OT - Gee thanks for that Storm

Gee, thanks for the storm. We didn't get a white Christmas (oh yes,
December seasonal holiday), but I woke up this morning to about three
inches of snow and lots and lots of teeny snowflakes a coming down.
Around here "teeny snowflakes = it's going to keep snowing for the
duration/Large, pretty snowflakes = it's slowing down or stopping."

Within an hour, we had white out conditions, and my pain level
ratcheted up immensely. (As it would, consdiering that the weather
keeps going from warm to freezing and back again) I tried to bead
for a while, but things got so bad, I went back to bed to sleep at
about 10 am. When I woke up, I was still in pain, disoriented, and
very concerned that someone was going to be in line in front of me at
the bathroom door.

Because it was 6 p.m. One of those "quick" eight hour naps. Still,
I was so groggy and in pain that I ate a quick supper (Bob was
cooking) and stomped back to bed. It was a good thing I was wearing
the new nightshirt that Santa had left me, that of the rarely seen
Care Bear, "Psycho Bear," who sports an obscene logo across his
stomach. His motto is "I don't care, and it's too damn late anyhow.
Leave me alone."

And so I would have remained, content, sprawled across the whole of
our bed until Monday Morning. But it's wicked hard to sleep when you
are gasping for breath. What?!? My CPAP, the machine that keeps me
breathing while I sleep, was off. Psycho Bear let me in on the
situation: for the first time in forever, my town had lost power. I
grumbled and stumbled up to the kitchen with my "Itty Bitty Book
Light" attached to my shirt as a headlight, to find Bob and Manda
looking for candles and other implements to assist in dealing with
this headache.

"D" Batteries? Nope. Although I had reminded Bob to purchase some,
Manda has been eating them as snacks in her boom box. (whine:
"Because if I use the cord, it's a big pain, and I have to climb down
the ladder to unplug it.") Candles: A few. Mostly those of the
"made as a school art project type." No Matches. Several
flashlights, all requiring "D" batteries, and all having been
previously eviscerated to feed Manda's boom box. All little
batteries AA and below had been fed to Manda's video games and iPod
gizmos.

Guess Bob needs to go to Costco to buy batteries tomorrow. Who would
have known? I found some "emergency lanterns" I had hidden from
those two in the back hall and lit those. (Got them for a quarter
last spring, and thought they would be pretty if we ever had a
cookout) Total light sources: My book light, and two little
emergency candles, "guaranteed to last for 24 hours" (which meant a
flame the size of a punctuation mark.

Manda plays with her Game Boy, which somehow has been charged before
the storm. I read with my book light, and Bob grumbles that he's
bored. After the 12,000th repetition of his, Bob decided to add to
the excitement and go to sleep. Manda, too. I can't go to sleep,
because with no power, there's no machine to keep me breathing.

The lights come on at 11:30, about 2 hours after it went out. I ask
Bob if he wants to get up and transmit his order for work, which is
what he was up to when the lights went out. (Nope. He's sleeping.
Mrurph, snork, nuf nuf. - at least that's what I heard) Manda's
asleep and likely to stay that way. I decided against resettting the
clocks on the grounds that this might not be the last power failure
tonight.

Flick on the weather channel. What the Frank!?!?! We're expected to
get 16 inches of snow! There are very high winds and lots of power
outages all over the region. They broadcast a number to call and
report if power is out in your area. I ignore it. C'mon - I live in
a town full of "concerned senior citizens." They'll have called the
power company fifteen times before I get to the phone.

So, it's off to bed for me, too. Guess I'll order that battery
backup for the CPAP sometime soon, too - or not. I've had the
machine for at least four years and this is the first storm causing a
significant power outage that interrupted my sleep. I'll probably
continue to take my chances, or I'll consult with Psycho Bear in the
morning. He'd be mighty upset if I bothered him now.

If I'm MIA for a couple of days, it's due to snow. Don't worry
folks. Aside from a lack of batteries, we're well rationed for
weeks of being snowbound.

