COVID Toe? Frostbite? Don’t matter. I Got My Feet Rubbed Good and Proper

Bunions! 2018. Acrylic on panel, 16 x 20"

Last Thursday night I felt old age for the first time in my life. I had tingling and neuropathy in my toes, so I unhappily took a closer look (I am a life long toe-averter, and shun any attention to my feet.) There was bruising on the tips of several toes, and a red hardening on the tops of the middle ones, just below the cuticles. Earlier in the day I was moving paintings outdoors in smart shoes and dress socks. Temperature -6° Fahrenheit (-21° C). Did I get frostbite?
What a strange feeling. And then I did what us older types stuck in northern winters do as soon as we feel a new feeling in our bodies. I went to the computer to find out what else might be wrong with me.
Oh no! Is it diabetes? Will I lose my toes? Are my triglycerides off the charts? Am I going to have a stroke?
My wife suggested I look up “COVID Toe”—a lessor known symptom or reaction from people who have had COVID-19. It happens mostly among younger people, when their immune systems mount a strong antiviral attack on coronavirus. The image of the suffering foot looked like my feet. Likewise very similar to the pictures on the frostbite information website.
So which was it?
Or is it a symptom of something much worse going on in my body?

Well, it’s been a couple days, and I just don’t care anymore. For on Saturday, I received a two-hour long pedicure from Rose (my wife) who was very tired of listening to my outward expressions of acute anxiety. She shut me up for the time being, and it was a revelation of sorts.
I no longer hate having my feet touched, by myself or others. I believe that pedicures are a positive thing to come into the life of any person lucky enough to have feet.

Wow. Another 180° turn in philosophy. Happens to me all the time. I wrote the following song last year when Rose was trying to convert me and failed. Touching my feet gave me the blues:

Cosmetic Treatment of My Feet and Toenails

Sing along:

I’m wheezing on my pillow
The dust is in the pipes
My skin’s a-cracklin’ on my face
The window frosts with ice
Don’t feel so young and pure
Time for a pedicure

Don’t know what my feet looked like
last time you came around
Don’t care to look down there
They make a crinkling sound
All I really know for sure
Don’t think I’ll endure
without a pedicure

Please bring your lotions
your scrapers and your touch
Pull back my cuticles
No wait, not that much!
Stay down upon your knees
I need a pedicure please

I know you think I’m loaded
and I’ll tip for special care
You got the tweezers out
and another ingrown hair
I love this sweet torture
Saturday pedicure

Run your fingers between my toes
Yeah, just like that
Scrape my ankle dander away
prick my smooth foot fat
I know you got the cure
A final pedicure
Never again