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Published: January 4th 2016
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The one about the response from Tim
I woke up at 4:24 needing to go to the bathroom, or so I thought. As I moved around, I realized I was having an afib attack. Heart Rate was about 160. Took one of my fast acting pills, drank a large glass of warm water – something about drinking hot water calms it down. I laid back down and read, and felt my heart go back into rhythm shortly. I fell back to sleep until 8:00. I woke up feeling pretty chipper until I went outside and realized the temperature was in the high 40s. Not nice. Back inside, put on warm hat, back out. It must have rained overnight as everything was wet and more muddy than the night before. Lots of rigs pulled in after dark, and I was surrounded by huge Class As. I showered, unhooked and was on the road before 10. It was an easy ride thru Jacksonville to my next campground with a stop at, yes, another Wal-Mart. I realized last night that the small space heater I bought last year was only working on the HIGH mode, and the fan noise was awful. Growl. Wal-Mart had a large selection; I chose a new one that spits out heat all the way around, a nice feature. There are not that many places for me to put a space heater in Moya. I have to make sure I won’t trip on the cord, and Winston won’t get tangled up in it. This one has a noisy fan as well, but it puts out a nice bit of heat on the LOW (750 watt) setting. If I put it on top of my stove, a great place, actually, heat rises, and the floor is cold. I put it on the floor inside the door; the cord is out of all our way. I only run it on the coldest of the cold nights, generally preferring to snuggle into my down comforter instead of listening to the fan all night.
I know I have written about Blue Spring State Park before, so I will be brief, but it is such a fascinating place it is worthy of some repetition. The entire Florida State Park system is wonderful, and the campgrounds are always first rate. This place is a jewel. There are about 50 campsites around a loop. The vegetation between campsites is so dense I can’t see my neighbors on either side. Unfortunately, there was no one around to see me nail the reverse back in toward my weak side to get into my campsite in ONE TRY. I nailed it. Nothing fell out of my brain while I was doing that, for sure! It was raining lightly; I quickly plugged water and electric into my utility pole and walked Winston and hid inside for the next 6 hours until it let up enough to walk Winston. No walk to the manatees for me today. The good news is the temperature. It will go down into the 40s again tonight, forcing the manatees into the hot spring overnight. I will set my alarm early and take a walk down the hill and, hopefully, see my three adoptees.
Let me explain Blue Spring. It is a spring that comes out of the ground, discharging over 100 million gallons of water daily, and flows for about half a mile before it joins the St. Johns River. The water of the spring is crystal clear, but starts to become murky as it joins the river, which is tea colored. There is a faint odor of ????sulfa???? where it boils out of the ground, and no fish can be seen there, except an occasional ugly Gar. About 100 yards downstream, more Gar and Sunfish are visible. About 200 yards downstream the winter population of West Indian Manatees can be seen gently floating individually and in groups. The park has a sturdy boardwalk the entire length of the stream that goes out over the water in several places providing wonderful photo opportunities. If there are rangers present, they can point out my Doc, Lilly, and Philip so I can get those pictures.
The St Johns River is 310 miles long, the longest in Florida, and is significant for recreational and commercial use. It is distinctive because it flows south to north, one of only 30 in the US and 60 worldwide. Fascinating.
Dinner, soup and a bagel.
My heart has been fine all day, just one of those flukey things, but I did drink plenty of fluids and made sure I got enough dietary potassium and magnesium, shortages of either those two seem to provoke an attack. Combined with the stress of the last few days……Perfect conditions for an episode. I’ve got my head around the stress part, now, and surely looking forward to a nice long relaxing rest.
To answer the question I posed, do my kids read my blog? First thing this morning Tim posted a selfie of himself on my facebook page with ‘the look’. Yes, he reads my blog. No other kids or kids in law heard from. Good boy, Tim, thanks, I love you. I have included the picture here so you can see for yourself. This picture was actually taken by Tim to show off the hat, but, the look is the same. Just picture that face, arms crossed, tapping his foot, looking sternly at his mother who is losing it.
I have not ever watched one episode of Downton Abbey. With all the hype, I watched the preshow, and am now watching the Season Premier. All I can comment on is the hair and costumes and scenery. I clearly have no idea what’s going on, but it is visually gorgeous.
More on manatees tomorrow.
Kat out
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