No slave to mittens
I woke up today wondering why. Somehow in my early morning confusion I am still sane enough to realize that I am up on a weekend far before what is normal for me but I often find it hard to recognize the reason. I always had this problem of disorientation when I was an RA - whenever my phone would ring on duty nights I would always shut off my alarm blearily and then try to understand why the noise hadn't stopped. I rarely realized that it was actually my phone until my answering machine picked up. And I would always forget to reset my alarm. I am not at my best out of routine.
This morning was certainly one of the more successful in terms of coherence, helped by the fact that the sun was coming up. Light makes a huge difference to my mornings every day, and a sunny start like today is like a bonus round in pinball. It makes a good game that much better. I was up, as I am probably ninety percent of the time I am up early, for a tournament although today it was local and only a single day of competition in a round-robin format. An end to our winter hibernation, I suppose, although our next outing is not for an entire month so we have plenty of time to get rusty again. All in all it was a fun day with five short games, two byes, one field (nothing better than not having to move!), two wins, three losses (although one with a harrowing tale of a 4-8 comeback in hardcap only to lose on universe point). It started out cold (three layers, but no jacket) but the sun kept shining away and by the afternoon we were down to shorts and even just a single top layer. A fine day indeed. I was unsure about going, depending on the weather, and am glad that I decided in favor. The only real blight was my lack of cleats, since I didn't expect to need them before March although it only really hindered me seriously once, when I went from chasing my dump to falling flat on my face for no apparent reason. No friction, no motion. This situation should be remedied upon my imminent return to Chicago. Good luck to me!
But the most amazing part of the day was my discovery of chemical handwarmers. I have had a few packages lying around for at least a year, bought by my mother as a response to my frozen hands in Chicago winters, but I never really had occasion to use them before today. The problem is that once activated, they last for 7 hours and I don't believe there is a way to turn them on or off, since their chemical reaction is started by exposure to air. I presume it is self-sustaining after that point although I don't actually know. But it seems like such a waste to crack open seven hours of heat for a 20 minute walk to class, so I never bothered before. Today they were indispensable. I opened up the plastic right before our first game and was shocked by the instantaneous, pervasive heat that two little cloth-like packets with iron filings inside (among other things) can produce. How is this possible? and for so long? Perhaps my chemistry friends have some idea. Some kind of limiting reagent to slow the process down. Regardless, they were fantastic. It was warm enough that once you were running around on the field you could remove your gloves and be all right, but standing on the line in the wind calling an offense and a defense was too much for the bare flesh. The sideline naturally was worse since it lasted for much longer than the roughly ninety seconds between points. We passed the packets around from player to player - after they came out and cooled off, to heat them up again before they went back in. Most people had pockets to put them into, but at least one simply balled them up in her fists and put her hands down her shorts. The best of two worlds. By the afternoon no one even spared them any thought, so they were stuffed into my jacket pockets where they remained unthought of until I fished my keys out, six and a half hours later, on my way home. They were still hot, although by the time I had showered and changed, during which time they sat openly on my desk, they were down to room temperature where I expect they shall remain indefinitely.
Overall I was amazed. The regularity and quality was astonishing. I almost feel like I could go to play now in even colder weather, with a pair in my pockets to heat things up during foul call discussions or counting-off on the line. There are toe warmers also, with an adhesive strip to attach to your sock, of which I have a pair although I have not tried them yet at all either. If I ever go back up to the Illinois woods in winter I may bring them along, but any other activity seems too trifling and shortlived to be worthwhile. Maybe someday someone will find a way to turn them on and off, or make reusable packets and then I can truly be free in the winter to go where I please when I please without concern. Amazing.
This morning was certainly one of the more successful in terms of coherence, helped by the fact that the sun was coming up. Light makes a huge difference to my mornings every day, and a sunny start like today is like a bonus round in pinball. It makes a good game that much better. I was up, as I am probably ninety percent of the time I am up early, for a tournament although today it was local and only a single day of competition in a round-robin format. An end to our winter hibernation, I suppose, although our next outing is not for an entire month so we have plenty of time to get rusty again. All in all it was a fun day with five short games, two byes, one field (nothing better than not having to move!), two wins, three losses (although one with a harrowing tale of a 4-8 comeback in hardcap only to lose on universe point). It started out cold (three layers, but no jacket) but the sun kept shining away and by the afternoon we were down to shorts and even just a single top layer. A fine day indeed. I was unsure about going, depending on the weather, and am glad that I decided in favor. The only real blight was my lack of cleats, since I didn't expect to need them before March although it only really hindered me seriously once, when I went from chasing my dump to falling flat on my face for no apparent reason. No friction, no motion. This situation should be remedied upon my imminent return to Chicago. Good luck to me!
But the most amazing part of the day was my discovery of chemical handwarmers. I have had a few packages lying around for at least a year, bought by my mother as a response to my frozen hands in Chicago winters, but I never really had occasion to use them before today. The problem is that once activated, they last for 7 hours and I don't believe there is a way to turn them on or off, since their chemical reaction is started by exposure to air. I presume it is self-sustaining after that point although I don't actually know. But it seems like such a waste to crack open seven hours of heat for a 20 minute walk to class, so I never bothered before. Today they were indispensable. I opened up the plastic right before our first game and was shocked by the instantaneous, pervasive heat that two little cloth-like packets with iron filings inside (among other things) can produce. How is this possible? and for so long? Perhaps my chemistry friends have some idea. Some kind of limiting reagent to slow the process down. Regardless, they were fantastic. It was warm enough that once you were running around on the field you could remove your gloves and be all right, but standing on the line in the wind calling an offense and a defense was too much for the bare flesh. The sideline naturally was worse since it lasted for much longer than the roughly ninety seconds between points. We passed the packets around from player to player - after they came out and cooled off, to heat them up again before they went back in. Most people had pockets to put them into, but at least one simply balled them up in her fists and put her hands down her shorts. The best of two worlds. By the afternoon no one even spared them any thought, so they were stuffed into my jacket pockets where they remained unthought of until I fished my keys out, six and a half hours later, on my way home. They were still hot, although by the time I had showered and changed, during which time they sat openly on my desk, they were down to room temperature where I expect they shall remain indefinitely.
Overall I was amazed. The regularity and quality was astonishing. I almost feel like I could go to play now in even colder weather, with a pair in my pockets to heat things up during foul call discussions or counting-off on the line. There are toe warmers also, with an adhesive strip to attach to your sock, of which I have a pair although I have not tried them yet at all either. If I ever go back up to the Illinois woods in winter I may bring them along, but any other activity seems too trifling and shortlived to be worthwhile. Maybe someday someone will find a way to turn them on and off, or make reusable packets and then I can truly be free in the winter to go where I please when I please without concern. Amazing.
posted by trophywife at 9:48 PM
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