Saturday, February 06, 2010

Is it too late to move to Hawaii?

We had a blizzard hit last night. Remember my photo from November, of the first snowfall of the year?

Now the front yard looks like this.

That thing sticking up in the middle of the photo? It's a railing for the stairs that are under the snow.

The parking lot looks like this:


The husbeast went out earlier to shovel out his truck.

He worked at it for about an hour, gave up, and came back inside.

The snow's about a third of the way up the windows.

And, well, I'm digging in for a nice quiet day of napping, knitting and spinning. I don't think we're in any danger of losing power. So it's just annoying, nothing major.

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For those of you demanding photos of 'the weird hand thing', here you go.

If it turns out all of you can do this, I won't be surprised. I've long wondered just what the cause/effect link is between dexterity and knitters. Do we knit because it's easy due to our dexterity, or are we dexterous because we knit all the time? Probably a little of both.

As for touching my back, between my shoulder blades, yeah, I can do that, too. Both by reaching up over from above, or up from below. You should have seen me while I was doing yoga. Hm. I should probably get back to that.

29 comments:

Nicole said...

Turns out I can do the thumb thing. And I can reach between my shoulder blades as well. I've never had to have anyone scratch my back for me! :D

RC said...

I can do the shoulder blade thing but not the thumb thing. my thumb bends no matter how hard I try ;(

I need to get video of the dogs "swimming like dolphins" through the snow..

Emily said...

I can do the thumb thing, too. (I'm wondering about that physical therapist, now...where has he been not to have seen more of this?)I can also bring my first & pinky finger knuckles together, collapsing my hand; I can slide out of hospital tags easy-peasy (or easily-peasily, to be correct).

And the snow! I'm in NY, about 50 miles north of the city; we were not supposed to get the snow & we didn't. I am so pleased! I'm sick this week & shoveling would have been impossible.

Cindy said...

Can't do the thumb thing, but the snow is pretty.

Kathleen said...

I should get back to yoga, too. Right now, only Celeste is yoga-tized. I'll wait till I am back in my house in Cheyenne before starting asanas so Celeste can practice in the yard and not on my stomach or try to kiss me during an upward dog pose.

Tesha said...

It's not just a knitter thing. I can do the thumb thing and the arm thing, I guess I'm just a general freak cause I have webbed toes too. heh

Alwen said...

My thumbs don't do that, but I'm a bendy in a lot of ways: I can scratch the middle of my own back (left arm is more flexible than right), pull either of my shoulders out of joint, pop my hips out of joint, and roll either ankle inwards. When I stretch my hands, my fingers go back about 30 degrees.

Snowy weather is great knitting weather!

Louiz said...

I can't do the thumb bit, but it feels like I can't do it because I've never done it rather than because my hand doesn't go that way... if that makes sense.

Hope the Goober is enjoying the snow.

amy said...

Husband is flying into Pittsburgh in a couple of days so that he can drive three hours to West Virginia to some out-of-the-way governmental agency. He'd really appreciate it if the roads were passable by then...

Caroline said...

Seems I can do the thumb thing too, though more easily with the left hand than the right. Maybe because that hand is weaker and the muscles are smaller?

Nicole said...

Emily, maybe the physical therapist has never seen it because he's always seeing people with busted-up hands? :)

roxie said...

The older you get, the longer that list of usedtodo things gets to be. I could lay flat on my face and pull myself up to a headstand. Now it's a struggle to rise from a deep squat. But I can still fold my thumb across my palm like you do.

Your weather is sucky, yucky and freakin' frigid!

Caryn said...

I can do the the thumb thing but only half of the back thing. I can't reach up to my shoulder blades but I can reach down pretty well.
My yard doesn't look like that but it's colder than midnight on Pluto and the heat is running almost constantly. Cold makes me tired.

Donna Lee said...

I can do the thumb thing but the arthritis is acting up so it's a tad painful. Your snow photos look like ours. We'll leave the digging out till tomorrow. At least we have a day before we have to go back to work.

Anonymous said...

I can do the soulder thing, and various finger thingies, but not the thumb thing. That's way cool!

That's a fantastic dusting of snow you've got there. Looks amazing. But I think I"ll stick to my nice summer weather... ;)

Carrie said...

If you're doing what I think you're doing, I can do it.

I used to be able to make my elbows meet behind my back, but that was when I was more flexible. :)

Walden said...

Can do the thumb thing, never would have thought anything about it if you hadn't said something. Sometimes we just don't understand our own weirdness. I do come from a pretty flexible family though.

jeanfromcornwall said...

Yes I too can do the thumb thing - what I can also do is bend that heel-of-thumb joint the wrong way. Not by using my other hand to push it but just by itself. My Mum could too, and so can my children.

When I was a child, I used to play that my thumbs were two ladies in bustle dresses, and I could make them sit down. I also used to cause trouble in class, by sitting there with an innocent face and disjointing my thumbs and spooking some of the other pupils. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realise I was doing it." Yea, right!

Emily said...

Re snow: I still remember the blizzard of '78 (kids were 5 & 2 at the time). The drivers on Rte 128 outside of Boston ended up abandoning their cars. My mother usually gauged the depth of the snow by looking out the window to see how far it came up the sides of the car; that morning she looked & saw no sign of the car. Just flat snow.

bobbins said...

I can do the thumb thing, too. And "Live Long and Prosper" but only with the left hand. Sis can do that one with both hands.

shudders about dealing with the snow. Ick. Don't know snow and ice and don't want to learn.

verification word "whiona"

Barbara said...

Yeah, I think Hawaii is just a fantasy right now.

Freaky thumb thing. I can roll my tongue and turn it over. Great parlor trick that amuses fifth graders no end.

Pork with Bones said...

You mean everyone can't do that (the thumb thing)? I'm pretty sure everyone in my family can, except my mother, whose hands suffer the effects of 40+ years of arthritis.

Lola said...

Apparently I can do this, and so can Hubby.

Amy Lane said...

Ooohhheeee---that there is real weather! But very nice photos--and I'm glad you still have power. I can do the thumb thing too... but then, you should see my kids' toes-- there's GOT to be some weird genetics in there somewhere!

choperena said...

So yeah, I can do the thumb thing, hold my hands behind my shoulder blades (one over head, the other under), and grab my feet in a back bend. I can also touch the tip of my nose with my tongue. I've heard being more flexible than Gumby is genetic, since my mom and sister are (compared to regular people) also very flexible.

Liz said...

Another one here for the thumb and shoulder-blades thing. I've wondered about the cause-and-effect relationship to dexterity (wonder if you can have sinisterity if you're left-handed?)...

Kathleen Dames said...

Oh, now I get the thumb thing. Yes, I can do that, too, as well as scratching my own shoulder blades. I, too, should get back to doing yoga.

We're going to Hawaii next year for Spring break. Yay for in-laws who love it there and want to take us with them! At least we have a year to prep for three-kids-with-jetlag.

car transport said...

Never too late to move to Hawaii. I just had one of my friends hire a car transport from his house in Pittsburg to Honolulu because the pipes in his house got so cold they exploded. Just make sure you find a company that is reliable and has a good reputation.

bitch with glasses, they say said...

i think it's called double articulation.not all people are able to do it, it's a genetic thing, i don't know why it really happens but i would say it's something like the tongue thing some people do and others aren't able to..
hope i could help