the sun is hot and it burns

Climate change hooray: Sunburn in March

silhouette of plants during golden hour
Photo by Billel Moula on Pexels.com

Today, Nic and I went birding at Reifel Bird Sanctuary and Boundary Bay (I’ll have a separate post on the outing soon™) and the weather was unusually nice (it got up to 17C in New Westminster, breaking the old record by two degrees). It was lovely and sunny and even though I wore pants and a jacket, I managed to get a mild sunburn on the one part of me that was exposed–the back of my neck. The last time I got a sunburn in March was never, so hooray for climate change!

Still, I’d rather get burned a little now and be reminded to wear sunblock on future sunny days before it gets summer-like, and the potential burn is much more intense. I just didn’t expect that reminder to happen while it was still officially winter.

Handy sunblock tip

Apply the sunblock before it feels like your skin is burning. That way, your skin won’t actually get sunburned.

I learned this lesson today when I decided it would be “smart” to not apply sunscreen early in the morning before spending basically the entire day out in the sun. Whoopsie. I suppose it could have been worse, and I did get some nice photos while out singing my skin.

Sunblock is gross, but handy

During our now legendary “heat dome” event that unofficially ended yesterday (today’s high was a relatively bone-chilling 27C) I opted to do something I almost never do–wear sunblock. And it worked really well. Even as I strolled about in 42C heat and sweated like a very sweaty person, I remained burn-free and am as shimmeringly pale as ever. You’d never know I’d been out of my ice cave!

Anyway, I feel like I am somehow getting more sensible as I get older. Will sunblock leave my exposed skin feeling vaguely sticky and gross? Will dust, grit and small animals adhere to it as I spend time outdoors? The answer is yes, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s better and healthier to avoid a nasty sunburn. Sensible!

I’m also thinking about getting new socks and underwear. I won’t say the prospect of this excites me, exactly, but it is perhaps a little enticing.

Don’t worry, though, I still don’t see bingo as an entertaining recreational activity. Yet.

A haiku for a soggy summer start

The rain falls in June
I know the sun will return
Burn my arms again

Which is true. No matter what I do I always end up with some degree of sunburn on my arms, it’s like one of the laws of the universe. This year I’m using sunblock to see if my body is actually resistant to active sunburn prevention.

I will provide photographic evidence as needed in the near future to demonstrate the outcome of this.

My skin has great a-peel

Sorry about that.

Five days after being dumb by sitting in the sun without moving for 3+ hours to watch the Pride parade and getting a right proper sunburn as a result my arms have finally started peeling. This is good, I suppose, in that I have fresh unburnt skin but it is also gross because big hunks of dry skin flaoting off my body is not really up there on the sex appeal scale.

I swear I will remember sunblock next time.

This is why you don’t refuse sunscreen

Yesterday I was at a WESA softball game. Unlike most spring days, it was actually sunny and warm. Prior to game start I was offered some sunscreen. For some reason I was convinced I was impervious to the sun and declined the offer.

This is the result:

Yes, I am dumb but perhaps a smidgen more humble today than I was yesterday. I will now look for “Sunburning for Dummies” on Amazon.