775 Monday Moans

Jay always said that you shouldn't drink pure distilled water, because it would pull minerals out of your body. Is this true? Ordinary water doesn't?

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I need to have the driveway retopped, the siding washed, and the deck replaced. After shooting the budget on a new roof this year, I thought I'd do all that next year. Then more things came up this year, but might have to wait for next year - I have decided I'm going to have to buy a regular car, and I need to get the side yard raked, graded, and seeded. But I do want to replace the computer this year, and get some kind of faster connection.

Today I admitted that I can't put off replacing the air conditioning any longer.

The current air conditioner is a 24-year-old heat pump. It pulls water from the well and blows air over it and then throughout the house. It's been getting gradually less and less efficient. In 2001 it was fine while there was only Jay and me in the house, but as soon as the nurse or health care assistant came to visit, the temperature shot up. Now it's not good enough even with just me here. By early evening it's 83 degrees, and that's with the attic fan going full blast and the air conditioning on constantly (set at 75). It's still cooler than the outside air during the day, but not by much. I don't want to open windows if I don't have to because of the humidity. (Roman gave me a sheet of white office paper, which I held in my hand while we were talking last Wednesday evening. By the time I got in the car, the paper was actually soggy. I had to iron it.)

I'm going to the Mensa World Gathering at Disney World next month. Ten days at the Coronado Springs Resort (7 days of gathering and three days to visit family and play tourist). I guess I'd better enjoy it. There won't be any more fancy vacations for a while.

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I bought my plane tickets for the Gathering. Last time I flew, last summer to New Orleans, I decided that I would never again fly tourist class. The seats are too narrow for me to shift my hips, or to tuck my legs under me, and that gets painful. Plus there's something about the seat backs - they make me bend forward in the wrong places. It takes me three days of pain to recover. So I decided I wanted business class.

There's no business class to Orlando from any airport within two hours of here. I ended up with tickets from Newark, nonstop, first class. At three times the tourist class price. Incredible. They'd better treat me well.

Actually, I could have flown out of White Plains for slightly less, but they have very limited parking there, and I didn't want to take the chance on arriving for my flight and having no place to leave my car.

Would you believe it's cheaper to leave a car for ten days at airport parking, than to rent a car for a one-way trip to or from this area? It's all screwed up.