Hey people! 🙂
So far, I have shared quite a few songs from Georgia Ruth’s 2020 album Mai (May), a very spring-themed or spring-like album of hers that I really like. Today I thought I’d share another song from it, which is in Welsh. I only understand little snippets from it really, but it seems to be about when the weather feels inconsistent with the season, like having sun in winter, for example, and the mixed feelings that this brings.
OK, guess it’s time for some new question of the day, what do y’all think?
Simple one:
How do you feel about cold weather?
My answer:
I feel positively about it, in general. Way more than about hot weather for sure. Staying in cold conditions for longer can be difficult, but, unless it’s some really extreme cold, I think it’s a lot easier to deal with than heat. My brain and my whole system don’t really do heat. It makes my thinking sluggish and it makes me feel faint and weak pretty quickly and it makes my migraines worse, and sometimes when I’m in heat for long it even gives me nausea. And I’m just totally not a fan of that hot, clammy feeling. I’m the sort of person who has usually cold hands and feet, which I’m usually okay with ‘cause I’m used to it, so I don’t necessarily feel cold when I am cold, unless it’s night time, then I often need a hot water bottle because I won’t be able to fall asleep easily with cold feet. And I’m so used to the default state of my hands and feet being cold, that it feels really odd and kind of low-key disgusting when they get really warm, even if they aren’t sweaty or anything. Cold hands are a lot more practical. I find it a lot better to read Braille with cold fingers, though not necessarily really cold like freezing obviously. They’re also really good for migraines if you don’t have ice cubes or a cooling pad or whatever, or you can serve as a cooling pad for someone else afflicted with a headache, lol.
If you asked little Bibiel what was her favourite season, she would say summer without the slightest hesitation. I did indeed like summer a lot as a kid, ‘cause it was holidays time so I was at home as opposed to boarding school, or even when I wasn’t going to boarding school but to a school closer to home, I still always had school allergy and so summer months were very much welcome. Also you could go to the sea (which I still like a lot) or pick berries, which were my favourite fruit and we had a forest nearby. But now that I don’t go to school, I definitely much prefer winter because I just hate the heat. Even with all the introvert-unfriendly things about winter like Christmas and a lot of other celebrations in my family, I like the winter vibe a lot more. Oh, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it a lot here that I have a weird affinity with ice. I just LOVE ice. Always have. When I was a kid, I dreamt of having a huge container filled with ice cubes that would never melt so I could play with them as much as I’d like. Would still be super happy to have such a thing. I love the feel of ice, the sound of ice cracking, the sound of ice in the glass with a drink (when I add ice to a drink I always add quite a lot of it and if there’s any ice left by the time I finish the drink, I just suck on it), icicles, everything! I even suck on ice when I’m really anxious because of emetophobia, like when I’m particularly triggered when someone in my family gets a tummy bug or something like that, ever since I heard that that’s what chemo patients do to avoid vomiting. I now know that it’s done more to keep them hydrated during those times, and I’m obviously not a chemo patient and don’t even vomit, but I find it helpful nonetheless. I suppose if I wasn’t blind and hadn’t such crappy balance, I could have been an ice skater or something. As it is though, the mere idea feels scary. 😀
Also, let’s not forget about the cosy aspect to cold weather. Isn’t it just so cool when you can stay warm and comfy in your bed at night, or sip on something hot while having some cosy slippers on while it’s snowing or even just raining heavily outside with the wind howling like crazy? Or even coming back home from such cold conditions, it feels really nice. I am particularly lucky in this regard because a couple years ago, my Mum made a pair of very fluffy overalls for me, which I really like to wear in the evenings, because they’re the only clothing item that my Mum made for me and they’re super fluffy. And there’s so much yummy food that is generally associated with cold weather, not to mention all the delicious Christmas foods. Some people think that cold weather is depressing, like my Dad for example, who says he’d be perfectly happy living somewhere hot like the Mediterranean countries or Latin America. But for me personally, sometimes heat can be more depressing just because of how it makes me feel physically, when I have no energy or even brainergy. So I don’t think I would mind it very much at all if I had to live in a really cold place like Finland, for example. I guess I would feel a lot more ambivalent about cold weather if I were a driver (like my Dad is, he’s a lorry driver), driving in winter conditions or when it’s foggy must be a nightmare. But even as it is, the snow and ice are still a challenge for blind people to get around in. Not only is it easy to fall, especially if you’ve got other things on top of blindness like the balance stuff in Bibiel’s case or like cerebral palsy that a lot of blind people also have etc. but also the snow can be really disorienting, because you can’t feel the ground under your feet and how it changes, which is often a very important cue in navigating, and additionally it can change the ambience/acoustics of a space where you are so it feels different than usual and might be confusing. Still, cold weather totally wins for me.
