{"id":210,"date":"2018-01-09T20:41:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T01:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=210"},"modified":"2023-11-26T16:31:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:31:48","slug":"winter-health-and-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2018\/01\/09\/winter-health-and-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter, Health, and Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter is a topic I post on, well, every winter<\/a>. It is a tough time of year for me, but at least it makes spring and summer<\/a> all the better.<\/p>\n

Though I don\u2019t like winter, the reality is I also miss our neighborhood from Minnesota<\/a> and the trips into Wisconsin<\/a>. Sure, winter is lousy, but where it was harshest was also where we made good friends. Plus, you can (generally) warm a house and bundle up with a fire, tea, and books.<\/p>\n

We have lived in Minnesota and Pennsylvania<\/a> since the summer of 2006. As Central California<\/a> natives, we didn\u2019t fully appreciate what winter means.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, snow and ice mean slipping, and I do slip. I slipped yesterday clearing snow from our driveway. It doesn\u2019t help that the driveway is a steep slope, but I\u2019ve managed to slip on flat-ish ground often enough, too. (It should be noted that\u00a0flat<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>in most places is not the same as\u00a0flat<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>in Central California. Flat means rolling hills, apparently.)\u00a0Slipping, I\u2019ve managed to pull muscles, break bones, crack ribs, and bruise just about everything.<\/p>\n

After slipping, there\u2019s the dry skin<\/a>. The dry air causes the skin on my knuckles to crack and bleed. My fingers are as rough as sandpaper. No amount of lotion seems to help. Plus, I dislike the sensation of oils and lotions on my skin.<\/p>\n

Layering is uncomfortable. I overheat under the layers. Plus, I hate how some fabrics feel. Finding comfortable gloves is a challenge, since I dislike seams and other irregularities. Nice, comfortable gloves aren\u2019t cheap.<\/p>\n

Winter is hard on my back, knees, and fingers. They all ache. I drink tea, take warm baths, and try to exercise to reduce the pain. Heating pads also help. My wife and I bought some really great reusable gel pads that heat chemically. You snap a metal disk inside and a reaction causes the liquid to warm. These are a great invention and wonderful for my aches and pains.<\/p>\n

My eyes suffer from dryness in any weather. I use a lot of eye drops, especially if I have to be outdoors. In Minnesota, the cold, dry, wind caused my eyes to tear. Base membrane dystrophy and epithelial layer<\/a> separation hurts. A lot.\u00a0Corneal abrasions<\/a> were the most severe pain I\u2019ve experienced and something I do fear in the winter. My vision can\u2019t be restored to 20\/20 and that bothers me.<\/p>\n

I might not like the challenges of winter, but heat isn\u2019t exactly easy on me either. So, it\u2019s a matter of learning to adapt. You have to plan for winter and plan for summer. That\u2019s not easy for someone with sensory issues, but it is possible.<\/p>\n

Driving, however, is not dangerous in summer. Not like winter! We both managed minor accidents in the Jeep<\/a> on ice. No amount of experience prepares you for ice \u2014 which causes me some anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winter is a topic I post on, well, every winter. It is a tough time of year for me, but at least it makes spring and summer all the better. Though I don\u2019t like winter, the reality is I also miss our neighborhood from Minnesota and the trips into Wisconsin.…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingWinter, Health, and Accessibility<\/span> <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":14,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[87,125,362,468,529,602,648,764,772],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","category-health","tag-balance","tag-california","tag-ice","tag-minnesota","tag-pennsylvania","tag-risks","tag-snow","tag-weather","tag-winter","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Podcast-HD-1920x1080-comp-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-3o","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}