It is ALL nature, all natural – that was the point of my earlier post. I prefer the paved-over bits.
I’m wondering if some of you nature lovers out there underestimate the level of discomfort the outdoors causes for the less fortunate among us. I have allergies so bad that, in elementary school, I had to stay inside at recess during the spring. I’m so fair that I start turning pink in ten minutes flat (seriously). And I recently went to an outdoor party at night for a couple hours and got so many bug bites on my feet that they swelled up to the ankles for the next four days.
While I know that products exist to help me avoid all of the above problems, if I have to slather myself with two icky, smelly, oily lotions/sprays and get all doped up on antihistamines that might make me too sleepy to hold out for a two hour hike anyway… at a certain point, it’s just not worth it. Also, to me the appeal of the outdoors is the wonderful, frolicky, nature-y freedom of it all. If I have to plan ahead and buy ointments and medication and alter my natural state just to fortify myself to go outside, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? I want to be an outdoor person, I really do, I even try to pretend to myself that I’m an outdoor kind of girl. Spending the afternoon outside still sounds very appealing and sometimes I set out to do it anyway. But I also know that the outdoors just makes me incredibly miserable. What can I do?
(my bad feelings about sunscreen might also have to do with the fact that I spent several huuuuumid New Jersey summers as a lifeguard and the horrible disgusting feeling of coming home covered in a layer of sunscreen, chlorine, and my own sweat is still relatively fresh in my memory.)
You have pale skin that turns pink in ten minutes flat and you were a life guard? Not a good combo Shimmery
I have terrible allergies, but I found a few teaspoons of local honey alleviates the terrible symptoms when I go hiking. I usually have a teaspoon a day anyway it really works.
I don’t hate nature, nature hates me.
Once the temperature hits about 85, I turn into a sweat machine. I need a sherpa to carry along a bucket of water to keep me hydrated.
The mosquitos are the big beast for me. I was out weeding my flower bed after work today and added four more bites. Its a lot of fun.
I have to go on a client-sponsored fishing trip to Canada at the end of the month. I am just hoping that I get liquored up enough that the mosquitos up there get alcohol poisoning.
When I retire I need to get a summer house in New Zealand and a winter house in Edmonton. I’ll never see another mosquito again.
nature is my ashtray :eek:
Nature also washes my car. Thanks, nature!
Human behaviour outdoors also turns me off nature. Every time I see someone spitting outside, my reaction is “Well, now I’m never touching any grass anywhere again, because there might be spit on it. Blech.”
To be fair, she probably is a championship quality swimmer and knows that ‘AAU’ isn’t a college in the Midwest. Can you still do a ‘flip-turn’? Can you still do 10,000 yards as a good workout? I just hope she takes out the medals & ribbons once in a while & looks at them (the red & blue ones fade).
I grew up in a family of swimmers and while I wasn’t ever a great swimmer, the smell of chlorine still reminds me of good times.