It took me a long time to understand what a humidifier could do to improve one's life if you're living in dry California. I'm only sad that it took me this long to figure it out!
At first it seemed like a strange proposition... to add moisture to the air. But then, a few years back while attending Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, I figured it out. Every year going to Denver in October had it's fun and not so fun moments. The hardest part of the trip was sleeping in the hotel with the crazy dry October cold air. I figured out how to deal with chapped lips early on, but inevitable dry throat and cold that followed was hard to handle. I couldn't sleep and within days was a wreck. In a moment of desperation, I ordered up a humidifier... I mean, really, what was there to lose? It was free from the hotel to boot.
The darn thing worked. No more dry throat and cold. So I bought one. Sure enough, it did the trick and the winter ritual was started. Sleeping became a whole lot easier. It works through March and then I shut it down through summer and fall.
Until this year. We've had the strangest weather in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cold, no rain, overcast daily and a LOT of wind. I had experienced these conditions before but most of the time the overcast weather ends in June. Not this year... we've hit mid July, it's cold, dry and very windy. Every day. Sleeping through the night was a challenge and waking with an irritable throat was not good in these days of Corona. But as soon as I started my day, all was fine. The momentary panic of "is this COVID symptoms?" went away. I was fine.
So, last night on a whim, I fired up the humidifier. It worked. I slept. No scratchy throat in the morning. Yep, another ritual begins.
