URBANNA — It’s been a few years since Middlesex County has suffered such a cold winter. It seems these last few weeks, no matter how many sweaters I had on, I still felt cold.
And that’s indoors. Going outdoors was unbearable when those 20 degree days arrived and there was a wicked wind blowing in on Kent Street off the Rappahannock River.
Brrr. But I still went out every day with Dandy to walk around the block. One would think an alien from Mars was in town the way I was dressed; parka, furry hat, scarf, sun visor, goggle sized sunglasses, mittens, slacks and wool knee socks. And heavy boots if sleet or snow was on the ground.
Dandy wears a sweater on frigid days, which he dislikes. He gives me that ole big, brown-eyed look of disgust that no breed but a cocker spaniel can do quite so well. Then he sighs as if long ago he has given up trying to maintain his dignity around Mom. I think he looks cute tucked into his turquoise plaid woolie, but he apparently has different taste.
My sisters aren’t faring much better weather this winter. Alice is in Charleston and she texted me one morning it was 24 degrees there when it was 20 degrees here. She had both gas fireplaces on, one on each floor, going full blast, plus her usual heating system.
Georgia is in Naples, Fla., for the winter and texted it was 44 that same morning and she had to put on her heat. That’s cold for southwest Florida, even in January. She complained how cold it was that morning during her tennis game. I did not feel one bit sorry for her, however. Cold weather hardens the heart.
The challenge in frigid weather is to get enough exercise each day as I don’t care to go to a gym or aerobic classes to work out in groups. Exercise for me is a private affair.
One way I am supplementing my daily walk in freezing weather is use of an indoor bike that my neighbor no longer used and was so kind as to pass along. It offers both leg and arm workouts. The only problem is it is so boring. I have it in the gallery, so I can watch TV when I bike, which helps the time pass.
I have also started “in bed yoga.” Other names for in bed yoga are “eyes closed yoga” or “sleepy head yoga.” If you have never heard of such yoga there has, as far as I know, never been such an exercise. I invented it.
What I love about this exercise is you do it in the morning before getting up when you are half asleep and therefore going through the routine is nothing more than a (bad) dream.
The moves consist of leg lifts, arm stretches, neck turns, finger splays, foot and hand rotations and finish with the old -fashioned bicycle.
My routines are over in about 10 minutes and by then I am awake and ready to jump out of bed and get on with the day. In bed yoga is the best!
Of course, there is opportunity for exercise in everyday housework like vacuuming, dusting or sweeping floors for those so inclined. Such routines are not appealing.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain so much about cold weather. I was raised in the 1940s and 1950s on Lake Erie and during those decades it was really freezing, the lake and rivers froze and it snowed heavily in winters. Gale winds would form ice mountains, caves and caverns turning our world into an Arctic country.
There was a long driveway to our house that crossed over a bridge and climbed a hill and the snowdrifts were so high Father had to leave the car at the highway and we had to trudge back and forth whenever we needed to go somewhere.
That trudge to the house from the car in boots and leggings was not for the weak of heart. I remember Father telling me we needed to “toughen up” to survive in such cold weather. I was told to use his footprints and follow him home as he broke through hip high snowdrifts. Those were memorable years in severe weather. Strangely I never remember losing power in all that time in Ohio.
I’m just grateful now I live in a milder climate. Still, I wouldn’t mind being in Naples now and suffering with my sister on her occasional 44 degree mornings.
© 2024.
Note: One Woman’s Opinion columnist Mary Wakefield Buxton will be taking some time off writing and will return in the spring.