How about you? 🙂
How do you people deal with heat?
My answer:
Thankfully, I have my AC now so that helps a lot. I would really like to be able to control it more than I can, because unfortunately its app is pretty much unusable with VoiceOver and the only thing that I can use with it is its remote, so the only thing I can do knowing what I’m doing is to turn it on and off, and even then it often likes to act up and I have to turn it both on and off repeatedly for it to actually take effect, but it’s definitely better than none. This is why I am thinking about getting myself a smart AC controller, it’s called Sensibo Air and is very accessible, you plug it in the AC, configure it with an app on your phone and it basically works like a remote. Except I’m not entirely sure yet if it’s compatible with my AC, and my Mum hasn’t really been able to help determine that, so we asked a guy who was setting it up for me to come over and check it, but so far he hasn’t. Anyway, yeah, AC is very helpful during a heatwave, and I also sporadically use it in winter to heat the room.
My room generally heats up really fast, so I also have blinds here, and they help somewhat as well, but not extremely much.
Other than that, I try to drink a lot, especially iced drinks, be it orange juice, water or Pepsi, iced coffee too but it’s not hydrating really. I really really love ice, I don’t know what it is and if it’s something about ice or something weird going on with me but I’ve always really loved ice, be it feeling it, sucking on cubes of it, hearing it, icicles, or drinking iced drinks, where you can actually feel bits of ice. When I was a kid, and even now, actually, I wanted there to be ice that wouldn’t melt, or not so easily at least, so that I could have like a whole container of it and feel it as long and often as I’d like without it melting. I know that health-conscious people like my Mum say you should actually drink hot drinks when you’re hot so that your body will start cooling itself down or something, but that doesn’t make much sense to me, and I bet that few people actually do it unless it’s somehow part of their cultural customs to do that, not even my health-conscious Mum actually does it. I typically have tea with my breakfast though no matter the season, or sometimes cocoa or I used to have coffee a lot too, because having a cold beverage with breakfast feels kind of weird to me and I don’t like cold or even iced tea, and I haven’t noticed that it would make me particularly cooler when it’s hot. Very cold kefir will also do, but iced kefir would be kind of odd I guess.
We are also very privileged people here because we have a river on our backyard, so while you wouldn’t necessarily want to swim in it I suppose, you can still sit by the shore and put your feet in it or even sit in the water where it’s shallow. A cold/very lukewarm shower is also something I like to take especially if I was out in the heat riding in the car or something.
I only tend to wear stuff like airy, breathable dresses or skirts when it’s hot, with leggings underneath if I have to people ‘cause I don’t like to show my legs if I really don’t have to, or I just wear a long enough skirt. If I go to the beach or for a trip or even out on a terrace or to sit by our river or for a walk, sunscreen is a must in summer ‘cause it’s quite ridiculous how quickly I can get sunburn, I typically use grape seed oil for that.
