“The Lady’s Not for [Drowning]”

With apologies to Christopher Fry. I dashed out to my car in the cloudburst yesterday morning, headed up for the park and ride, made it through the first low-water crossing with only a little uneasiness, and came to a lake where there should have been an intersection. With two low-water crossings yet to go. There was a pickup waiting to turn, and somebody else stopped a couple of blocks ahead of me, so I put on my left-turn signal [because my car is mysteriously without one that says “Hang on a minute. I’m making a U-turn.”] and headed back the way I came.

I figure that my life is worth the $15.00 that it costs to park under my building. And two of the monthly-parkers were out of the office yesterday, so another co-worker with the same idea and I, both got to park for free.

Preparing for the future. Some things that have been on my mind for the past several months, and new ideas that have popped up like mushrooms after the rain.

Emergency power supply for CPAP machine
It’s one of those things you don’t think about until you’re sitting in the dark and wondering if you’ll have to sleep propped up in a chair all night. After our brief blackout a couple of weeks ago, I spent some time researching options for a backup power supply.

My friend Brother Karitas’ father has a BiPap; it pushes air into his lungs and pulls it out again. Their backup is a gasoline-powered generator on the back porch, and when the power is out, it is Brother Karitas’ job to sit on the back porch in the exhaust fumes and make sure that the generator continues to function.

These are some of the options that I came up with. When I have a place of my own, I would like to set up the solar panels as the primary backup, with a conventional battery in case of extended darkness. I don’t know if any of you also use a CPAP or if you’ve thought about the need for an alternative power source. If you have one, what did you choose, and why?

http://www.powerenz.com/store/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=24
http://www.cpapdiscountstore.com/catalog/super-cpap-battery-pack-bgc222-p-709.html
http://www.cpap-supply.com/Articles.asp?ID=146
Note in the last that they recommend a deep cycle marine battery. What a charming accessory for the boudoir! I wonder if it comes in red...

I forwarded my research, embryonic as it is, to one of my co-workers who uses a CPAP. It hadn’t occurred to him, either, that “no power” = interrupted sleep.

My second pair of Dansko’s arrived at the office yesterday, and the snack plates, both won on eBay. Which leaves the mystery package from England [well, it's not a mystery to me, but it needs to be one for everybody else, at least for now] and the silver flatware.

And I bid on more of the salad plates last night.

I’ve been reading the home dec and gardening magazines that my co-worker and his wife share with me, and I am getting itchy to try unblackening my thumb. He also brought me a sheaf of Cook’s Illustrated, which I have yet to sit down and peruse.

The second Serpentine [medium] is about halfway done, and my row counter has gone missing. I think I had it at Knit Night. It might have slipped off my lap on the train, night before last; I don’t know. So I am making do with check-marks up one side of the chart.

I brought home five boxes from Knit Night [thanks, Jeri!], which we loaded into the car before the sky opened up, and which I unloaded after I got home last night. We have a potluck at church tonight. My contribution will be whatever I can pick up at the store after I get off the train. So, probably no packing tonight, but I’m bowing out of a dinner group activity for tomorrow night, and maybe I can get half a dozen boxes packed before bedtime.

Gotta dash. We had more rain last night, so I need to find an alternate route to the park and ride.