It's my 57th birthday today. It's sunny and mild, in the low 50s with calm winds. A rare nice day for my birthday since early Januarys are often snowy. I was born during a snowstorm. We have had heavy snowstorms on my birthday multiple times over the years.

I was supposed to go to the supermarket today with the rideshare but I woke up a bit tired for that. I had a random knee pain flare up kick off last night and my left knee was super stiff with stinging pain. If it's not raining I'll go tomorrow instead. I could always just order online for home delivery too and walk down to Walgreens on the weekend to buy something and get the $20 cashback out of my PayPal account there. I did that a couple of weeks ago.

have you tried putting lotion on at night and putting on plastic gloves when going to bed. i had to do this when i got cracks in finger tips due to raynauds

At one time I used to put gloves or socks that lost their mates on my hands after slathering lotion on them at bedtime but that would make my hands sweat so I would end up taking them off. I do put lotion on at bedtime and try to once or twice more during the day and evening. But I can't hold proper moisture in the layers of my skin at all. Washing my hands once or twice just undoes having put moisturizer on. I have dry skin everywhere year round, winter just makes it worse.

I have to apply lip balm multiple times a day year-round. My lips are always dry and frequently peel. I can't hold moisture in the skin of my face either. Slathering on face moisturizer at night only helps a little. I have combination oily-dry skin and the natural skin oil provides zero moisture protective properties. I have been battling this for years now. It's not a new problem at all unfortunately, it's just getting worse in some ways.

I also get cracks in my hands, on the fingers by the joints, and on the back of my hands on top of the knuckles. It doesn't help some days I have more puffiness in my hands and fingers due to arthritis swelling that waxes and wanes, plus some joints are permanently swollen and deformed by the arthritis now. That can make the skin there more taut and vulnerable to cracking too.