redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2020-03-28 04:53 pm

Unexpectedly useful souvenir

Almost 30 years ago, the fanzine convention Corflu was in El Paso, Texas.

El Paso is right across the border from Juarez, Mexico. There was a group outing before the con really started, and I bought a blue-and-purple striped cotton poncho, partly as a souvenir and partly because I thought it would be useful.

Back in New York, I quickly discovered that many of the days that were cool enough for me to want the poncho, but warm enough that the poncho would be enough, were windy. (There are disadvantages to living that close to the Hudson River.) So I put it aside, but kept it, putting it on one shelf or another.

Then I found myself wearing a wrist brace almost 24/7. Somewhere in the last thirty years, my thermoregulation got wonky, such that I can go from too hot to too cold, and back again, within ten minutes. (I'm not having hot flashes. I tend to blame it on the MS, because almost anything with no other identifiable cause might be an MS symptom.) I'd been coping with that by putting on a light sweater or sweatshirt as needed, removing it again, etc. but the brace interferes with it.

So, the poncho. It's very easy to put on and remove, and I don't need to worry about wind inside the apartment. I hadn't expected it to suddenly be practical in my life, and I'm glad I kept it.
otter: (Default)

[personal profile] otter 2020-03-28 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Corflu seems an apt word for today.

I made a poncho for my mom to wear when she had trouble getting in and out of sleeves. Double layered heavy polar fleece for our winters, with a matching scarf/hood thingie. Quite a convenient garment when the season is just right.
calimac: (Default)

[personal profile] calimac 2020-03-29 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't get to the El Paso Corflu, but I did attend the El Paso Ditto, about five years later. We also had an expedition to Juarez. Everybody came along (there were only 13 of us), and that was the only time I've ever attended a convention that adjourned in its entirety to another country. I came back with a few bags of exotic Halloween candy (it was October) and a Mexican-oriented world atlas.
minnehaha: (Default)

[personal profile] minnehaha 2020-03-29 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
I did too!

K.
calimac: (Default)

[personal profile] calimac 2020-03-29 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
I remember that. You took a few of us to the bookstore where I bought the atlas.
minnehaha: (Default)

[personal profile] minnehaha 2020-03-29 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
I don't recall that. Just not-buying vanilla, buying a t-shirt from Chiapas, and re-crossing the border with a New Zealander who didn't speak up when the trolley-full was asked if we were all citizens of the USA.

Oh, maybe we ate at one of those "Carlos and Charlie" kinds of places?

K.
bibliofile: Fan & papers in a stack (from my own photo) (Default)

[personal profile] bibliofile 2020-03-30 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
The kiwi was my spouse at the time. Green card only.
minoanmiss: A detail of the Ladies in Blue fresco (Default)

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2020-03-29 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Yay poncho!