Kathy N-V

Gee, thanks for the storm.

wow -- did it get all the way over there? - or is it a different storm from
the one we had in Ohio? Opps - just checked weather - said it came in off the
ocean - so don't blame us in the Midwest! LOL

new nightshirt that Santa had left me, that of the rarely seen
Care Bear, "Psycho Bear," who sports an obscene logo across his
stomach. His motto is "I don't care, and it's too damn late anyhow.
Leave me alone."

Lovely - LOL

I have spent a night of zero sleep here --
I have been in and out of bed almost hourly - the asthma is having a screaming
fit tonight..... I can barely keep my peak flow at 200, dropping to 180 most of
the time, which means sleeping = suffocating.
I have a battery for my portable machine - that I bought "in case the power
goes out" -- but the thing is worthless - you are lucky if you can get one
treatment out of it.... but I do have the car attachment that goes in the cig
lighter - in case I am ever desperate - I can always get power in the car.
My cousin and his family lost their power in the 23 Dec storm (they live north
of Columbus) - and spent Christmas in a motel.... didn' t bother to call us...
they could have come down here...

so - I'm up all night contemplating the vagaries of the world too Kathy....
Not to mention my brain is on one of it's cyclical "kicks" the past week... and
won't shut off when I go to bed... sigh.

Oh - and lovely storm here apparently has done roof damage - and I have water
stains spreading out rapidly from the two window wells in my bedroom (mansard
roof with windows that stick out....) - same windows that leaked two years ago
and ruined the bedroom carpet.
(which I've yet to replace).
So- no carpet - the "refinished" wall is ruined again... no bathroom sink or
vanity still - from the disaster a few weeks ago...
and I can't get any sleep because my lungs and brain won't cooperate ...
My life is just soooo much fun!

Kathy and I need to have an all night whine party -- who brought cheese and
crackers?

Cheryl
DRAGON BEADS
Flameworked beads and glass
http://www.dragonbeads.com/

On 27 Dec 2004 10:58:56 GMT, eads (Cheryl) wrote:

So- no carpet - the "refinished" wall is ruined again... no bathroom sink or
vanity still - from the disaster a few weeks ago...
and I can't get any sleep because my lungs and brain won't cooperate ...
My life is just soooo much fun!

Kathy and I need to have an all night whine party -- who brought cheese and
crackers?

I guess that would be me. LOL!

I'm having the same lungs and brain issues!!! How weird! Thoughts
galloping through my head no matter how totally exhausted I am.

I've been looking at those super mini handheld nebulizers. Any
thoughts on those?

Tink
Check here for available work:
http://blackswampglassworks.com/latest.htm

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:01:29 -0500, Tinkster wrote
(in message ):

I've been looking at those super mini handheld nebulizers. Any
thoughts on those?

I have one, and wouldn't trade it for the world. It works at least
as quickly as the plug in kind (maybe faster), and it's so small that
you can do other things while having a treatment. It's also easy to
carry around in a purse, so you don't look like a dorkette carrying a
big old nebulizer that is about the size of a little suitcase.

BTW, a couple of AA batteries lasts for months in this thing - I have
an Omron, if that makes any difference. I bought it online, with a
prescription from my doc. I faxed the prescription to the vendor
(using froogle to find the best price), and had it shipped to me.
Cost me about 1/4 of the amount that the local durable medical
equipment guy wanted to charge my health insurance.

I'm about to do the same thing with my CPAP. I've had this one 4-5
years, and the machines have gotten smaller and more powerful in the
meantime. Even the cheap machines are better than what I have now,
and all have an hour or so battery backup. Again, the local durable
medical equipment people want to charge my insurance company a ton of
money, and I can get a machine for 20 -25% of what they're asking.

Kathy N-V

DH used my CPAP machine and a once-in-a-century extended outage as an
excuse to buy a generator.

