Tuesday, January 7, 2020

New Foot Forward




          When we moved from our baseboard-heated house to our forced-hot air-condo I didn’t notice all that much difference in heat source, other than the fact that we were now using gas as opposed to oil, at about 1/3 of the cost.

          This year, though, the Mohave-dry air was taking a toll as early as December, when my lips felt as though I’d just spent 6 months floating on a raft in the South Pacific. It reached a point where it was almost difficult to smile, not what you need when you have Christmas and grandchildren at your door.

          My feet are a whole other issue. Still, I can’t completely blame our arid environment; I imagine I have age to thank for the cracks and callouses that I battle year-round. I can always count on at least one birthday or Christmas gift to be some whiz-bang cream or maybe a motorized foot sander, all of which I’m happy to try.
And it’s probably a relief for my family to have something so dependable when they’re racking their brains for a gift.

          The good news is that we’re now in Florida, with fresh air – and humid fresh air at that, even in the winter. My lips feel great and my feet are much happier. Of course, my hair is four times its normal size, but you can’t have everything.

9 comments:

  1. Oh I get it, I get it!! I got two different types of lip balm for stocking stuffers! Summer time, or southern vacations means giant hair for me too!-Jenn

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  2. It sounds like Florida is good for your skin, especially lips and feet and it looks like you are well stocked in the foot beauty treatments department.

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  3. A long time ago I saw a woman with very dry, scaly elbows. (probably in the 70's) I started using lotion, slathering every day after my shower, on my arms, and my feet. That daily routine has eliminated the dryness in both of those places. I'm glad I started that way back when. I can wear my flip flops without worrying about it.

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  4. I have calluses that are decades deep, but no cracking thank goodness. I've got one of those battery operated callus sanders, but it doesn't seem to do much. I even bought the "stronger" sanding wheel for tough calluses and I can use it for quite a while with little to no effect. what I do now is soak the feet and when they're all soft I use a scalpel type blade and scrape at the calluses just like the podiatrist did the one time I went to see one. Effective, but probably more so if I did it more often. Feet are one of those things that get neglected far too easily.

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  5. You can get fairly decent humidifiers for furnaces now. In past years, they didn't work very well, but out present one works well enough. It's attached tot he furnace.

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  6. I remember when I lived in Colorado you could leave a piece of bread on the counter and in a few hours you would have toast. Dry air is now a rarity, here in the Pacific Northwest. I always use chapstick, though, for my lips, since I don't wear lipstick. :-)

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  7. I live in high humidity and when I go places up north and the inhabitants are complaining about how humid it is, I'm slathering lip stuff on my chapped lips.

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  8. AGe brings dry skin. It is just one more maintenance activity.

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  9. I am at that age where I put lotion on my feet at night and then cover them with warm socks:)

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