January 30, 2002
Dear Everyone:
It’s a bit chilly around here these days. In fact, earlier this week, a storm came through that left snow in the “higher elevations”, meaning the hills all around us. Front page news you can be sure. But then, the sun came out and melted most of the snow. For the past few days we’ve had to make due with just frost in the mornings.
This morning, it was 27° (Fahrenheit) outside, 56° in the living room, while it was well up in the toasty upper 60’s in the bedroom, thanks to a little heater that I use in the winter. When I got home this evening, it was 50° outside and had climbed up to 57° in the house. I leave the furnace off during the day and only turn it on when I get home at night.
It’s been so cold lately, that I’ve taken to wearing a sweater under my jacket on the way in to work in the morning. Trouble is, during the day, as it warms up, I shed the sweater. And forget to take it home with me. So it’s not there the next morning. Slowly a pile of sweaters has been migrating from home to work until I remember to bring them all back again.
Another trick is to toss the jacket and gloves into the drier for a few minutes while I’m putting the final touches on getting out of the house. They tumble and warm up while I’m remembering to take the yogurt out of the refrigerator and put it in the briefcase. The jacket and gloves stay warm long enough for me to get out the door and into the car.
Luckily, it wasn’t that cold last weekend, because “Jeannie” got dreadfully sick overnight Friday. When I woke up Saturday morning, it was to several messages asking me to bring Pedialyte and Gatorade (both containing electrolytes frequently lost during gastrointestinal distress) to her place ASAP. One of the drawbacks of that energy-conserving little heater is that you have to keep the bedroom door closed to keep the heat in. Which means you don’t hear the phone ring, especially at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday.
I grabbed my thermometer (knowing that “Jeannie” wouldn’t have one) and stopped at the supermarket so early that the pharmacy wasn’t even open yet. Got some supplies nevertheless and high-tailed it up to Concord. Miraculously, I actually found a (legal) parking space at “Jeannie’s” complex.
By this time, she had pretty much gotten rid of whatever she’d eaten in the last 24 hours. She took one sip of the Pedialyte and refused to drink any more, for fear she’d have to taste it again if/when it came back up. I spoke with the doctor on call and we agreed that, assuming it was a form of food poisoning from Friday night’s Prime Rib Special, the worst was over. She wasn’t running a fever (any more), so just concentrate on keeping her hydrated.
I brought her some Gatorade, stuck a tape in the VCR and left her to watch a couple of old episodes of The Avengers, while I straightened things up a bit in the kitchen. This was necessary because so many things had been left in the sink to soak that there wasn’t room for anything more. I could barely get in to wash the thermometer before taking her temperature.
Also, I had purchased a new automatic coffeemaker last week, one which shuts off after two hours. “Jeannie” had expressed concern that she sometimes dashes out of the house so quickly that she may forget to turn the coffee off before leaving. Or, if she does turn it off, she can’t remember a few hours later if she did it or not. I felt $30 was little enough to pay for peace of mind.
By 3:00 in the afternoon, we were pretty sure that she wasn’t going to die, so I showed her how to use the coffeemaker and drove home. Any plans to see a movie that weekend had already gone the way of Friday night’s Prime Rib Special.
In other news…
I now have something called a BlackBerry. It’s a wireless email receiver/sender. I’m supposed to keep it with me whenever I’m away from my office, which will start happening more and more as projects start up. So now I can get and send email along with phone calls wherever I am. Plus I’m keeping the PalmPilot because I still use it for tracking expenses.
Now all I have to do is find a little, red wagon to hold all this portable crap as I travel from place to place.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |