Venezuela 2, Ecuador 1

This is the second qualifier we’ve lost to a team at the bottom of the standings.

This defeat is especially galling. We were ahead 1–0 and seemed to have the Venezuelans under control. I guess we were excessively confiados.

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Karin & I continue to unpack. Today I cleared out about half of the kitchen and nearly all of the front parlor. It was like a super long game of peg solitaire – I’d clear away one “peg” to make room to clear away another, so I could access yet another “peg” – only, these “pegs” were liquorbox- or bananabox-sized and filled with dishes or books, and the empty spaces were on three different storeys of the house.

I was glad for the workout since I didn’t run. Yesterday, though, I did try out a new route: eight laps around a nearby school. The sidewalk was uneven and hard, and on the last lap I injured a groin muscle. But I toughed it out: I needed to burn extra calories: I was to go to a restaurant with Karin’s dad’s family.

Here is our group portrait, with little Samuel at the end of the table:

After the meal, Karin & I stopped at my parents’ house and retrieved the food we’d left in the freezer. But when we got back to our new house, the power had gone out.

I had to sleep without using my CPAP machine, and so I woke up many times.

Better health

Yesterday, Karin & I were vaccinated against COVID-19. We took Samuel with us to the health center. Everyone in the waiting room praised his good behavior.

They also discussed how the U.S. government is conspiring to implant microchips into its citizens.

“That certainly would make things easier,” said one health worker. One of her tasks was to counsel people to hang on to their vaccination cards, so that they would not slide down the chasm of bureaucratic oblivion.

So far, the vaccine’s side effects have been gentle. I was very tired last night, but for all I know that wasn’t even due to the vaccine. The worst thing by far has been the “pain at the injection site,” which woke me several times after I went to bed.

Lying awake, I reflected that I am much happier – most of the time – now that I am able to breathe all night and don’t often wake up and brood.

A slight, demoralizing illness

On Sunday, I was out on the porch too long. It was too cold. And so, the last couple of days, I’ve been sick.

In the evenings, all my life’s woes have paraded themselves back and forth in front of my mind.

While Karin has been working, I’ve struggled to keep up with the little boy. Today, mercifully, he is taking a second nap. That’s what’s allowing me to write this blog entry.

Another mercy is that I’ve slept soundly the last two nights. I suppose it’s because Air Supply forces air down my throat so that it gets around the congestion that would keep me from breathing.

More sleep trouble (a cautionary tale)

You might think that the trouble is with Air Supply, my CPAP machine. Indeed, for a couple of weeks, the mask was too tight, and I was getting terrible headaches. But I fixed that problem.

No, the trouble is that our mattress is wrecked. It has been for years.

When we bought it, Karin & I thought we were being clever, trying out mattresses in the store and then using the Internet to order a model that was similar to what we liked. Well, the joke was on us. Now the springs are damaged and we sleep in enormous craters.

I awoke with a backache that would persist all day. It was the final backbreaking straw. A few hours later, we ordered a new, more expensive mattress. This one is renowned for its firmness and has a lifetime warranty. It also will require us to make a lifetime of payments (or at least a year’s worth).

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David Attenborough’s Our Planet – a Netflix production – is free to stream on YouTube. Samuel and I watched Episode 8, “Forests.” Samuel was quite taken with the animals. He squawked at the TV several times.

Hail, hail

Since I last wrote, I’ve had nights as of old, with frequent apneas and hypopneas, causing brutal daytime tiredness. Yesterday, I fell asleep three times. You’d think this would help me to sleep better at night. Alas, at 3:00am I knocked Air Supply off my bedside table, and in setting him upright I jostled his humidifier. Water traveled up the hose and sprayed out all over my side of the bed. Fortunately, Karin didn’t get very wet.

Like I said, this contraption will take some getting used to.

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It surely will interest my readers that italics have been made available for one of the best free typefaces – Source Serif Pro, published by Adobe and inspired by the classic book typeface Fournier.

Certain people have been waiting for these italics since, oh, 2014.

The typeface includes small caps and old-style numerals, as well as Greek and Cyrillic letters. It can be downloaded here.

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T-storms all day tomorrow. Woo hoo!

There was a hailstorm over our neighborhood earlier this week. It seems not to have affected anywhere else. But it occurred, and here is the proof.

A good sleep; July 4; Ennio Morricone; Hail, Caesar!

Thanks to Air Supply, Saturday night’s sleep was the best I’d had in years. I was so well rested that I went around the house doing various tasks as soon as I woke up.

The app awarded me a silver badge.

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Maybe I slept so well because I was worn out. Saturday had been terribly hot. I finished mowing before noon; even so, the heat made me feel faint, and I had to recover on the couch for several hours.

Around the time I finished mowing, I noticed thick, black smoke drifting over from across the street. Fire trucks arrived quickly. Neighbors recorded video. Fortunately, it seems no one was hurt. I can’t say what was damaged: I’m not even sure which building was on fire; it may have been a trash heap, for all I know.

This weekend, also, a notoriously flammable apartment complex in South Bend caught fire. No one was hurt – people occasionally die there – but some tenants lost their possessions.

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Karin & I took Samuel on a stroll around the neighborhood. What with all the firecrackers, it was rather dangerous. Samuel slept through it, though. He also slept after sunset when the explosions were very loud indeed. Karin & I looked out our window at the smoky haze.

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Speaking of “fistfuls of dynamite”:

R.I.P. Ennio Morricone, whose music I listen to every month, if not every week.

And speaking of spaghetti westerns: how about that pasta lasso by Alden Ehrenreich?

Feeding Samuel, I watched Hail, Caesar! in installments. I’d been putting this movie off for years. Well, it was delightful. Two days later, I viewed it again, with Karin, and it was just as good. In a way, it’s easier to appreciate a great director (or two) by watching their fluff than by watching something more substantial (you aren’t distracted by the gravitas).

There are lots of perfect little touches in Hail, Caesar! My favorites involved Ehrenreich, the singing cowboy, whom I’d never seen before. I liked his lassoing. I also liked his enormous plate of beans.

Air Supply

… is what I’ve named my rent-to-own CPAP machine.

I’ve had it since Tuesday morning. Karin took me to the medical supply store and left me in the parking lot with my COVID mask, a lawn chair, and several books (she had to visit her doctor). After forty-five minutes, I went inside and met the technician. I signed paperwork and learned how to use the machine.

“Should I worry about what the cats might do to it?” I asked the technician.

“Keep the hose away from them,” he said. “They might chew holes in it, thinking it’s a snake.”

So, every morning, I’ve been detaching the hose and storing it in the machine’s nifty little briefcase.

The appointment cost $145 (after insurance). The rental will cost $18 per month (after insurance). I’ll become the owner after 13–15 months. So the expense isn’t terrible; I just wish that obtaining the machine hadn’t taken longer than seven months.

The distilled water that goes into the humidifier costs 68¢ per bottle. The filters and masks will eventually need to be replaced.

Sleeping with Air Supply will take getting used to. It’s not uncomfortable as long as the mask isn’t leaking air into my eyes. The mask seems to leak air whenever I roll over. Tightening it in the middle of the night isn’t easy; and when I do, I’m castigated by the app that compiles my “sleep score.” The score also decreases if too much air leaks out.

I’m not sure if the “sleep score” matters. This month, the insurer only requires that I wear the mask four hours each night, seven out of ten nights.

I do seem to be sleeping better. Yesterday, I fell asleep twice watching Samuel – he was asleep, too – but today I’m alert, and I haven’t even had any caffeine.

Even the nights are better
Now that we’re here together
Even the nights are better
Since I’ve found you

… is what I hope to sing.