TheBanyanTree: Hot and Cold

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I move the thermostat up to “hot” at work every morning.  I want to savor
the few minutes of warmth I might get before my alcoholic boss comes in and
slams the little knob back down to “cold.”

Then our corner of the office goes into a deep freeze.  I have a little
heater under my desk and I crank that up to full blast to keep my skin from
turning blue.  I bought a blanket recently, and I’ll dig that out of my
drawer and wrap it around my shoulders.  Then I’m warm, except for my
fingers.  They’re kind of frozen, but I can get them to move enough to type
and write.

Everyone in our corner, except for my alcoholic boss and another co-worker,
is freezing.  We don’t dare say anything, however, because whenever we have
in the past, they start screaming like little kids about how hot they are
and how they can’t work in these conditions.  Their screams drown out our
wails, and we’ve learned to accept the office environment as it is defined
by them, cold.

We celebrate the days my alcoholic boss doesn’t come in, and there are
plenty of them, because he’s hung over quite a bit.  Then the thermostat
stays at the “hot” point.  The blankets and sweaters stay in desk drawers.
And the heaters remain off.

Not only do I battle the temperature in my office, my body is war zone for
hot and cold.  One minute I’m burning up and my skin begins to glisten, and
then the next minute I’m freezing and looking for a sweater.

I’m getting real tired of this.  Ray asked me if I should see a doctor after
his fingers got burned during one hot flash.  I laughed and said this is
very normal.  I wouldn’t want to go on estrogen therapy even if it wasn’t
found to cause heart disease and Alzheimer’s.  I want to stay drug free as
long as I can.

But these flashes are driving me nuts.  I can shrug them off during the day,
but at night, it’s awful.  Covers on.  Covers off.  Covers on.  Covers off.

I can have a million hot flashes, and be as hot as the sun, but I’m never
warm at work.  That remains Antarctica because of all the crybabies who go,
“waa waa waa waa” when they’re just a little bit warm.  The freeze babies
like me have to suck it up and remain in a semi-frozen state.

All I want is for my body to stay at a comfortable temperature and for my
office not to be a refrigerator.  And neither one of them seems very
possible right now.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

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