Winter

The sheets crumple more in winter, I feel.

Our bodies sweat as they adjust to the heavier blankets. Sleep may not be as agitated as it is in the Summer, but it is as least as disturbed. Instead of the heat, one of us is invariably suffering from some sort of cough or ailment. Night vigils increase; as does early morning malaise. The flannelette sheets look limp on the mattress. They have been working hard to keep us comfortable.

The blinds are opened, yet the windows remain framed by darkness well into the morning, long after the children are awake. The fogs have set in; causing chaos at the airports and the eerie fugue passes all over the city, out to our limits.

It’s easy to stay home in this weather. Indeed, I am often back in pajamas by 5pm, and anyone who knows me well will know this is not normal behaviour. Pajama-wearing during the day is for the infirm and the young. But it is what it is, in Winter.

I had been nursing a toothache for several days and guess what, raw nerve endings and cold weather? Ouch? Yep, that’s about it. Taking myself off to the dentist I got a sympathetic ear, but not much else. A very expensive lecture: FLOSS MORE. It appears the deep natural fissures in my teeth trap food more than what might be ‘average’. The day before, indeed, I had pulled out a hunk of meat that would ordinarily be reserved to feed the lions at the zoo. So, that was what caused the gum infection. He thinks.

“Come back in a week if it still hurts,” he said.

Oh, don’t you worry buddy. I will.

The heating rushes through the vents in the floor with the sonic whoosh! I’ve never really learned to ignore. It is the sound of our Winter. A sound which, at some point, I fear, will send me slightly batty.

If my dental issues don’t first.