Glovittens

Photo Description: Hudson's Bay Olympic Collection Mittens. Black tops, with the Olympic logo and Canadian flag, red middle with CAN, in white on the top of the glove hand and a white maple leaf on the palm of the glove hand, then white tips at the top of the thumb and at the top of the fingers.

My hands get cold very easily.

A few winters ago I finally came up with a solution to that problem. I had bought various pairs of gloves, all promising warmth and none of them were capable of keeping me warm  while out and about using my power chair. Finally, in desperation, I tried something. I bought a nice pair of gloves that fit fairly snugly. Then I bought a pair of that year's annual Hudson's Bay Olympic mitts. When I first tried it, Joe looked at me quizzically with the 'what the hell ...' look on his face. I put the glove on, then shoved my gloved hands in the the mitts. Out we went. Victory! Warmth.

I'm telling you this now because, though my method keeps me warm it also creates another challenge which I face every year at this time. Driving my power chair with it's little joystick, that responds to the slightest pressure, with these gloves on requires tremendous focus and a couple of weeks of learning to drive all over again.

Not only that, learning to do this when there are more people out shopping, more things stuffed in the way, narrower passageways to get through. I do take my glovittens off when I go into a store, but as people are flowing in behind me I have to drive until I can find a place to stop and get them off. This means, like it did the other day, driving through the liquor store with new displays of fancy expensive bottles everywhere I looked, until I got to the back corner of the store where I took them off. I expected, at any moment, to here the crashing sound that a cut corner would leave behind. But I made it.

Today we're going out into that Black Friday weekend madness, we need groceries and to pick up a gift or two to send to people out west. My glovittens will be on, may the odds be ever in my favour as I make my way, with my joystick nestled between two layers of wool, completely unfelt my my hand.