Spring Snow

Yesterday it snowed here in Utah – a beautiful spring snowfall. The temperature had dropped significantly from what I’d been used to from the past few weeks of warmer spring weather. At some point during the morning, I noticed my feet were cold – even uncomfortably cold. But did I try to warm them up? No way. I let them stay nice and chilly because it meant I would walk a whole lot more and with less pain. I distinctly recall standing on someone’s porch thinking how cold my feet felt and at the same time, how wonderful it felt to stand there without my crutches.

Throughout the winter and whenever the weather is cool I always let my feet stay naturally cold. In the car, I never put the car heater on the foot section. At home, I may wear a sweater, but my feet remain sockless and shoeless. In bed, it is too cold to keep my feet out of the covers all night. Inevitably, during the night, I will at some point pull my feet in under the covers. Then I’ll wake up with hot, painful feet. But this past winter I discovered I can skew the middle blankets so they don’t go clear to the edge of the bed. Then I leave only the top sheet and the top cover closer to the edge. That way I can have all covers on the top part of my body and legs, but only a light covering for my feet. However, with warm weather coming, I will soon have no covers at all near the edge of my bed.

A few years ago, when we needed a new bed, we replaced our queen size mattress with a king size. Except for king size sheets, I never got new bedding. I just kept the queen sized blankets (which we have plenty of) so the bed is always made normal-looking on Dave’s side, but on my side, the blankets never quite reach. It’s perfect for the summertime when I want no covers on my feet and it’s perfect, too, for my little winter and cold weather trick. I may not win any home decorating awards but it works for me.

Like I said, it’s not always the most pleasant of feelings to have cold feet, but when I’m tempted to get them warmer, I weigh the benefits and never feel it is worth it. I’d much rather have feet that can walk or stand more than have even comfortably warm feet.