30 October 2023
I maybe overdid it yesterday by a tad. I got out of bed around 6 this morning and by the time I finished a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, I was reeling. My blood pressure was 81/56 and I was so dizzy, I had to go back to bed for a while. I slept until 8:45. I feel OK, just a little lightheaded. I retook my blood pressure first thing and it had climbed out of the abyss and was 112/75. However, I plan to take it easy today just in case.
If you are wondering, the Chile rellenos casserole was pretty good. I don’t think I’ll keep the recipe but it was good for a couple of meals. I’ll set aside some to freeze in case I get the taste for it again.
Fall is in the air. You can tell because when you step outside the house, you don’t melt. Our lows are in the low 70’s and the highs are in the mid 80’s with the humidity below 80%. Practically sweater weather. We’re entering that part of the calendar where South Florida has the highest temperatures in the nation. It’s also why wintering in South Florida is a booming enterprise. I suspect our population increases by 30% during winter months from snow birds moving down. It’s also that time of year to never get behind someone on the roadway that has a Quebec license plate on their vehicle.
As you might guess, I discovered another problem yesterday. I didn’t hear the generator test at the usual time. I got occupied with the laundry but when I did check the generator, a low battery light was flashing. The generator has more than paid for itself in convenience when lights go out during hurricane season and even the short term outages due to smaller storms, but it does take some upkeep.
I used one company for years and had problems with their servicing. I think they eventually went out of business. These days I use Don Hillman, Inc. to service the generator twice a year. I left a message over the weekend for someone to come service the battery. It is either low on fluid or I need a new battery. If I were 100%, I would take the top off the generator and check but I’m just not up to it. If it was low water levels, I could handle that but I don’t have the strength or energy to lift the top off the generator just yet and certainly not to change batteries.
As I wrote previously, we’re in the dry season. That means I need to add water to the pool. It got lower this week than I thought and I spent a good bit of the evening adding water. My water bill will spike over the next few months because of evaporation.
When I worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Miles City, Montana, part of the organization was heavily involved in approval/disapproval of ponds/lakes to be added to property. There was a complicated formula based on the proposed depth, area, location and evaporation rate. People would often spend a huge amount on a pond for their land and later learn to their regret the evaporation rate was so high, the pond would never fill up and would often dry up. Unscrupulous companies would say yes, it’ll work, take their money, build the pond and walk away. The Bureau was good at telling people what they didn’t want to know – their pond idea wasn’t going to work because of evaporation rates.
At certain times of the year, you can watch my pool loose up to 1/4 inch a day due to evaporation. In our case, it’s mostly wind that’s the big problem, not necessarily the heat and sun’s rays.
Just checked with the generator company. They’ll send someone out as soon as they can (no guess as to when). Apparently, either they didn’t send or I didn’t receive a renewal notice for my contract with them. That’s why they didn’t call me back. Looks like the week is starting out expensive.
Stay tuned!
