2018 January 17 Wednesday

2018 January 17 Wednesday

Brrr! It got down to 8° overnight in Liberty Hill Texas. That’s downright chilly even for this Iowa born transplant. It was 57° inside the RV. Before I went to bed last night, I covered the windows with some fleece lined blanket throws to add a layer of insulation to those cold cold single pane windows.

Being as how it was chilly in the fifth wheel, I lay in bed until way after eight. Not because I was tired or sleepy … just because I couldn’t convince myself that there was a good reason to get out of bed. As I posted yesterday, all of my normal activities for the week have been canceled because of the weather.

Finally, I decided to treat myself to a breakfast that I didn’t cook. I got up, checked the water (as expected the hose/pipes are frozen), uncovered the windows (for solar heating), and started some chili in the Insta-pot and then went into Liberty Hill for breakfast at Hobo Junction.

I knew that I had at least one prescription to pick up at Walmart. So off I went. And one prescription was all that they had ready. And it wasn’t one of my Warfarins either. It was a salve that the dermatologist had called in for the dry skin on my toes. When I heard the price of $150.00, I declined. I have some Epsom salts to soak my feet and some hand lotion to apply for a lot less than $150.

Just so the 40+ mile round trip wasn’t wasted, I picked up a loaf of bread, some earbuds, a can of electronics duster spray, and some holding tank treatment. The duster spray was to blow the dust out of the furnace thermostat in hopes that it would return to a normal operating condition. At the moment the furnace is running, and I’ve turned off all of the auxiliary heaters. It is now 67° inside and 31° outside (going for a high of 34°).  Maybe the waterlines will thaw.

It’s now about 12:30 and my chili should be done. I’ll check in later.

It’s later. I received a text from my son Arik inviting me to supper (I still say “supper” but he has been corrupted into the incorrect term “dinner”*) and a showing of Star Wars episode 2. Supper was gumbo. Since he is a chef and restaurant owner, it is always a treat to eat his meals. Of course the real reason that I went wasn’t for the food or video, it was for the hugs from all four of them … plus the two dogs.

It was around nine when I arrived home. Imagine my surprise to find that it was 90+° in the RV. Yep, the furnace was running full blast. I turned the heat off and opened a window in the bedroom. It was in the low 20s outside but the cold air was very welcome. Before I went to sleep, I closed the window and turned on the furnace and an electric space heater. Good night.

*From a Google search: "Supper vs. Dinner. In parts of the US, supper and dinner are used interchangeably to refer to the evening meal, but elsewhere dinner is the midday meal, akin to lunch, and supper, the evening meal. ... The word dinner comes from the Vulgar Latin word disjējūnāre meaning “to break one's fast.” There you have it folks. Dinner, if used at all, should be "breakfast". Other sources say that dinner is the largest meal of the day ... whenever you eat it.