27 October 2018, A day from Mark’s past

Today’s Notes
General:  My elbow is preventing from sleeping on my right side and I’m on the left side of the bed.  I cannot sleep on my left side without blowing a significant amount of air at my wife.  I put the NOCO 15000 charger on the UPS batteries this morning to replenish them.  These APC UPS units were not designed to have 72AH batteries connected to them. (They normally carry a 7AH battery that can be charged in one day.) At 0.5A into a 72AH battery string it would take more than a week to recharge them using the UPS.  The NOCO G15000 can charge it in a much shorter time. (I hope)  Not really a fan of the fan in the G15000, the smaller chargers are sealed units that can withstand a little weather.  (I leave a G3500 out at my mother’s farm to keep the tractor battery charged.)  One last addition to my traveling UPS is a power failure alarm.  The alarm should sound when the power has failed AND the UPS battery is depleted which means we both are wearing masks that are no longer being provided with fresh air.  I have on more than one occasion slept under the comforter where it is dark, quiet and warm.  It does limit my access to fresh air fast asleep, wearing a mask under a comforter. It is odd after having spent a good deal of time with a CPAP that no one recommended a power fail alarm to wake the patient up. I’ve learned my lesson, I know that I cannot get restful nights sleep without it. This morning when I got out of bed around 7AM my body was just dragging. With the rainy cold weather of late it feeling like my body is just wanting to hibernate. I bet I slept more than five hours before we went to watch the grandkids today. I had four eggs for breakfast and two cups of coffee and still went to sleep for several hours. Supper was leftover chili and soda crackers which tasted really good and had a good texture. When I got up around 4 I was surprised the sun was shining and the clouds were not a significant part of the blue sky. That cheered me up emotionally for the evening. Talked to mom, she had fed the two cows, taken her pills and was settling down for the evening. Had a great time with the grandkids, they are growing into that wonderful age for parents between 7 and 12. They are old enough to participate in large activities outside the house with their parents. They are a sponge sopping up everything they can from the world around them while still being content to be in their parents arms. Trip home was uneventful and we’re both struggling to settle into a restful sleep. I’ve got both CPAPs on a Kill-o-watt meter tonight to measure our power consumption. The spare power supplies are actually more efficient than the ones that came with the machines by a significant margin. My consumption on the spare power supply was in the neighborhood of 13-20 Watts with the climate tubing! The old S9 RESMED consumed about 60 watts for the same setup. I have to pack tomorrow for our trip to Florida and I am not emotionally ready to take such a difficult trip again.

Feelings: I’ve spent a good part of the first month blogging building the habit of writing every day. I am terrible at scheduling things for myself, although it is quite easy for me to schedule things for others. From the book “Triggers” I am to set clear goals for the day, it’s been three weeks and I haven’t gotten that part of my life in order. I can make a list like the one below and work the list setting priorities. What I am not good at is assigning times/dates to the items on the list and following through with it. One more thing I would like to be able to accomplish is writing feelings. What level of emotion deserves expressing on paper and to what level do I expose my innermost self. One major hurtle is describing how I feel. I got an idea about that today to start by making a list of feeling words. When I want describe my emotional state I choose words from the list that connect with an emotion. It shouldn’t be a difficult task to then use those words in sentences. Time will tell. First I have to get a list of words together from our friend Google.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Tomorrow: Pack for Florida and configure the house for our extended absence.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To