It\u2019s amazing how many of my mother\u2019s words and phrases find their way into my books and blogs.\u00a0 In this instance the applicable phrase would be: Pride goeth before the fall.<\/p>\n
After last week\u2019s Thanksgiving blog about walking, Bill and I were stopped in mid-stride, as it were, struck low by a head and chest cold mess that took us right out of the exercise challenge.\u00a0 Our trainer came by on Monday, listened to us hacking and sniffling, and said, \u201cYou\u2019re in no condition to work out.\u00a0 Rest and get better. Call me when you are.\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s where we are at the moment, resting and waiting.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I\u2019ve spent more time than usual in bed, wrapped in my down-filled duvet, and remembering exactly how duvets came to be in our lives.\u00a0 Naturally it\u2019s a long story.\u00a0 Bill likes to say that with me there\u2019s no such thing as a \u201cshort story.\u201d<\/p>\n
I suffered from cold feet for most of my life.\u00a0 In high school my mother would make long flannel nighties for me, and I usually slept with the nightgown wrapped around my cold, cold feet.\u00a0 When I married Bill, he complained constantly about my perpetually icy feet.\u00a0 One touch of mine on his was enough to propel him straight out of bed.\u00a0 That was in 1985.\u00a0 I often slept with a robe or towel wrapped around the ice cube feet just to give the man a break.<\/p>\n
Fast forward several years.\u00a0 In 1993, we attended a PONCHO auction and bid on one item\u201430 days use of a BMW in Europe, insurance and mileage included.\u00a0 All we needed to provide was gas.\u00a0 It was early in the auction process.\u00a0 The opening bid was $500.\u00a0 We bid that.\u00a0 Since no one else signed up, we walked away with the item.\u00a0 We scheduled the trip for 1994 but had to cancel it when the pub date of one of my books was moved with no prior notice.\u00a0 The BMW dealership guy told us, \u201cYou\u2019re still good.\u00a0 When you\u2019re ready to go, let us know.\u201d\u00a0 A year later, in September of 1995, we finally made the trip.<\/p>\n
Since we weren\u2019t exactly swimming in dough at the time, we made the trip on Frequent Flyer Miles and stayed mostly in accommodations available through our membership in Vacations Internationale.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we ended up in the Alpen Sport Hotel in St. Johann Im Pongau, Austria.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t skiing season, so non-skiers were more than welcome.\u00a0 We stayed for the better part of two weeks where the only English programs on TV were daily updates on Sky News on the exceedingly slow progress of the O.J. Simpson trial.<\/p>\n
The king-sized bed in our room was made European fashion by fastening two single beds together, and each bed came with its own individual duvet.\u00a0 By then I was in the midst of that female midlife crisis\u2014the dreaded M word, menopause.\u00a0 For me, that meant night sweats.\u00a0 During those, I would throw off the covers.\u00a0 Then, when I cooled off, I\u2019d be cold and wrap myself back up again.\u00a0 The upshot of that was that by morning, Bill usually had no covers at all.\u00a0 As in zero.<\/p>\n
Sleeping in the Alpen Sport Hotel was a revelation.\u00a0 Bill sleeps with his covers at mid-chest.\u00a0 I sleep with mine near my chin.\u00a0 This is what\u2019s known as an \u201cirreconcilable difference.\u201d\u00a0 In St. Johann Im Pongau all those difficulties went away.\u00a0 We both wrapped our individual duvets wherever we wanted them\u2014and they stayed there.\u00a0 If I had a hot flash?\u00a0 No problem. I flipped the duvet over, cooled off with the cool top next to me, and was already properly covered when the hot flash ended.\u00a0 It was heaven!\u00a0 We both slept better than we had for a long time.<\/p>\n
We came back to the States, went straightaway to Duxiana, and bought our first twin-sized light-weight duvets.\u00a0 Which we still use.\u00a0 Every night.\u00a0 We\u2019ve purchased replacement covers any number of times, but the duvets themselves are virtually indestructible. When we travel, the duvets go along, if luggage permits, because when you\u2019re sleeping in a strange bed, having a familiar cover helps, especially since Bill still sleeps with his covers on his chest, and I want mine chin-high.<\/p>\n
However, one additional thing has changed since then.\u00a0 Once menopause was over, my feet warmed up\u2014permanently.\u00a0 So now, when I sleep wrapped in my duvet, the top is at the bottom of my chin, but both of my feet stick out the bottom so they can stay cool.<\/p>\n
In other words, this week, when I haven\u2019t been walking, I\u2019ve taken to my bed, and I\u2019m incredibly grateful for our matching duvets. And if some of my readers are dealing with similar M-word symptoms, my twin duvet solution may supply a solution.<\/p>\n
Sweet dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s amazing how many of my mother\u2019s words and phrases find their way into my books and blogs.\u00a0 In this instance the applicable phrase would be: Pride goeth before the fall. After last week\u2019s Thanksgiving blog about walking, Bill and I were stopped in mid-stride, as it were, struck low by a head and chest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-hm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}