Carbon Monoxide?

Alright, the CO monitor has gone off THREE TIMES tonight, after not going off at all the entire time I've been here. I called the landlord down the first time, and it stopped while we were checking it out. He said sometimes the gas logs will cause it to go off??? So I turned off the gas logs- except for the small pilot light. No alarm for 3 hours, then beep-beep-beep-beep. Reset the alarm, and it stayed off for a few hours.

Now it's 2 am and it went off again. Logs are off. No other known sources of gas. Looked on the internet and it says sometimes atmospheric changes can cause it to go off. I moved it beside my bedroom door (instead of in the other room) cause it said it should be placed within 15 feet of my bedroom. I opened the door for awhile. It's not going off now.

But now I'm worried. Landlord was not worried- but he's not up at 2 am.

I'm not dizzy or headachey, or any other symptom. Just worried cause the darn alarm keeps going off. And the internet says to call 911-- but if there's CO levels then it should be present everywhere in the apartment, right? If it goes off outside the bedroom, I'm calling Mr. Landlord down to inhale the fumes with me.

So here's hoping I'm not being hypo-reactive.

UPDATE: Landlord is checking it out. I survived the night after airing the apartment out for 10 minutes at 3 in the morning (4th time the thing went off). We're installing a new monitor for tonight and if it so much as stutters a beep I'm heading to a hotel. I'm tired. And I"m heading to work. Not a lot of driving planned today, so that's good.

UPDATE #2: Did you know plug-in CO detectors have a battery in them? Neither did the landlord. We bought a new one, realized there's a battery in it despite being a plug-in, and changed the battery on the old one. Neither detector is alarming now! Yeah. Now I have two and I shall sleep well tonight- but not well in that "oh I'm breathing carbon monoxide" well that I was scared about last night! BTW- at 3am all sorts of stuff runs through your head when an alarm for a odorless clear gas keeps going off. Lots of whatifs and whatnots. At one point, I was convincing myself that my landlords were NOT already dead from CO poisoning and that's why they hadn't come down to investigate the the shrieking alarm. It didn't help that their 6 chihuahuas were eerily quiet during all of this shriekbeeping as well. But all is well. Another life experience.

Snow day with Home Health!

An unexpected perk to working with home health in the south is the issue of snow days! I can't see the road, I can't drive the road, I can't do my job. It's my duty to stay safe and sound on my couch with hot chocolate in hand and watch the falling snow accumulate on my back porch. I'm not sure why the birds are dive-bombing the pool, and I'm wondering if I'll find their little frozen bodies out there later when they recognize their folly of taking a bath when it's below freezing. I did leave some crackers on my porch to give them a meal and warm them up.



I've already walked the 200 twisted yards up the driveway to evaluate the main road, and it sure is pretty out there. I may bundle up and take another walk down to the tracks--today is not the day to explore that island, but maybe it'd be okay to explore the edge of the lake again.

Oh, a cardinal just found the crackers. That's a happy cardinal. Here comes a red one! Red on white snow is truly spectacular! Well, I'll chalk that up to a first: this picture of a cardinal eating the crackers was taken immediately after the sentence "a cardinal just found the crackers" and "That's a happy cardinal". There's a screen between us- I tried to take one earlier and the birds flee as soon as I sneak outside.



I think I'll pop some popcorn for the birds. Too bad I don't get paid to sit at home-- but I think I'm fine with taking the pay cut for a day like today. Later I'll do some paperwork and it'll add to my week hours so I keep the ever important health insurance.

Of course the majority of my day will be spent flipping through the news channels watching the inauguration unfold. I remember how cold it was waiting for our band to enter the inauguration parade for Bill Clinton and how desperate I was to keep my shoe on my foot after it became untied halfway through the parade. There was no greater shame in marching band than to stoop down and break formation so the shoe stayed untied and my attention was split evenly between hitting the the notes of "Carolina on my Mind" and keeping that shoe on. I managed to sneak a peek at Bill and Hillary at the grand stands when we marched by. Part of me feels sorry for the people out there in the cold waiting to join Obama's inauguration parade, and part of me is darn envious of that experience. They will be part of history today.

Badin Tracks

I walked down to the lake today for the first time since I moved in Last November. It seems like every weekend I was out until dark, or was out of town, or otherwise just didn't consider walking to the shore of the lake. Today, I wandered down to see if the edge of the lake was frozen and I found....train tracks! There is a train track route around the lake that ALCOA used to use-- but ALCOA closed 3 years ago and the tracks are overgrown.



