
Drying stuff out is so crucial! All of my stuff goes by the heater but sometimes I have to wear different shoes if the ones didn't dry out from the day before.
I am going to be trying one evening of jogging on sidewalk, and one jogging session on a weekend day.
For me, I have to stay warm and covered to be happy. Gloves all the time, sometimes even indoors. Scarf over face, hat over head, hood over body, sunglasses over eyes, headphones over ears (the new earmuffs). No wind may touch skin!!!
I've hardly been leaving the house at all this winter. It's not impacting me as badly as I thought it might. When I do see people, I feel pretty normal, and not like a hermit who has forgotten how to interact.
The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally regarded as the first gothic novel.....
Would be a very fun, light follow up to Turn of the Screw.
It's the invention of the convention of a spooky painting that has eyes that follow you.
I don't really have any helpful winter tips. We hang stuff in front of the heater to dry it--maybe get a special dedicated laundry rack just for this purpose, instead of using kitchen chairs like we do?
Figuring out that you should wear a scarf was pretty life changing for me. I assume you already know this.
Fancy socks
Sleeping in a hat and socks
Cooking! I have been making things like cheese grits with greens and beans. Spicy heavy carbo blasts. APPLES. It is the tail-end of apple season and there are still some great varietals out there. Make a pie! Nothing is cozy wintertime like a warm kitchen filled with the smell of baking apple pie.
hot toddies, with or without booze, are a winter staple in my home: peel a big thing of ginger, chop it up, simmer it in water for 40 minutes, then use that water to make toddies. Spicy lemony honey.
Castle of Otranto is hilarious. All the actual Gothic (as opposed to modern self-conscious gothic, like turn of the screw) novels are amazing and hilarious and highly recommended. Otranto is so silly but in a delightful ghostly way. The Monk by Matthew Lewis is much more sincerely disturbing, all the more so when you realize it was written in the 1790s, like how is it possible that a novel involving a monk raping and murdering his own sister was a top bestseller in that era?? Those people were crazy. All the Ann Radcliffes but in particular I love The Italian. Mysteries of Udolpho is too tedious.
Never a more appropriate time to actually re-read Dracula and Frankenstein! Don't overlook their possibilities--they are both really incredible.
When I come in from a chilled day I take a long HOT HOT HOT bath and then I'm usually good for the rest of the evening, in terms of chill-combatting.
still need slippers
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
by the men who moil for gold
the arctic trails have their secret tails
that will make your blood run cold
the northern lights have seen queer sights
but the queerest they ever did see
was that night on the marge of Lake LeBarge
I cremated Sam McGee
I used to have like 20 stanzas of it memorized and I had this fantasy that I'd get up during a middle school talent show and recite it and everyone would go fucking apeshit and I'd be the most popular person in school
#nerddreams
(I am more inspired by Ivan Drago.)
Winterized the shop as much as possible to avoid drafty doors and windows.
Space heater running while we're here. Heating this place just costs too dang much.
Got a new coat which is also helping loads.
I also like reading about food, cooking, gardening, etc...it makes me feel prepared for the up-coming spring!
Also, soups. Hearty soups! I just made a killer potato leek with yogurt and dill, oh boy.
I think winter is a good time for projects, like Evie said. Like start making your own veggie stock!
Sadly my house is too cold to get a sourdough starter going, which is what I always want to do in winter. How do people do it? I don't have a radiator or any other warm spot in the whole house--a spot that's consistently warm enough to make the starter go. How did pioneer ladies do it?? Did they carry it around in a special pocket inside their petticoat or what?
By the time summer's here I no longer want to heat up my house with baking sourdough
help
Exercise - I'm getting into running! So much so that I've even been going in this gloomy weather! Who knew that was possible? Apparently I've signed myself up for this EPIC relay (that's the name, though of course it will also be epic) with my coworkers, and I'll have to run about 18 miles in June, so I have to keep this up. Other than running in the cold, I recommend hot yoga for the winter months. It's my way of warming up without a bathtub.
My winter exercise pre-injury was always either:
- crazy runs in the rain and just submitting to the sublime nature of it and getting soaked and being an animal
- yoga in my warm house
hot yoga sounds awesome right now. I just got a Groupon for crazy cheap hot yoga but it's in Beaverton!!!
My mom goes to hot yoga every day. Every single day.
I also attend weekly yoga sessions and knit and drink my fair share of toddies.
Hearing my cats' motor makes me warm.
oh and two caesar salads from the place where they invented the caesar salad (Caesar's)
http://www.lifeandfoodblog.com/?p=2414
I read a New Yorker article about that Caesar's place!!!!!!!!
"I ate everything"--Alan Forker
god those octopus tacos were some good shit.
p.s. @abe bc you said that I got lemon oil from the store!!!!
I just beat the wind temple and now I don't know WHAT i'm gonna do
???
I CAN TEACH IT TO YOU
IT IS RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN
You learn it from that weirdo who dances on the cliff on Windfall Island
just show him the wind waker, he'll know what to do
then you can make it sunshine whenever you want!!!
one thing I haven't figured out is that certain things in the game are tied to the phases of the moon, which I know from random stuff I've skipped over while looking for dungeon cheats. Any ideas? There's also supposedly a place where you go when the moon is full and giant squids battle you and if you win you get your magic bar increased but I can't figure that out either
You have changed the game, sir.
I love that gallery. Is that the place where you look at all the plastic models you have made of pictures you take?
I beat the game in 2003 but haven't played it in a while
??
help
THOUGHTS???