KEEPING IT COOLThank goodness for warmer weather,

KEEPING IT COOL

Thank goodness for warmer weather, comparatively speaking, as I have been able to keep the heat way down even during the day. This morning it was under 60 when I left to run my errands; when I got home and felt how cool it was, I turned it up to about 63. I hope my housekeeper Norma didn't freeze while she was here but I imagine she gets pretty warmed up, cleaning! I changed from my heavy cotton top to a sweatshirt after I had unloaded the groceries and I will put a throw over me while I nap in a little while. I am all about conserving fuel!

Speaking of that, I checked the propane tank and it's down to 40% full. I am going to attempt to use great care in not keeping the house too warm unless I should have company, as I don't want to use a lot of propane. (At my business, we aren't using the propane compaany's budget plan and my bookkeeper and nephew, Nick, said that the propane fill-up for the last two months was more than for all of last year combined!)

I truly feel helpless and in some despair when I see the oil company prices hiked up again and again. The other morning, early in the morning, I happened to be somewhat awake and I had the idea of a class action suit against the oil companies, who are raking in record profits. Of course, in the light of day, it didn't seem feasible but I liked the idea as long as I was able to entertain it in my fuzzy brain. LOL!

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I do have very good news this morning. My blood pressure was way down! It may have helped that my nurse sister Kathy suggested deep breathing for a minute before I had the blood pressure taken, and my nurse friend Sheila suggested thinking of something funny while on the way. I wasn't able to come up with the funny thought but I did breathe deeply while waiting for the nurse to switch on the blood pressure machine. I can't remember whether the higher number is the systolic or diastolic but it was much better at 112 this morning. (It was 175 last Wednesday.) I can't recall what the lower numbers were. This morning's nurse said, "That's more like it!" and asked me if I had been in a lot of pain the week before. I said I had been and also that my mail had been stolen the day before so I was stressed about that. I came home and threw the high blood pressure literature that Kaiser had sent to me yesterday into the recycling bag. LOL!

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Blogger/Google seems to be having some difficulties this morning and I don't know if this will load. I couldn't get the Ziggy to come up. I will try later or maybe post two tomorrow. I won't be posting quite as many for the next while and I will run out in a week or so, since my friend Lynne is on vacation.

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I have taken 1/2 a Vicodin and I'm still starting to get sleepy. I am going to be keeping that dosage for a couple of days -- as long as my arm is very sore at all. Last night my hand was very painful and I had to wonder what was going on with it. It seems okay today, though, so I am not going to turn into a hypochondriac as far as what could be wrong when it hurts. It's time to go let Silver know I'm ready for him to nap on my lap.

MAYBE WHY I DIDN'T

MAYBE WHY I DIDN'T POISON MYSELF? ;-)

I wrote a few days ago that I had used some light mayo from my fridge that, when I checked the jar label afterwards, said the expiration date had been 02. I was very surprised and shocked by that, especially since it didn't taste bad and I didn't get sick.

I threw the jar out and today I bought the replacement. When I checked the jar, the last numbers on the expiration date were again 02. Before them were the numbers 1010. (That had to be for October 2010.) So I dug through the garbage and found the coffee-ground-covered bottle of light mayo that I had thrown out. The expiration date on it was 0307 (March 2007). No wonder I hadn't poisoned myself with it! Whew! The old jar was still ancient enough to leave in the garbage, as it had to have been bought a couple of years before the expiration date, like the new jar was.

In telling an online friend about the old light mayo when I thought it had expired in 02, her first thought was to say there must be all sorts of preservatives in it. Even for it to last two years, of course there are some preservatives there. They don't bother me as much as the thought of suffering from salmonella poisoning does, though.

Another online friend mentioned once that she wouldn't buy mayo because it would only last a week or two in the fridge. I didn't have a response to her post, which was on one of the blind lists I'm on. I wasn't the expert on the aging of mayo then that I am now. -G- I don't know what kind of mayo she was getting (she lives in Canada) but it should have lasted a lot longer than that.

At any rate, I felt much safer eating my egg salad sandwich for lunch today. If anything disturbs my system in the next few hours, it will likely be the Glucerna chocolate caramel bar I just ate. ;-)

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If I'm remembering correctly, I paid $3.39 a gallon for gas this morning at the Shell station in town, and filling from just under 1/2 tank, it cost me about $36.00. Thankfully, I don't have too far to travel in the coming few weeks, until my coast trip the 13th to 16th of April. I will have to be prepared to pay a lot more for gas during that time, as I like to drive along the coast and once again see the lovely seaside vistas.

I came home from running my errands and not long after that, the propane truck came to fill up my propane tank. I am on the company's budget program so I wasn't too alarmed by the $435.00 for the 155 gallons it took to fill the tank. I was concerned about the 51 gallons left on my budget program, and I was left wondering what happened when those were used up. (My educated guess is that I will be paying a higher price for whatever amount of propane may be needed over and above those 51 gallons, as I expect I will have one more fill of the tank before summer.) At least, they once again remembered to come and fill it without my having to call and request it. Bully for them!