Maybe Ten

Hours, that is. I mean, I may have miscounted and slept ten hours and not actually eleven hours but the point is (and was) I still felt like I could crawl back into bed and sleep more. Maybe it is the wake ups to go to the bathroom every time I slip into REM or perhaps during or right after as the blood pressure medication contains a diuretic, though who knows what may be going on in my head. I didn't wake as often before the medication. I did have such high blood pressure until the medication either. That's the corruption of modern medicine, give a pill at the first sign of a symptom and make the body physically dependant on that pill (in ever increasing doses) for life. Damn modern medicine. Tell me how you really feel about it, right?

I stayed awake because I had the Saturday softball league playoffs scheduled but that was rained out and I was already mostly awake when Curly came by to hang out and wait for one of the other tenants for his rent money. We checked the plumbing and it still needs some work, but the hot water is connected. Only thing is, it was cool because the other tenant just got home and likely took a shower. Not a very big water tank. Guess I will have to get used to timing my showers when they are not home or taking my showers when they don't take theirs and dealing with cool water if they are doing laundry when I need a shower. There is a bigger tank in the other apartment that has one occupant, the two other tenants and I share the smaller tank. Not ideal, but that's how the place was piped.

The fixtures leak and have leaked a bit more each time they were used so I need to get new ones. I know, money, but I don't want Curly buying everything for the place since he is not charging me any rent. We will should for fixtures together (soon I hope) and I'll be frugal. Buying them myself does let me get what I want within my price range. Anyway, I wanted thirty minutes but the water was still cool. An hour later (90 minutes) I took my first hot shower here (after scrubbing the shower stall with Tilex) and with care, I only got a little water from the leaks in the holes in the walls that have not been patched yet. It'll take some getting used to as it's a small stand-up shower stall and there is no place to put soap or shampoo or anything and the fixture is huge and has parts that need to be moved around to stand up straight (another reason to replace it... It would be great in a bigger space if it didn't have a few leaks that spray streams in odd directions). In spite of the challenges (and not really feeling like I could get really clean), it was great to take a hot shower here.

My hands were very dry afterward and I am not sure if it the kind of water here or if it was from cleaning the the Tilex (though I used a brush) or if it is the cumulative cement and wallboard dust in the air and on the floors and more places than I'd like. Alas, it is a free place so no complaints, just need to find the skin lotion. Also need to remember to buy water tomorrow as I don't have any water filters here and I rarely drink tap water because of the kidneys stones I used to (and still occasionally) get. The high mineral content of water in Florida is not the best for preventing stones and I rarely get them as long as I drink filtered, purified (osmossis), or distilled water. I do take vitamins daily to compensate for the low mineral content of the water I drink.

After the shower I touched base here in the blog world and then I headed out to Excel and the Commodore's place to play Bridge. Excel made spaghetti dinner with home made meat sauce that was cooking overnight and garlic bread and Mike made a veggie salad but they forgot to bring out the veggie salad and we were already on our second helping of spaghetti and meat sauces when he brought it to the table. A great veggies salad, but so was the main meal so it didn't get eaten as much as it would have it if would have been brought out before the second helpings. I did not snack much after that so the cutting down on calories did actually happen a bit, yay for good decisions. The food was yummy.

We played lots of Bridge and for the first time I won the night, though I did play one more game than anyone else because of a bit of confusion in the rotation as five of us played. Curly's son, Hulk, was staying with Curly for the weekend and he played for the first half of the night. He enjoys video games and moved over to those for the second half of the night. Anyway, I am learning and we had fun.

Got home in less than 30 minutes which is pretty fast as I made most of the lights the whole way. It can ealist take 45 minutes and up to an hour with traffic and many lights. Still no fun alone, but that is life for the wild and crazy guys of the world. And me. Must get to sleep now (though not sleepy) as I will be at the fields in about five and a half hours (which means awake in five) and sleep will not likely come the moment I lay down.

Hope you are enjoying your life your way (let me know if you'd like to share).

Nite Nite :)