Tired but Felt Like Typing

Hey there crew...

The day started off with a medical call for a guy who had a piece of piping fall and puncture his arm. Ouch! Luckily he toughed it out and was one of our better patients. It's always nice to get patients who know how to control themselves even when they're truly wounded or sick. My hat is off to these kinds of people. They actually make it so we can concentrate on getting the job done more efficiently and faster. I'm not saying I don't like other types of patients (well, minus the one's who should just pick themselves up and take care of the minor issue they're dealing with rather than waste an emergency vehicle). There are just people who handle themselves better when things happen.

So...time is coming for me to move to a new station. It is exciting, but change is NOT my deal. I'm one of those types that likes to get into a nice rhythm and just ride it out like that. Yes, some change here and there is fun and cool, but major changes like the one that is coming stress me out. I'm not sure why. It also seems that the older I get, the less I like change. I guess that is just another sign of aging, but it's just strange how I used to "do things" and never thought much about it. Now, I pause, ponder, worry, think, drag out, and generally try my best not to deal with things. What the heck??

On the other side, if I find something of interest, I dive in so deeply that I tend to lose track of other things around me. My current "obsession" is solar power . I love the idea of it. The technology is decent, but quite inefficient at this time. Panels are only about 15-18% efficient at transferring the power of the sun. You lose more going through the wires and systems. If you're going "off-grid", you get into batteries. What a jumble of information there is in that. Those too are inefficient. You send the "juice" into the battery, fighting the resistance and other chemical bonds, then just when you think you're good to go, the battery "sulfates" on you and it's life is cut short. My new way of thinking about batteries is that they are like friends. You need to nurture them or they'll leave you. A fully charged (appropriately) battery is a happy battery. Do NOT leave them to sit and discharge. If you let a battery get past it's 50% level, you have now just decreased the life and output of the battery forever. Of course I have to point out that these are the "deep cycle" types of batteries (AGM, marine, gel). I've found so much information about each piece of the solar puzzle that I'm still a bit overwhelmed. It's exciting for sure but it is not something you just say one day, "I'm going to be a solar expert" and never put in some time studying and playing with all the pieces.

Time to get moving on my other projects for the day. My mind is tired but always wanting to get things done. I hope everyone is having a great start to your weekend! Keep it real and always shoot for your dreams. The good stuff is always worth the extra effort.

Sitting Here at the Computer

Hey There Crowd... Hope life is going great for everyone! It's not too bad for me except feeling a bit crumby the last couple of days. I'm not quite sure what it is, but my stomach has been giving me all kinds of trouble. It started the other day after riding some "spin" type rides at Belmont Park in Mission Beach. My son and I had a really great time at the beach that day, but afterwards, I just didn't feel right. The following day, I felt nausea for most of the day and was quite tired. After some solid rest, the day after that (today), I've been feeling a bit better, but still not 100%. It's a bit weird and I'm not sure what is going on. I did have stuffy sinus' on the first day at the park and did soak up a good portion of ocean water in my nose while playing around in the surf. I did suffer from this, Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) or positional vertigo, not too long ago but seemed to have moved on from it with the exercises my doctor gave me. I'm guessing this had a little bit to do with it, but also the swelling of my nasal cavities. It's funny how easy it is to mess up the human body and suddenly be facing some pretty crumby situations from it. Of course, the answer lately is "you're just getting older". That is probably one of the worst things I've ever had to hear and deal with. I'm right at a point where I can still be pretty active and do most of the things I "think" I can do, but now-a-days, it seems to hurt more and for longer when things don't work out. And, it seems that just keeping things going has become a necessity and a chore. I have a whole new respect for people who make it to their 70's and beyond. Anyway...Hopefully things'll get better and I can move on from this weird event without too much drama. The weekend should be wonderful. It's fun time! Yay! Catch ya'll later.