Oh yeah, and I try to limit standing for long periods of time as much as possible. This is something that has always been a bit of a problem for me ever since I was a young child, that long periods of standing in one place would make me feel faint and like extremely tired and nauseated and my pulse would get a lot faster, and just the whole thing is really weird and awful in general, and it’s regardless of the weather, but heat is one of the things that is a particular trigger for that. Sofi has the same thing which is even weirder because unlike me her blood pressure seems to usually be normal rather than usually low like mine, we both also had cardiological assessments because our Dad has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy but there was nothing wrong with either of us. That’s why I always dreaded school trips, which typically took place at the end of school year when it was already pretty hot and would involve visiting stuff like museums or other such where you’d be standing for ages in front of every single exhibit and listen to a lecture about it. 😀 And I have to avoid Corpus Christi processions (Corpus Christi is a Catholic holiday) which are typically in May-June and it just absolutely always has to be hot when this day comes. Walking as such is okay with my system, but when it’s a procession, you first have to stand for quite a while before it starts so you’re already starting to feel a little weird before it starts properly, and then stop regularly and go from kneeling to standing to kneeling and so on, which doesn’t help, so that I usually am not able to make it through the whole thing before I get the ringing in the ears sensation and everything starts to feel oddly distant, so I would usually ruin it for my family because one of our parents would have to take me (and often Sofi as well) home and miss the rest of the procession as well. And I hate drama like that and ruining stuff for people, so while I don’t like having to avoid it, I just go to the morning Mass with Mum and Sofi so that when Mum wants she can go to the procession later. Anyways, while I’ve never ever fainted, I don’t fancy experiencing it, so when it’s hot, like I said I prefer to avoid standing for too long if I can, but normal walking is fine.
What are your strategies? 🙂
Do you enjoy thunderstorms?
My answer:
Yes and no. Yes, because there is something exciting about them, I don’t know, I’m probably weird… I mean, I’m weird for sure but probably also in this respect. 😀 I love the sounds of storm, sometimes it makes me feel kind of slightly high when I hear and feel the storm. I also liked storms as a kid when I was very interested in all things radio because it would often carry radio stations from a far with itself, that would never ever be reachable in my region in normal conditions, so I always liked to search for such things straight after a storm.
I dislike them though because sometimes they can be really scary, and in any case, I guess no one likes the idea of something being damaged due to lightning or someone being struck with it. Also often storms screw up the Internet, they did especially when I lived in the country as a child, our house was rather high up so it was also an additional factor and we’d usually be affected in this way after a storm that there would be no Internet and sometimes for quite a while, and sometimes power would go out too. These days I also don’t like storms for additional reasons. We’ve had only one storm this year so far, just a couple days ago, and, as it happened, when it started out, I was doing a piece of writing on my computer, and I realised that now that I have a desktop computer rather than a laptop, and no real surge protection, I’d just have to put it off and turn the computer off until it’s over, if I don’t want something to get fried. 😀 While it wasn’t a problem in that case, I can see how sometimes it may be, when a storm would interrupt something more important that I’d be doing. Another reason why I dislike storms these days more than in the past is that Misha sometimes gets scared of them, and when Misha is scared, that doesn’t make me feel good.
You? 🙂
What is the weather like where you live? When does it usually start snowing, or does it snow?
My answer:
Overall, we are having a very mild and warm autumn this year compared to the standard. Actually I’ve heard that October this year was the warmest October since… no, I don’t remember since when, but I guess the 70’s. Nevertheless, today feels rather chilly. We haven’t had snow so far, although often we have some transient snow even at the beginning of November. For now there’s no sign of it, I think we’ll wait a few more weeks before it comes but perhaps I’m wrong and it’ll be sooner.
How about where you live? 🙂
Hi guys. 🙂
Some time ago I asked you about the best way to spend a rainy day. Today my question is quite similar:
What do you usually do on rainy days?
My answer:
For me it usually doesn’t change much whether it’s raining or not raining, I usually don’t have to adjust my plans to the weather and don’t do it. Sometimes we’ll go outside in the rain with Mum on purpose, just because we like rain, especially when it’s summer and was rather hot. I also like the sound of th erain so sometimes when I don’t have anything better to do I might just sit and read a book and listen to the rain. It also happens though that sometimes on rainy days I can get pretty bad migraines and my blood pressure which is usually rather low drops even more so I’m just sleeping or in bed anyway. But other than that it doesn’t have much influence on my activities.