The edge of the lake in our little inlet is, indeed, icy. The greater lake of course is still fluid. Tomorrow after church I may have to walk along the tracks and see what pictures there are to take. Curt, my landlord, said there's an island they eventually lead to called "graveyard island" and I'm intrigued.



And finally, I was going through pictures from Christmas and found an interesting one. The round UFO is a gift from my little brother to my nephew. Kevin was leaving the next morning and they wanted to try the toy out despite the rain. My older brother (the dad) and my nephew are hiding under the lid of the trunk controlling the UFO. Kevin is out of the picture to my left. I just liked how the lighting and figures came out-- it's not great, but it's interesting. I could never control that focus- all the other pictures focus on the rain and all the figures are blurred, so I'm not sure how this one came out moderately clearly!


Badin has some exploration possibilities that I'd better jump on before I leave. It is a lovely little town.

PS. Did you know Star Jones is a native of Badin? Huh.

Bad Mood Over

I found a sushi place in Concord near my last Wednesday patient! And it was good sushi! I am a happy girl now that I can pick up a sushi to go after my last patient one day a week.

Still no donut place, but the sushi is much healthier.

I love my patients here. I'm always fond of my patients, but there's a few here that I wish I could stick around for. Personal life blows pretty hard here though, so I'm moving on at the end of February.

Before that time line ends, I will have fitted TWO people with dynavox communication devices. Two people who have needed these devices for awhile and who will, because I did the darn paperwork, finally get them. I'm pretty pleased. I'm hoping they actually get the devices before I skiddaddle so I can do the initial training at least!

BTW- anyone else cold tonight? I love chilly weather!!!!!!!

A long way from NO WHERE

Excuse the mood. The weather and the post holiday blues have effected my affect.

So yesterday, I went into Charlotte with the primary directive of finding a decent sushi place. Said sushi place (Nikko's) did not open until 5pm, and I found it at 3pm, so I explored a tiny bit of Charlotte. "Tiny bit" meaning a organic grocery store and Freedom park- both of which were welcome distractions from my current place of residence.

Just to clarify, I drove over an HOUR to find sushi. And then I drove an hour home and sat in front of the TV and savored each and every piece of california roll and rainbow roll. It was lovely. Not as good as Ben's place in Roanoke, and certainly not up to the hole-in-the-wall sushi place in Augusta, GA over by the bowling lane, but quite tasty. I love sushi- and I haven't had it in over 3 months. But I had it Saturday.

Then this morning I skipped breakfast so I could get a donut after church. The closest donut shop? Over a half hour away. I did NOT get a donut. Only one road trip to satisfy food cravings in one weekend allow.

Albemarle is small, but darnit- it should be able to sustain a DONUT shop or coffee shop! It's got a Walmart and a Sears- surely a donut shop should be present SOMEWHERE. There isn't one. Not on Sundays. There's a place Monday-Friday that sells donuts, but who eats donuts on a weekday?

I do miss the donut place in Roanoke- that was worth driving 30 minutes for. Blue Collar Joes- I'm thinking about your lovely chocolate bog donuts.

Pathetic.

Sorry Bambi...

I may have killed Bambi's mom. The vote is in, and most everyone I've spoken to have assured me that the deer that left the ding in my car didn't hit hard enough to kill the deer. It's a rather small ding- only visible in the sunlight.

I should have gone back to see if I had done it in. Just so I could answer the question, "did you kill it?"

Here's the story:

I had called sjshipper to wish her happy birthday Tuesday night on the way home from a haircut. While her husband was handing over the phone, I hit a deer that jumped out in front of my car. So the Happy Birthday was more of a OH MY GOD I HIT A DEER-- WHAT DO I DO--WHAT DO I DO--WHAT DO I DO??????????? Poor sjshipper. Instead of wonderful birthday greetings she had a crying hysterical friend trying to find a safe place to pull over on a dark foggy NC country road after possibly slaughtering Bambi's mom with my car.

It seems kind of amusing right now. I do wish I had gone back to check and see if there was a dead or dying deer on the side of the road, although I'm not sure what I would have done. My landlord said he's heard of deer coming through the windshield, killing the driver, and then trotting away. Dang, that's some tough deer! Glad my deer wasn't packing heat.

My post traumatic deer syndrome is in full bloom right now--I drove about 10 miles under the speed limit after the sun went down, and pulled over three times to let other cars wizz past me so I wasn't annoying all the other people who had NOT hit deer in the last 24 hours.

Next assignment? Some place without killer deer lurking in the dark foggy shadows. Happy belated birthday sjshipper.