First post of 2019

The last month flew by like a breeze. I have not had much time to update my blog. The good news is that we found decently priced movers, and will be living Toronto for good (most likely, for as long as Doug Ford is Premier in Ontario). The PC government has been cutting off a lot of social services, and even gave themselves an increase on the amount they can declare for housing, while scrapping rent control, the minimum wage increase that was supposed to take effect as of January 1st, no more free tuition, amongst other things. It is a complete mess, and it is clear that the Conservatives do not care about poor people, especially LGBTQ and people of colour. It is no longer safe for people like me (disabled, poor, and queer) to stay in Ontario.

The weather here is currently a deep freeze. Step into a freezer and you’ll get the idea, though you’d be missing the wind. Many homeless people in Toronto will likely die from exposure, because mayor Tory won’t open more space to offer shelter to them. Last night, when the windchill made it feel like it was -35ºC, the heat in our unit was off, despite my landlady claiming it was never turned off, but then in another email, she said she turned it off because *she* was hot! It takes a lot from me to request fixing things, because I detest confrontation, so I tend to be as polite and diplomatic. Then we received a hostile reply that we are complaning too much, and preventing her from doing her work. I have never felt so disrespected. Of course we are going to get in touch if something needs to be fixed, is that not the point? It is really upsetting, I just want to maintain peace, but being bullied and silenced doesn’t sit right with me.

As if things didn’t already suck so much, yesterday I was thrown in Facebook jail for saying that “Men are trash”. 3 days where I can’t post or comment, or even use Messenger. It’s truly appalling when reporting content that is clearly racist, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic, rarely get taken down. Men can threaten women with violence, and Facebook will take your screenshots down for being against their TOU. The assholes doing the threatening though? No consequences whatsoever. My presence on this site will be greatly reduced once I’m free. I cannot continue to support a platform that cares so little about its users. Cutting me off from Messenger is terrible, this is what pisses me off more than not being able to post or comment on FB. That’s how many people, including family, keep in touch with me. Now I have to email my mom to reassure her I’m not dead. Mark Zuckerberg only cares about white, cis, straight men. 

I will update this blog again once we are all settled in at our new place. It will be a stressful 8 days. 

I Hate Heat Waves

We’ve been having a heat wave since Saturday. I think it is the worst one yet for the last few years. I took these screenshots last week. The first one is in °C, and the second is in °F (I know some of you readers are in the US).

As a chronically ill person, this kind of weather is awful. Here’s how it affects me:

• My asthma was pretty bad in elementary school. I’d get bronchitis every year until I was about 12. A decade later, I was in university. During a particularly  brutal semester, my lack of sleep and my eating junk food weakened my immune system enough to get pneumonia. It’s more severe than bronchitis. The fever was the worst since the first time I recall having the flu when I was 9 or 10. I was at 39.5°C/103°F. It was really scary. Coughing made my back hurt. I had to stay home because I didn’t really want to spread the disease to other fellow students. I was also working at a cafe in the university campus, and showing up while very sick was not a good idea. My supervisor gave me shit for it, which is just so wrong. I didn’t go to my classes but I had to give my supervisor a note for my absence. I had to go on 2 different antibiotics to get rid of that bug. Ever since then, my ability to breathe in extreme conditions has been reduced, especially very humid heat, which is what we’re currently having. Try imagining that you can only breathe through a very narrow straw. Or that the air is thick and dense like molasses.
• Brain fog from fibromyalgia is especially bad on those days. I haven’t been doing much housework since it started, because the fog is draining my energy.
• June and July is migraine season for me. The weather really has an impact. I used to keep a migraine journal a few years ago, after the neurologist I saw at the time encouraged me to do so. I think 75% of my migraines happen in those 2 months.
• Chronic pain flare ups from fibromyalgia, arthritis, and endometriosis. The first two also happen during especially cold winter days. It could also be the high humidity playing into it.

I heard people having the knee-jerk reaction to mention how it’ll be the extreme opposite (cold and snow) in a few months. I don’t understand this at all. Both weather scenarios are just as bad for me, and other people with chronic illnesses/pain. In the winter, there are hazards that are absent in the summer: icy sidewalks and unshoveled snow on sidewalks. The ice makes me very anxious and scared about falling.

Extreme weather affects a lot more people than you’d think. I’m incredibly thankful for the central AC in my house, the best thing about this place. If you live in an area affected by this recent heat wave, make sure to drink a lot of fluids, avoid going outside between noon and 3pm (when the heat and UV index are the highest) unless you really need to, and wear cotton clothing and light colours. Be safe.