How about you? Do you like rain? Does it affect you in any way? 🙂
I didn’t even know that!… And I thought I can speak Swedish! 😶 It’s fascinating for me, especially that I’ve always been so fascinated with ice!
Currently in the depths of winter, the Swedish landscape is covered in snow and ice.
I previously published a blog about 50 Swedish words for snow. So I became curious about how many words are there to describe ice.
I was surprised to find an enormous number of words. I guess it’s not so surprising for a Nordic country with so many lakes, rivers and waterways that there are many words to describe the different stages and shapes of frozen water.
Here are 15 of the words I found: 15 words for ice.
View original post 129 more words
What’s the best way to spend a rainy afternoon?
My answer:
Well, you can do pretty much anything you wish, I guess, depends on your creativity. My go to activities would be probably to read a book, listen to some music, especially such that fits in the aura outside, get myself comfy and cosy in the house with Misha and something nice to eat and a hot drink, or go for a walk if the rain isn’t too heavy. But then I could do these things on a day without rain as well.
What do you think? 🙂
Have you had any memorable experiences with interesting or extreme weather conditions?
My answer:
As I think about it, nothing significant comes to my mind actually, though I’ve been told by my parents that when I was born, there was a power outage for about a week. We were living in the countryside, and at the time there was something going on with electricity over and over again, though nothing like natural disasters wasn’t involved, it just was such a period I guess and probably some major tech issues. So anyway, it took place at the time when I was born, and my Dad used to joke that that’s why I am blind, that I just got used to the darkness, so now I can’t see hahaha.
How about your experiences? 🙂
How is the weather?
My answer:
It’s about 15 C., rather cloudy and windy, recently we have a lot of warm days, and it still feels warm, but it’s cooler than even yesterday, and it’s definitely not hot. How is it where you are? 🙂
Hhrrru?
It’s Misha again. I’m utterly bored so thought I’d write something. I’ve been having another sleepy, hot week so far. I’m craving to go outside, but they still don’t let me, well they do, but only for a while.
Today there were terrace doors open in Olek’s room and I got out. And… owch! it was awful, it was so hot, like on a frying pan. The tiles were so hot! My paws got burned. I climbed up on the wall but fell down again. Then I climbed up again and ran back into the house. My paws were sore for quite a while, but now they’re OK and they weren’t burned very seriously, just hurt a bit. My stupid peoples think I’ve “learnt a lesson”, but nooo, no such luck, I’m not so fool to not realise how the weather is changing, I’ll just wait for a better moment. They just amaze me, so stupid they are. And they say I am stupid! Sick, innit?
Today Mum was in a supermarket with Zofijka, and just when they got back I knew they have something for me. I always know it because Mum sounds so satisfied when she has something for me. And today they had bowls for me. Four, brand new bowls. One for dry food, one for wet, one for water and one for snacks. I think they are nice, and smell nicely. Mum says they are of porcelain, because an aristocrat needs to have a proper tableware to eat from and it can’t be plastic, but I don’t care. Now Zofijka calls me Miska all the time, because miska is bowl in Polish and it sounds almost like Mishka and Mila told her that Miska is the same as Mishka but in Hungarian. They often call me Misa or Miska etc. but I guess I wrote about all my nicknames before, I have so many of them, why can’t they just stick to Misha? They are really weird, but I even like some of these nicknames.
Zofijka got her birthday present from Mila today. It’s skunk slippers. They are soft and fluffy but they scare me.. They are scary, really. They look likke real skunks – only they don’t smell – and when Zofijka is walking or running or dancing, their tails are moving, and it scares me! And she has them on ALL the time now. I’m nervously worn-out.
What are you afraid of, peoples and animals? How has your week been? Have you been doing something interesting? Mishhugs.
Misha
Hhrrru?
