Cold

It's a mite chilly here.  Nothing that could be bragged about to the rest of the country, but our high today was 38 and we'll be hitting 18 tonight and by Florida standards, that's cold.  (Only slightly tongue-in-cheek, people in Central and South Florida have been advised to use umbrellas when out walking because those cold-stunned iguanas falling out of trees can be heavy).

I'm noticing the same phenomena that I have for the past two winters - I'm cold.  Not compared to some friends of mine who really can't handle it and are suffering, but I feel it more.  I've always preferred the cold weather and love to get out in it.  But since I lost Bob, I feel it more.  I keep the house warmer now; we use to have thermostat wars - he would have been happy to keep the house at 60 degrees, but I'd be wearing a sweatsuit and a hat and a hoodie and my fingerless mitts and looking pathetic and he'd relent and we'd pop it up to 63 (and I was OK with that).  These days I tend to go for 67 or even 68.

I've also noticed trouble sleeping.  Not getting to sleep  - I *love* being able to snuggle under blankets - but waking up in the night feeling oddly stressed, even though I'm physically very comfortable, and having problems getting back to sleep.

I figured it out by accident a couple of nights ago.  I was watching TV, fell asleep on the couch, and woke up about 7 hours later.  And it occurred to me that it was my back.  In the summertime (meaning 9 months out of the year) Bob and I would sleep separated from each other, because he was such a radiator.  A hand or foot would stray over for a point of contact, but comfort required a bit of airspace between us.  But on the cold nights?  We'd be back-to-back, with that beautiful safe warm feeling of pressing against the "Wall o' Bobby."

In a pale thin imitation of that, it's what the couch gave me.  Pressed up against the back of the couch, with a bit of my body heat transferred to it.  Snuggling up to something, feeling warmth behind me, feeling a little bit safer.  So while this cold snap lasts, I think I'll be staying out here.