One of the more difficult and frustrating times of my life has been the winter months. It’s cold. It’s hard to get warm. It takes forever to get warm, but not much, or long, to get cold again. I have to admit, it’s annoying.
Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash
For me, Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) causes my lower legs and feet and my lower arms and hands to have neuropathy. I noticed many years ago that I had to be careful handling hot cups of coffee and hot plates of food because I didn’t always know at first that they were hot. As for cold, I have noticed that my feet and hands get cold really quick but I do not always know how cold they really are. Maybe others do too. But, with the neuropathy, it causes you to get hot or cold faster.
One of my issues with the cold weather is I have tasks outside which I have to do but they can be dangerous for me. Until a few years ago, I always shoveled my driveway and sidewalks of snow and brushed off our cars. Even when we would have
Unfortunately, as I grew older, these tasks and the cold weather became more of a challenge and more dangerous. When I lived in a Northern Virginia neighborhood years ago, I was blessed with a neighbor who would frequently “sneak” and shovel our front walk. She and her husband would get outside early and begin the task to my surprise. I returned the favor a few times too. This was a huge blessing for me. Every once in a great while, a neighborhood teenager would stop by and ask to shovel my walk. I paid them well so they would return if it snowed again but to no avail.
I have to admit, being a man there are traits built within me that drives me to take care of my home and family. I have a hard time allowing others to do tasks that I should do. However, when it’s a matter of “safety,” for me and/or others, involved, it becomes a matter of being safe rather than my male ego. That is easier said than done.
A few winters ago now, my wife and I had moved to the house where we will live in retirement. A huge snowstorm of around 3 feet was predicted and it happened. We would have been stuck except that I learned from neighbors about some teenagers wanting to make some extra cash. I hired them and gave them a decent tip. I wanted them to “think of me” the next time it snowed. I didn’t need to be their first stop or a top priority, I just needed the walk and driveway shoveled.
The next few snowstorms, the boys did think about me and made contact. They came by and shoveled the walk and driveway. This went on for a few more snowstorms until they had the nerve to graduate high school and go off to college. Soon after that, I was blessed with friends who came by and surprised me by shoveling me out.
These two incidents allowed me to step back from something I should not do, safe my male ego and heart without anyone else knowing. I have to admit, it felt good about giving the teenagers cash for their Saturday night dates too. I would have loved someone to have done that for me when I was their age. It’s an ego thing.