For the third day in a row we’re on the beach as sunset approaches. It’s warmer tonight than it was last night and less breezy. Nina’s working on her seashell collection and will have close to a shoebox full by the time we leave!
Today was housecleaning and laundry day. The park has a nice laundromat and the three batches of clothes went through quickly. Further, there was an iron and ironing board set up, so we were able to iron my shirts so they’ll look a bit better when I wear them. The water must be a somewhat warmer as Nina is out almost up too her knees! The family just to my right are speaking German, and it’s fun to hear them talk about very mundane things.
When we go to Mumbai, we’ll have two very long airplane flights. I’ve tried to book seats on planes with 120v power to the seats. I’ll be calling Delta to verify and make sure they know that I’ll be using a CPAP machine and find out what kind of power will be available. My new CPAP machine is set up with an attached humidifier and a heated hose to the face mask. I can remove the humidifier, but the hose end won’t fit as the plug for the power to heat the hose is in the way. I have a battery pack, but running it with the humidifier and heated hose depletes the battery in just about an hour. I think if it’s just running the pressure part, the battery should last much longer. But, I needed a non-heated hose!
I spent over an hour calling various pharmacies and medical supply places and no one had CPAP supplies! One place, called “My Sleep Apnea”, kept going to a fax answering machine when I called, so Nina suggested that I just drive over there and see what might be available. That sounded like an idea, so I drove there to find that the place was shuttered and the the building for lease. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work!
As I drove out of their parking lot, I saw a very small “Medical Oxygen” sign over one of the doors of a longish building next door. I parked, went in, and sure enough they had CPAP supplies and accessories. $20 later I had the hose I need. The battery pack is being charged and I’ll use the machine tonight on the battery. Hopefully that works long enough to get a few hours of sleep, even if other power isn’t available on the airplane. It would be so very nice to be able to get eight hours of sleep over the course of the 30-hour total elapsed time from Atlanta, Georgia to Mumbai, India.
We’ve not yet made any hard plans for Christmas Eve other than going over to Sanibel and Captiva in the morning to see what shells might be washed up. Nina’s going to whack off the bottom part of the legs on a pair of her pants so she can wear her swim suit with the pants over and get much further out into the water. This sea shelling is serious stuff!
We’ll spend most of the day on Christmas Day here on the Fort Myer beaches. Friday we’ll go up to Sarasota to do some circus research. Saturday we’ll drive over to Fort Lauderdale and do a session at the temple. During the week (Tuesday through Thursday) the temple only offers sessions at 6:00 and 7:30 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays sessions during the day are available.
Where do we go on Monday? Maybe we can come to a decision tonight.
Life is great!
ps: BYU played Memphis in a bowl game yesterday somewhere here in Florida. BYU lost in double overtime. In Church on Sunday the Bishop announced that there were free tickets available to anyone interested in watching “the biggest pillow football fight in Florida”. There were no takers….