Five Days and Counting

No A/C since Monday and still alive.

Mornings are the worst, as my patio window faces east, directly in line with rays from the rising sun. Which is great on a normal day. Not so much in the midst of a heat wave and no A/C. Even with the blinds closed, the heat seeps in.

After breakfast, you’ll find me drained of energy, sitting on the couch, staring at the walls, listening to the television, waiting for the heat of the sun to pass.

Along about noon, I usually take a nap, more like pass out. But when I awake a little after 3:00, the unit is still hot like a sauna, but not unbearably so.

Drinking lots and lots and lots of water.

The portable A/C is little comfort. I’ve asked the office if they have a better more powerful one, but have not yet heard back. Also, no news on when the A/C situation will be resolved.

All I can say is it’s a good thing I’m one of the more active stronger seniors, or I would be dead already.

I could go stay with my daughter until the heat wave is over or until the A/C situation is resolved, whichever comes first, but I’d really rather not.

She’s a good enough daughter, a nice enough human, but her personality is much like my mom's -- the type of personality that I find it necessary to walk on eggshells in her presence, be careful what I say, what I do, so I’d really rather not put myself through that for an extended period.

I’ve also thought about booking myself into a hotel, but then there’s the no soy, no wheat, no high fructose corn syrup in order not to set off a painful gut episode, which means feeding myself away from home would be a challenge. I remembered the hotel in a nearby city, which was the location of a meditation session I attended, had a kitchen in its rooms, but then I got to thinking about how much of a hassle it would be to haul what I needed to the hotel in the form of clothes, makeup, cookware, product.

After I weighed the pros and cons, I decided living in this sauna is the lesser hassle … for right now, but that could change.

My energy started coming back late yesterday to where I was able to do more than just sit or lay on the couch, so I put in some time on the needlepoint project, even got some scrapbooking done. Waking up this morning with energy, I decided to get away from the worst part of the morning heat by heading out to gas up the car and pick up a shipment from Walmart.

Stepping outside the door, it was actually cooler outside than in my unit.

At the gas station, I noticed the new construction across the street, that I’d seen going on for some time, was actually a Starbucks – directly across the street from the Starbucks I usually visit.

Talking to the gas station cashier about how odd it was to have a Starbucks across from Starbucks, she informed me the old one was moving into the new one.

That makes more sense.

I was a bit alarmed at Walmart when the pick-up counter person handed me a huge box, as what I’d ordered was a thin package of half-fold greeting cards for scrapbooking purposes.

Not wanting to get all the way back to the unit before learning the shipment was incorrect, I opened it on the parking lot.

So many trees – all that box and paper, for a ¾ inch thick packet.