Of course, the generator only powers the heat and a few light fixtures,
including the one in my bedroom, so to use it to run my CPAP I have to rig
an extension cord to one of those adapters that turns a light socket into an
outlet, meaning that if I turn over, I wrap the cord around my neck and
strangle myself, rendering the CPAP unnecessary. And the generator sounds
like someone has fired up a jet engine RIGHT HERE IN THE ROOM WITH YOU,
making sleep somewhat unlikely, not to mention upsetting the dogs -- mine
and ALL the neighbors, who commence to barking as if the world were coming
to an end. And it produces gas fumes which require that the garage door be
open so as to share the fumes and noises with the aforementioned neighbors.
And cranking the monster up requires, for reasons that escape me, my
presence to admire him as he struggles to get it all on, the wiring
rerouted, and the engine running smoothly, complete with running commentary
that if he does any small part of it wrong we may be vaporized or some such
dire fate.

These days I pray that any power outages occur only when he is sleeping
soundly so that he doesn't notice them. Fortunately the power has been
relative stable for the last few years.

There are battery backup systems that are semi-reasonably priced and will
get you a full night's sleep -- see
http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/sleepd...nea_backup.htm for a
good discussion of options.

I hope the power comes back on quickly and the snow goes away ..

Elise


"Kathy N-V" wrote in message
. giganews.com...
Gee, thanks for the storm. We didn't get a white Christmas (oh yes,
December seasonal holiday), but I woke up this morning to about three
inches of snow and lots and lots of teeny snowflakes a coming down.
Around here "teeny snowflakes = it's going to keep snowing for the
duration/Large, pretty snowflakes = it's slowing down or stopping."

Within an hour, we had white out conditions, and my pain level
ratcheted up immensely. (As it would, consdiering that the weather
keeps going from warm to freezing and back again) I tried to bead
for a while, but things got so bad, I went back to bed to sleep at
about 10 am. When I woke up, I was still in pain, disoriented, and
very concerned that someone was going to be in line in front of me at
the bathroom door.

Because it was 6 p.m. One of those "quick" eight hour naps. Still,
I was so groggy and in pain that I ate a quick supper (Bob was
cooking) and stomped back to bed. It was a good thing I was wearing
the new nightshirt that Santa had left me, that of the rarely seen
Care Bear, "Psycho Bear," who sports an obscene logo across his
stomach. His motto is "I don't care, and it's too damn late anyhow.
Leave me alone."

And so I would have remained, content, sprawled across the whole of
our bed until Monday Morning. But it's wicked hard to sleep when you
are gasping for breath. What?!? My CPAP, the machine that keeps me
breathing while I sleep, was off. Psycho Bear let me in on the
situation: for the first time in forever, my town had lost power. I
grumbled and stumbled up to the kitchen with my "Itty Bitty Book
Light" attached to my shirt as a headlight, to find Bob and Manda
looking for candles and other implements to assist in dealing with
this headache.

"D" Batteries? Nope. Although I had reminded Bob to purchase some,
Manda has been eating them as snacks in her boom box. (whine:
"Because if I use the cord, it's a big pain, and I have to climb down
the ladder to unplug it.") Candles: A few. Mostly those of the
"made as a school art project type." No Matches. Several
flashlights, all requiring "D" batteries, and all having been
previously eviscerated to feed Manda's boom box. All little
batteries AA and below had been fed to Manda's video games and iPod
gizmos.

Guess Bob needs to go to Costco to buy batteries tomorrow. Who would
have known? I found some "emergency lanterns" I had hidden from
those two in the back hall and lit those. (Got them for a quarter
last spring, and thought they would be pretty if we ever had a
cookout) Total light sources: My book light, and two little
emergency candles, "guaranteed to last for 24 hours" (which meant a
flame the size of a punctuation mark.

Manda plays with her Game Boy, which somehow has been charged before
the storm. I read with my book light, and Bob grumbles that he's
bored. After the 12,000th repetition of his, Bob decided to add to
the excitement and go to sleep. Manda, too. I can't go to sleep,
because with no power, there's no machine to keep me breathing.

