CPAP, Shawls, And Manatee

Before I do anything else, I want to thank everybody for your wonderful e-mails, text messages, blog comments, and Facebook comments congratulating us on our 24^th anniversary. Terry and I read each and every one of them, and you all touched our hearts. Unfortunately, there were so many that I’d still be trying to reply individually to all of them by the time our next anniversary rolls around. But please know they mean the world to us.

I’ve been using my CPAP machine for a week now, and after saying that I received it, I have heard from many blog readers and Facebook friends who also use CPAP machines. I didn’t know there were so many of us out there! Several people have asked how my results have been so far.

Overall I have no major complaints, and adjusting to it is going better than I expected. The first couple of nights it seemed invasive having this thing hooked to me, but once I experimented with the adjustment straps and got it fitted a little better, it hasn’t been too bad. I find myself more rested during the day and don’t fall asleep watching the evening news.

For the most part, my sleep scores have been very good, in the mid to upper 90s for the first seven days. The one time it dipped below 90 was a score of 88, which was the morning when the girls arrived, and we had to get up early to go to the airport and pick them up, which meant I didn’t sleep as long. I am sleeping soundly and am not tossing and turning all night long, or waking up gasping for breath. This also means that Terry is getting a better night’s sleep, too, because I am not keeping her awake.

Speaking of Terry, check out this beautiful shawl she just finished knitting. It was a big project and the first one of its type that she has taken on. She said she made a couple of errors in it, but I sure don’t see them. Like most of us, she is her own worst critic.

Daughter Tiffany and granddaughter Destiny are having a great time visiting us, and we are thrilled to have them. As I shared with you before, Destiny had a bucket list of things she wanted to do here, and we’ve crossed many of them off already. The one disappointment was that there were no manatees in our canal, where we usually see many of them. But yesterday, a friend of theirs who moved to Tampa from Arizona a few years ago came over to visit and took them to Blue Springs State Park. Tiffany sent me these pictures and said that there were 458 of them in the park. It’s always been a great place to see manatees, and I’m so thrilled they got to go there.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This one was in front of a library. Who says librarians don’t have a sense of humor?

Thought for the day – Sometimes when one door closes, you need to nail a board over it so it stays that way.