So, it would seem that the weather outside has turned seasonably frightful. Don't get me wrong, there's yet to be any snowfall in this particular corner of the north; rain however, well we've had that in spades today, possibly buckets.
Now this is Britain we're talking about so a torrential downpour or two is not unheard of, even in the midst of what we laughingly call summer. No, what has really heralded the onset of winter in these parts, and made for a slightly trying week for your friendly neighbourhood seated person is... The cold.
Yes, I know that makes me sound like a real wimp, maybe even a wuss, but allow me to explain.
The temperatures have indeed plummeted this week. Not to freezing but the car did tell me it was 4°-ish outside for most of the week. It was also a tad blustery so there may have been a bit of wind-chill to throw in to the mix.
Again you say, so what? Well so this... The wheel rims of my chair are, as you would expect made out of metal and do you know what conducts cold really, really well?.. Yeah. This has led to the no doubt hilarious sight of yours truly battling the wind, trying every trick in the book to keep his poor hands warm and relatively dry whilst maintaining something akin to forward momentum.
You can probably see where I'm going with this (especially given the post title). Yup, it was indeed time to break out the gloves. Well at least time to dig them out from the back of the kitchen drawer they were hiding in.
You might be surprised to hear that I don't use gloves to propel myself around all the time but, and to be honest I have considered it, the hassle and expenditure has led me to forego their use.
You see, a glove is not just a glove. They come in all shapes and sizes, for all sorts of different purposes. To the best of my knowledge, however there has not yet been a glove specifically designed for my particular needs (although I did see a fingerless number with a full thumb that looks interesting.). The issue is this. The glove needs to be padded enough to protect my delicate handy-pandies from the vagaries of the weather whilst at the same time, thin enough to enable me to grip the wheel rims firmly enough to propel me in my preferred direction. It also needs to be extremely hard wearing. Having a certain degree of waterproofiness (totally a word.) would be good too.
Over the years, this has led to trial runs of a huge variety of hand wear. Ski gloves are too thick, as are most 'winter weather' gloves. Woollen gloves are thin enough, but wear to shreds within a couple of weeks. Leather lasts longer but are much more expensive and still wear to bits within a month or two. Gardening gloves are waterproof, thin enough, but surprisingly wear through faster than the leather (the area around the ball of the thumb is where they tend to go. There, and the fingerprint area of the index finger.). Police gloves, biking gloves, fingerless gloves, weight-lifting gloves: all have come, all have tried, and all have, in one way or another, failed. See, it’s not as easy as you might think.
The current pair were a Christmas present from my mother-in-law. They appear to be made of some kind of modern synthetic fabric, are just the right thickness, and so far seem to be holding up. They aren't the warmest or the driest but they do afford reasonable protection from the elements and have survived at least one winter, (although last winter was truncated for reasons I'll expand on in a future post), and the current inclemency without any noticeable damage. Yes I think I might have some hope for the current Mr Right & Mr Left, although, of course, only time will truly tell.
I just hope I can manage not to lose them.
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