The lights come on at 11:30, about 2 hours after it went out. I ask
Bob if he wants to get up and transmit his order for work, which is
what he was up to when the lights went out. (Nope. He's sleeping.
Mrurph, snork, nuf nuf. - at least that's what I heard) Manda's
asleep and likely to stay that way. I decided against resettting the
clocks on the grounds that this might not be the last power failure
tonight.

Flick on the weather channel. What the Frank!?!?! We're expected to
get 16 inches of snow! There are very high winds and lots of power
outages all over the region. They broadcast a number to call and
report if power is out in your area. I ignore it. C'mon - I live in
a town full of "concerned senior citizens." They'll have called the
power company fifteen times before I get to the phone.

So, it's off to bed for me, too. Guess I'll order that battery
backup for the CPAP sometime soon, too - or not. I've had the
machine for at least four years and this is the first storm causing a
significant power outage that interrupted my sleep. I'll probably
continue to take my chances, or I'll consult with Psycho Bear in the
morning. He'd be mighty upset if I bothered him now.

If I'm MIA for a couple of days, it's due to snow. Don't worry
folks. Aside from a lack of batteries, we're well rationed for
weeks of being snowbound.

Kathy N-V

Hang in there Kathy! and thanks for letting us know...
BTW---thats the ONLY CareBear I would have in the house!!
Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery
http://www.polyclay.com

I'm having the same lungs and brain issues!!! How weird! Thoughts
galloping through my head no matter how totally exhausted I am.

me four.... and I'm gonna ask, have you got mold and mildew somewhere? when the
house gets closed up in winter, and the air's recirculating, I find that any
animal hair, mold or mildew (my big triggers) reallllly get me. Particularly
any amount of mildew in the bathroom, where I will lounge under the shower's
steam heat----which spreads the spores MARVELOUSLY...any time I'm wheezy, I
check in there, and its almost always tied to the amount of mildew
visible----we attack it again, and I breath better for a while.
Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery
http://www.polyclay.com

On 27 Dec 2004 17:28:02 GMT, atspam (Sjpolyclay)
wrote:


I'm having the same lungs and brain issues!!! How weird! Thoughts
galloping through my head no matter how totally exhausted I am.

me four.... and I'm gonna ask, have you got mold and mildew somewhere? when the
house gets closed up in winter, and the air's recirculating, I find that any
animal hair, mold or mildew (my big triggers) reallllly get me. Particularly
any amount of mildew in the bathroom, where I will lounge under the shower's
steam heat----which spreads the spores MARVELOUSLY...any time I'm wheezy, I
check in there, and its almost always tied to the amount of mildew
visible----we attack it again, and I breath better for a while.
Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery
http://www.polyclay.com

We probably have tons of it somewhere in this century-old house.
Sometimes I long for a brand spankin' new place. How fickle is that?

Tink
Check here for available work:
http://blackswampglassworks.com/latest.htm

http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/sleepd...g_apnea_backup

sleep apnea was the source of my ongoing sleep troubles...but not MY apnea, my
kid's. Brought home a brand new baby as a first time mom, and he came complete
with accessories....a monitor, because he would stop breathing, oh, twenty,
thirty, forty times a night...with the alarm at 120 dbs, and that instant
adrenal surge that comes of knowing you have an unbreathing baby. That little
butterball slept through it all, but I didn't......20 years later, he's fine,
but I STILL have trouble sleeping any length of time or through any sounds!
Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery
http://www.polyclay.com

RE- portable nebulizers

a couple of AA batteries lasts for months in this thing - I have
an Omron, if that makes any difference.

Nice to know -- the one I have is no longer made -- so when it dies I will need
a new one... The one I have doesn't use standard batteries - but a battery pack
that is very expensive - and didn't last worth a darn.
I've seen the Omron ones - that will be my next portable.
The one I have is convenient - and quite too - people hardly notice it at
work...
and I even used it during law classes a few times.... G people looked - the
first time - but after that nobody seemed to care (I always sit in the back row
when I use it...)
they are great....

Cheryl
DRAGON BEADS
Flameworked beads and glass
http://www.dragonbeads.com/