In all Its Glory Ten

This is what I wake up to every morning: Spiderman hand. To celebrate that, here are:

Ten Positive Things About Having Arthritic Hands

Arm-wrestling challenges are never made to me.

For Halloween I really can dress up as Spiderman, and I'll look very authentic.

I always get a pass for not having a proper manicure.

I don't have to do anything that requires the wearing of gloves for the rest of my life.

People who know me never try to shake my hand. People who don't try, stop when they actually see my hand, look horribly embarrassed, and then apologize profusely.

Picking out what rings to wear is not a problem (can't slip any past the swollen joints.)

Polite applause is never expected of me.

The Asian guy in the mall who tries to wheedle passing people into his massage salon only grimaces at me.

The impulse to give people who drive badly the finger remains just an impulse.

When my guy and I are out he doesn't try to hold my hand. He keeps an arm around me (sweet) or tucks his hand in the back pocket of my jeans (sexy.)

Comments

nightsmusic said…

Your hand actually looks better than I thought it would. We have a friend who's fingers aren't only gnarled terribly, but they point at a 90 degree from their hands, both, rather than straight off. My fingers are twisting but so far, hanging in there. I'm really sorry you're going through this. The sweetest thing in this post is your guy walking with his hand in the back pocket of your jeans (and yes, it's sexy!)

September 17, 2020 at 8:07 AM

Maria Zannini said…

You don't have rheumatoid arthritis, do you? A friend of mine (very young) has a hand/wrist that looks just like that. It's bad enough when people our age get it, but I hate to see young people get it. Think of the decades ahead of them like this.

At least I've done enough dumb things in my life that merits having gnarled fingers and dislocated joints.

September 17, 2020 at 3:00 PM

the author said…

I've had rheumatoid arthritis since I was 28, unfortunately. It mostly affected my hands, feet and (oddly) one knee. Just in the last couple of years I've also developed osteoarthritis in my neck, shoulders, one arm and three fingers. :( So it's going to get interesting now.

September 18, 2020 at 11:06 PM

the author said…

I've had three surgeries on this particular hand, but the scars are mostly on the other side so it doesn't look so bad from this angle. I am blessed so far not to have the gnarling, although in a couple of years I'll likely be dealing with that, too. Never a dull moment with my joints. :)

September 18, 2020 at 11:08 PM

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Valerean

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