Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Has it been almost a month???

Jeez, time really flies, even if you are NOT having fun. Has it really been almost a month since I last had something to say?

I have got to GET A LIFE!

Dialysis takes up most of my energy. Even though we are now down to 2X/week, kidney, heart, and surgery follow-ups swallow up most of my time, attention, and everything else.

In addition, we are now involved in two great searches -- a home water distiller and a motorhome.

We drink a lot of water, and a home water distiller has been on the back burner for years and occasionally sneaks forward to perch on the middle burner. A kind acquaintance recently mentioned that he was doing much better, health-wise, since he stopped drinking tap water and stopped buying bottled water. His secret is distilling water at home BUT he insists that the best results have been obtained since he gave up anything in a plastic bottle. Glass or stainless steel, that's the ticket.

Makes sense, don't ya think? Water in our area is highly chlorinated and probably has all kinds of jolly metals and other things that really don't belong in our bodies. It has gotten to the point that drinking water is dangerous to everyone's health, and, really, you can only consume so much beer before the weight gain becomes a problem. Also the not-so-kind members of the Highway Patrol. Since plastic tends to crack, scratch, and otherwise deteriorate (except in landfills), the possitility of chemical leeching is also a big concern.

After a very exhaustive seach we have found that there are only two products that we could use. One comes with a glass container (almost everything else uses plastic) and is run by electricity. The other is even more basic and can be used with any heat source (including a campfire) and is entirely made of stainless steel. I will let DH decided which of these marvels to purchase, as I have done my part.

And the motorhome.

We are great campers (never mind that the first time I went camping I was 23 years old and there was a gale that night that left us literally floating in several inches of water, but that's another story). For many, many years and many, many children, we tented. When I was in my 40's I told DH that I could no longer sleep on the groud, it was far too much work.... anyway, I was pregnant with #5. So we bought a trailer.

Absolutely loved it! Room for 7 to sleep, nothing to set up, awning to sit under, really wonderful people to meet.

Fast forward to mid-50's. Preparing and hooking up a trailer is A LOT OF WORK. And now we are 4, not seven.

If you had asked me a few years ago, did I see us in a motorhome, I would have laughed you off the planet! Famous last words....

I, for one, do not like hotels or resorts, I prefer to eat my own cooking, and I like my own things around me. Not to mentio the dialysis wrinkle (sometimes he feels fine, sometimes not, no way to predict). I also like to make last-minute plans. HEY -- it's Thursday afternoon, how about a long weekend at the beach?

What we really want to be able to do is shove some food into the refrigerator, sit down, turn the ignition key, and take off.

So we are in the market for a motorhome, one with a bed above the cab (for the 13-year-old) and a queen bed in the back for those of us who insist on a good night's sleep.

More in the next installment!