Author Archives: lindalouslife

Oh. You’re a redhead.

Being a redhead comes with its share of quirks, such as:

  • We require more anesthesia than non-redheads. (I can vouch for this. I’ve never had a dentist be able to fully numb my mouth, which has a lot to do with my dental work phobia.)
  • We produce our own vitamin D. This one makes sense since our lack of melanin means we can’t get as much vitamin D from sunlight.
  • Redheads don’t go gray; we go blonde and then go white. I’m well into the blonde spectrum now. I’ve heard it said that redheads don’t go salt and pepper, we go cinnamon and sugar. I love this!
Just call me quirky!

I’ve stumbled across a few other traits over the years:

  • When I gave birth to our oldest son, another redhead had given birth a couple of hours earlier, The other redhead had hemorrhaged and the nurses watched me like a hawk because apparently we bleed more than non-redheads.
  • When I had my wisdom teeth removed, the oral surgeon said that redheads bleed worse and swell worse than non-redheads. I did fine. When my oldest son (also a redhead) had his wisdom teeth removed, the poor guy had so much swelling, he couldn’t eat solid food for a week.
  • I had an endoscopy a couple of years ago and was given Robinul to dry up the secretions in the mouth and throat before the procedure. The nurse warned me that it would cause my heart to race for a few minutes but it shouldn’t last more than five or ten minutes. Hahahahaha! An hour later I was still experiencing periods of a racing heart. It was like have an hour-long anxiety attack; I was not having fun. The nurses finally called the anesthesiologist who came in, looked at me and said “Oh. You’re a redhead.” Lucky me! On that note, it will be a cold day in hell before I let anyone give me Robinul again.
  • The most recent instance came up last November. I had a bone density scan which showed osteoporosis in my spine and osteopenia (precursor to osteoporosis) in my hips. During my appointment with my general practitioner to discuss treatment I told him that I have been taking calcium supplements for thirty years; my now-retired gynecologist had me start taking calcium because he said that my being a “tall, slim, Caucasian female” made me the textbook description of someone who would develop osteoporosis. My GP nodded and said, “Also, your red hair.” Wait, what? I said “Seriously? That’s another one of the weird redhead traits?” He nodded. “Yes. Red hair/Norse ancestry make you more likely to develop osteoporosis.” Whoo hoo! He also said that without my calcium regimen, I probably would have developed serious problems five to ten years ago. So now, I have added once-a-month Boniva to my medication regimen and will have follow-up bone density scan in a year.

Are there any “quirky” traits associated with being blond or brunette?

❄️❄️❄️❄️‼️

Y’all, we got snow! *twirls like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music* There was a chance of snow a few weeks ago, but it didn’t make it this far south. Now, many of you may live in areas where snow is a fact of life, but around here, it’s as rare as hen’s teeth. (The last time we had snow at our house was 2018.) When the forecast hints that we may get snow and/or frozen precipitation, I become a big kid. While I may be calm on the outside, on the inside, I’m all pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. So, when snow was predicted for January 21st, all of my fingers and toes were crossed. It started snowing shortly after lunch and continued through the next morning. We ended with a respectable four inches, and, for once, we didn’t get a layer of sleet to top it off.

Yes, that four inches shut everything down for a couple of days, which makes northerners snort and roll their eyes. However, we have reasons for our caution. Here in the South, we don’t have snow tires or equipment to clear the roads. Okay, Atlanta has sixty snow plows, but the rest of us just have to wait for everything to melt. However, the biggest reason for us to stay off the roads is because we don’t know how to drive in the snow; it’s best for everyone if we just stay home.

In true southern weather fashion, last Wednesday, we had snow on the ground, and this Wednesday, the temperature is expected to be seventy degrees (Fahrenheit).🙄 I know we’ll have a few more cold snaps before spring, but I doubt we’ll have more snow. So, I’ll leave you with a few photos.

The snow was too powdery for a snowman, so I made a snow angel instead.
Already the top contender for our 2025 Christmas card.

Smackdown!

I look back at 2024 and I’m not sure what we spent the year doing.🤷‍♀️ We didn’t get to take a big trip, but we did take a few short ones. At least we didn’t spend the year making a lot of expensive home repairs; we only had one appliance die on us in 2024: our range. Now, I’m side-eyeing our refrigerator because it’s the only appliance we haven’t replaced since we moved in.

I’m not really a resolution maker, but I have set myself a few goals:

  • Exercise more
  • Keep going through the items that I’ve allowed to pile up because I either a) don’t know what to do with them, or b) just haven’t wanted to deal with them.
  • This one is more of a wish than a goal: selling our old house. Our youngest son and his girlfriend rent from us and had expressed an interest in buying the house. Unfortunately, J (the girlfriend) lost her job and it took a few months for her to find a new one. However, she now has a new job she loves so it looks like we may be back on track to sell this year. I really hope it works out; Kenn and I are both tired of being landlords.

As for the title of my post, my word of the year was chosen by Merriam-Webster. Participants just had to take a screenshot of their GIF that was scrolling through a series of words, and I got “smackdown.” I showed it to Kenn and he said “Oh, crap.”😂 So… *crack knuckles* let’s do this?

Do you make resolutions?