This is boring sleepy Misha again. I won’t bore you for a long time because I’m just too sleepy. This week’s been so so hot. I’ve slept through most of it. And I’m gonna go to sleep straight after I write this post. But I’ve also had some adventures this week too. My peoples have the terrace door open most of the time, they were barbecuing and stuff and it happened A FEW times this week that I was able to sneak out of the house. I was on the roof, it wasn’t my first time, as some of you maybe remember. I love climbing on the roof. It’s such a pity that such aristocrats like me can’t do it whenever they want and normal wild cats can do whatever they want. It should be the opposite, how do you think? Also one day the door was open, Zofijka forgot to close it, and I could just go out o the backyard. Oh boy was I happy! So very very happy! And free. I wanted to travel around the whole world and explore it and have adventures and meet other animals and play with them, fight with them, catch them, eat them… I ran through the whole backyard and then Mum realised I went out and started to chase me. So I ran away even faster. I was very determined to be free and have lots of adventures. But then other peoples also chased me and finally they caught me. I was so so mad, sad, and frustrated. I cried for hours. I wanted to go out and have at least one big adventure, travel somewhere, meet someone, but no… everyone can go out except for Misha. That’s so unfair. Someday I’ll do it for them, maybe in the next life. I’ll keep them home and will be going out when I want, wherever I want, and they will have to stay at home all the time. But now I’m not as mad as then and I am at least glad I could go out for a while and see the whole backyard. Unfortunately I didn’t see any animals.
Is it very hot too where you are, peoples and animals? Did you have some interesting adventures recently?
Sleep well everyone, I’m off to sleep.
Misha
Yeah it’s really freezing here today. Snowing almost all the time since yesterday and very icy. My gramma whom we invited today for some time to stay with us almost collapsed on the steps when she was coming in, so slippery it is.
So as you know I had an almost sleepless night. Yeah luckily I managed to fall asleep about an hour after I wrote that post in the morning and had a few hours of sleep. It wasn’t very refreshing, but it was definitely something. Otherwise I would probably become very groggy after some time. We all went to the church in the morning. We went there on foot, it is about 7 minutes walk from us till there, so not that very far, but my leg was burning a lot after I got home. It’s shitty, I thought it healed at least a bit. and then my uncle dropped gramma (my Dad’s mum) to us. I was writing a lot with my pen pals. Also I played with Zofijka for a while. At 4 we went to church again, but now by car. Now as it is Lent, there is a special devotion on each Sunday of Lent related to that in Poland, apparently it doesn’t exist in any other Catholic countries, I think its English title would be something like Bitter Lamentations and it is about Christ’s passion and it is sung. We dropped gramma to her house afterwards and did some shopping. Zofijka felt very sleepy early on and she went to bed about 7 PM so very not like her. She wanted me and Misha to be with here so we were as she was falling asleep, she often wants us to be with her before she falls asleep. I told her a story. I don’t usually do that, only sometimes, but she really likes it. Zofijka’s stories are very special. They are about a fictional creature called Jim, which looks like a human, actually like a 10-year-old boy, but he is a Jimosaurus – the last Jimosaurus in the world and is 10000 years old, despite looking so very young and being so child-like. Jim lives in Australia (Zofijka had a slight obsession about Australia when I was making it all up so hence the location) in a little hut in the forest. He’s the king of that forest and all of the animals there can talk obviously. Jim’s best friend is – Plim – a pretty clumsy, forgetful, awkward and sluggish but very kind-hearted and sensitive koala who rules the forest on Jim’s behalf when Jim’s not there and a bit scating, but incredibly loyal bee called Sophie who is very good at cooking and making different curing mixtures and taking care of animals and people. Jim can eat normal people food and he likes it, but it isn’t nutritious for him. Really nutritious food for him is helping people. When he feels hungry, which happens very often, he takes out his binoculars and leather wings and climbs up on the roof of his hut. Then he looks at the whole world and searches for people or any other beings who may need help. If he finds someone to helps, he takes quickly what he needs, sometimes takes Sophie with him if any medical intervention is needed, puts on his wings and flies there. So as you see poor Plim has to be in charge most of the time actually. So Zofijka’s stories are always about different people or animals or plants or even sometimes things that Jim helps. She always says she loves Jim. But she always falls asleep so quickly that I highly doubt he can hear the whole story.
My Inner MishMash 