Today’s adventure was unexpected.

I was sitting in my office this morning starting to read through the first of the three book series. It’s written, but it’s been awhile since I’ve worked on the series, so I thought it would be a get it back in my mind as well as start devising a list of information so I had it available when I get back into book 2.

The problem was that my hands got so cold.

That’s really not unusual for me. It doesn’t help that I don’t have heat in my office. The old wiring of my house just can’t sustain it. When the temperature really drops, I have to close the office off from the rest of the house because the other heaters can’t keep up with the office open. Two big, adjacent windows in a room that pretty much is the same width as those windows lets in a lot of light and a lot of cold. Last year I solved the problem by setting up a second desk in my living room. This summer, I’ve actually been using both workspaces — one for writing and one for publishing.

But while the temperature has dropped, it’s not that cold yet. My office can probably stay open for another month or two. Not if my hands are going to get that cold though.

So, I went on Glove Quest today.

The mission: find a set a gloves which would keep my fingers warm while not being so bulky that I couldn’t type with a fair amount of accuracy. I’d tried fingerless gloves a few years ago and they worked decently except my fingertips would still get cold and that would just ooze down into the fingers, so I knew fingerless were out of the question.

I first looked to see if I could get an idea of what I was looking for. I really liked these Terramar Thermasilk glove liners, and there’s even a review by a guy who uses them to type in his office with no heat (hmm, sound familiar?). Chances of me finding where I live: 5%, increase to 20% if I drive 15 miles. What I did see was that there were several types of gloves for someone looking for compression for joint pain and arthritis. Yeah, that’s not me. Besides that, I want the blood to circulate in my hands, not be compressed and restrained. Warmth, not pain, that’s what I’m going for.

End result here: I decided to order the Terramar glove liners to see how they worked, but it was still going to be a few days before they arrived for me to try (I ordered a small and a medium because I wasn’t sure of the size I’d need).

Then, I had to go down to the library to ask a question, so while I was out I also made a jaunt around town to see if I could find my gloves. Yep, I was right on the money — nothing like that in town. I did find a couple other cheap pairs (one was fluffy!) for me to try. If nothing else, the fluffy set would make a good pair to wear to bed and use while I’m reading at night. Nothing like the rest of me being comfy and my hands cold. Yes, my fingers get cold that easily. Once they do, it’s only a matter of moments before my feet do to. The other set I can use while raking up the leaves I know are coming or doing other light outside things like taking Merlin out.

I went home for lunch and my son decided that he’d join me on Glove Quest, so we drove over the bridge to look in the metropolis city. We checked out two stores that were going to be our best possibility of finding the gloves. I did fall into the 80% I expected to. However, I did find these Seirus Heatwave glove liners at both places we went. The only ones in the small/medium size were in silver. Boy, are they flashy!

I am using them right now and my fingers are warm. The gloves themselves are not too bulky and I’m not making too many mistakes as I type. A few, but sometimes that’s just because I can’t feel the keys as well while I type. I am also out at the desk in the living room and the heater is on low out here, so I’m not cold. Temperature outside has just dropped below 50 degrees, so it’s not yet as cold as it was this morning. I’ll have to return to my office after I’m finished with this post and write for a bit to see how well they are truly working.

Best thing, these gloves don’t work on touchscreen so I won’t be able to use my phone while I’m writing. This has become one of the time holes for me, and though I can be disciplined about leaving my phone alone while I’m in a story, every time I take a break or have a squirrel thought, it’s too easy to pick up to “just check on something.” Then, I lose time. Grrr.

We did also pull this heated shoulder wrap out of storage. A friend got it for me a couple years ago because the office where I worked would also get cold in the mornings (again, big window, and also radiant heating that couldn’t always keep up with the building) and she thought it might help me. I’m hoping it won’t draw too much power for my office and flip the circuit, but we will see. I’ll probably try that out tomorrow morning, or I’ll wait until it’s a little colder next week.

One thing I did learn about myself today: while I have long fingers (this I already knew), I have short thumbs. It seems like no matter how the fingers of the gloves fit on me, there’s always a bulk of material in the tip of the thumb.

Well, so far these gloves have worked out fairly well for me tonight. I have had to correct a few misspellings more than normal, but hopefully as I get use to the keyboard with the gloves, that will go away too. My hands are very important and I want to take care of them.

My son came back from his walk and said that I look like Winter Soldier with the metal hand and gray sweater sleeve. (grin) Yeah, they are flashy. But at least my fingers are warm.

While Glove Quest still has some to come, at least we have been successful for the moment.

Happy adventuring!