2000-08-10 - 21:38 MDT

August 10, 2000

Batitude

Hang a B on the front end and it indicates a Bad Attitude, which I had when arriving home today.

I am spoiled and I know it, but it takes being on your own a bit to realize just how much. When I was younger, the warmer it was the better I felt, and being in the high humidity at sea level was beneficial to my sinuses. I worked in a power plant in Florida and my job entailed working in a dead air space where the ambient temperature was 120 degrees. About 20 minutes of that and down I would go in the elevator for a drink of water and a salt tablet (to replace what was dripping from my pants cuffs) and stand outside in the sunshine and shiver because it felt cold. After a year in Florida cold bothered me more than heat - - - but when cold I could wrap up and get comfortable.

I guess luck had something to do with the sequence of my acclimatization. I drove an old car, slowly on account of it's condition, from Denver to Florida in the summer. Of course the further South my path led the warmer it got, but with the window open t'wasn't so bad. My first job there was in a shipyard where they were reworking some World War 2 cargo ships. The ships sat there all day soaking up the heat and even on the night shift it was ovenlike. I began to get used to the heat and managed to stay fairly comfortable with sweaty clothes on all day. Then came the second level of my training. I was sent with the crew that cleaned out the bilges - - - a maggot gagging operation. The next level was to be assigned to the crew who were painting with wet Portland cement the surfaces of the forepeak hold. I found out later that the forepeak hold was to be used to store water. There were men two levels above me, and the darn wet cement from above fell on me. It didn't take long to get uncomfortable and shortly sores developed on my body where ever my clothing pressed. Several days of that and I was definitely in discomfort.

Then there came a few days while the finished ship went out and the next one came in. I tried to find another job, desperately, and one jumped at me - - - on the dock of a trucking freight line, luckily they knew that I had freight experience so when they tried me out for a few days - - - they offered me a checker's job, with no lifting involved. Worked great for a while.

My first few days in town I had gone down and made application for work at a new power plant near where were we were living. Later they called me in to take a test and sent me for a physical. It was neat because when first in town I worked painting outside trim on the Chief Engineer's house and periodically mowed his lawn.

Marvels do happen, this damn Westerner was called in to take a starting level job there at the power plant because the job wasn't bid for by an employee.

Man the preceding is more wordy than a Civil War account, just to demonstrate I guess that at a younger age I could adjust to temperature changes. After my return to Denver at one time between jobs in late spring I got an outdoor job which finished up just before Christmas. All through the summer I gradually shed clothes at the weather warmed. As the season advanced a - - - a rag at a time, a little more clothing was added reluctantly and by the time colder weather came my return home after work consisted of me stripping to Jockey shorts and thong sandals

Now back to today. I find that as I age my range of comfortable temperatures has narrowed considerably. I can chill easily and this string of above ninety degree weather has me doing the Las Vegas scramble from one air conditioned place to the next. My range of walking has narrowed too. Before my heart started getting lazy our exercise each day was a mile, after due to shortness of breath and early fatigue - - - around the block is my daily exercise. Naturally I have become weaker with age too. NO TRAIN WRECK HERE!

Heather has done our shopping and errand running since our auto accident in 1997 and I try to pick up on some of the housework. Works out pretty good too. Except as I experienced today it forced me to make an inventory of what she goes through and my shortfall in that department.

She is away visiting one of our grand daughters for a day or two. I needed some of the powdered Resolve to clean an area of carpet - - the liquid is good for small spots but the powdered works better for large heavy traffic areas. It was about five in the afternoon before I could get loose, so I headed out to where Heather always goes to get the darned stuff - - - a Walmart halfway to the Kansas border, Sam's other stores were farther yet.

Here I am in plus ninety degree heat in our car which does not have A/C during rush hour creeping eastward little by little and stewing in sweat. At Walmart they apparently were out of the stuff. One department manager claimed he had never heard of it - - with my mouth I made it very plain that I had been in the snack bar about a month ago while my wife bought some. He got on the horn (or it's present day equivalent, the cell horn) and did some checking around, finally he told me that they were out of it.

In this area we have three supermarket chains, King Soopers, Safeway and Albertson's. Stopping at each store on the way home I checked, some of them had the liquid, some didn't carry either the powder or liquid and of course those that did carry the powder were out.

This steamed old crab, red in the face tried one last place, voila ! the purchase of said Resolve was made.

I guess if the Supers didn't have grocery carts this limp crab would have ended up in the showcase of the fish department. I arrived home in sad condition and in a temper you wouldn't believe. Sweaty, tired, weak and hungry. Too messed up to kick the walls in a tantrum. Too tired to fix a dinner (microwave), an iced Mountain Dew in my hand the process of Blessing counting took place. The first one I counted was the fact that I conserved enough strength to avoid being a basket case - - - actually. Geez, Heather handles all that stuff with equanimity and elan. Therefore another great blessing was counted. The lesser blessings were many and as I cooled and adjusted a better mood snuck in while I wasn't looking. I still wanted to talk to my diary and tell it that I realize this old dude better be careful what he does, when he does it and under what conditions it is accomplished.

Obviously the exercise in futility hasn't cramped my long range talking style and it let me get this off my chest - - - any takers ?

Tonight it would be nice to chat with this lady who would probably tell me that she is out of crying towels and for me to wipe my own teary cheeks. Another person who I like to read is the all inclusive Stef who manages to have many interests and a realistic way of thinking as well as a vocabulary to match mine and a humorous mind to boot. I guess if you have never been in a sweat and stew, you have never experienced a "Batitude."

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