Cold And Naked

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The snow is falling north of us up toward Virginia. Its not that far away. I look out the window and see a few stray flakes falling now and then. The weather person on a local TV station gave an interesting lecture along with slides to show why it would snow where it did and rain further south. We're further south. It's raining.

Its not a hard rain. Sleety. A drizzle of soft pellets that ain't snow and it ain't hell, but it could be if the Eskimos have been right all along. I seem to be developing a different attitude toward being cold most all day long. The only time I'm warm all over is either when I go for a fairly long ride in my car or pretend to shop in a heated store, and at night in my bed.

The coffee I drank after 11 o'clock last night kept me awake even after the late, late shows on TV were over. I became very aware of my feet. I have problems with them because of the rheumatoid arthritis. I have open lesions on the second toe of each foot, and the toenail on my left big toe is coming off. The weight of the covers on my toes was excruciating.

This problem had already been confronted and solved, but I had to disarrange my solution before I could change sheets. It was still warm then and the single sheet I used as cover in warm weather wasn't heavy enough to bother my toes.

My solution for having the covers too heavy on my feet and toes was to cut a piece of plywood wide enough to put across the foot end of my bed that raised the covers off my toes. This got a little complicated because the covers at the foot of my bed was about 10-12 inches (25.4-30.8 cm) above the top of the mattress.

To hold the covers in place I cut a wall stud to the width of the mattress and clamped the ends of the covers at the foot of my bed with a pair of commercial carpenter's clamps. Other than this rig looking very un-stylish, the only other problem was the clamps themselves sticking out from the bed with some fairly sharp edges. There has gotta be a better way.

At three o'clock in the morning I was still laying there in bed wide awake, and realizing part of the reason I was awake was that my feet hurt because of the covers. All I had to do was get out of bed and put my jury-rigged cover-lifting frame back in place and that problem would be solved.

Getting out of bed where its nice and warm and the room the bed is in was cold as a witch's tit no matter how inconveniently my feet hurt. Finally, my bladder demanded I get up and go to the bathroom, so I overcame my cowardice and got up to take care of both problems... and take something to help me sleep. Something borrowed. Something blue...

Setting the rig up again to raise the covers off my feet was merely a matter of doing it. Doing it nakid pushed me to do it as quickly as I could, but like I said, I got a different attitude toward getting cold now than I did just a few days ago.

According to some pundit I heard on TV, the body uses more calories to stay warm than it does to jog. It didn't hurt to have his punditry supported by a documentary I watched about the toilette of a hundred year old Japanese physician who got up every morning even in winter and wiped his naked body down with a wet towel, and then walked a few miles dressed only in enough clothes to be decent.

After I fixed the covers on my bed so they wouldn't weigh down on my feet I got back in my warm bed. The electric blanket had it all warm and toasty for me. The relief was palpable. Not only on my toes, but on my heels. The covers pressing down on the open sores on my toes had taken my attention away from the fact that they were pressing my heels down into the mattress with equal pressure.

It was easy to luxuriate in my warm bed now that the pressure on my feet was relieved. I had taken the sleeping aid while I was out and about and it was kicking in. The last thing I remember before I lost consciousness to enter sleep was I wasn't rolling over to sleep on one side of my body or the other to keep my toes from sticking up. I guess that's why I've always gone to sleep on my side, and woke up flat on my back.

If I use the system of astrology to weigh this situation I gotta go directly to Pisces, the sign that rules the feet. Obviously astrology is a top down system because Pisces is the last sign. The sign of retribution. That Greek philosopher dude who was forced to drink hemlock is said to state that his death started from his feet up. Maybe he was a breech baby?

Pisces is significant in my natal chart because two major planets habituate the sign and they're only two celestial degrees apart. Being only two degrees apart gives them the aspect of conjunction. The planet Venus is in 24 degrees Pisces and the planet Jupiter is in 26 degrees Pisces.

Venus is in the best sign it can dwell in because it offers compassion to the sorrow of having to expiate the karma acquired in the eleven preceding signs of the zodiac. In astrology, a planet being in its best sign is called it's sign of exaltation. Venus is exalted in Pisces.

Jupiter was the co-ruler of Pisces until the planet Neptune was discovered after Galileo invented the telescope, and so Pisces is considered a powerful sign for Jupiter to occupy. Jupiter and Venus conjunct is considered the "luckiest" angular aspect in the system of astrology because they're both benefics.

One might think that having Venus and Jupiter conjoined in a compatible sign in a positive angular relationship in the Fifth house of romantic love would indicate great good fortune. However, in my natal chart there is a problem. This wonderful configuration is 180 degree opposed to the ruling planet of the sign Pisces, Neptune.

Neptune, in my natal chart, is in the opposite sign of romantic love. It's in the eleventh house in the sign Virgo. Trouble and toil in the house of friendship. It's pretty much the sa-me situation in which a prospective or actual lover telling you that they only wanna be "friends". What a drag, man. So, the only thing left to do is get drunk and dance nakid in the moonlight.

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