The purpose of a hot tub is to provide warm water in which a body can rest. I thought it was, anyway. Maybe there's a new sort of cold therapy fad I wasn't aware of before now. For two days we have been trying to get the hot tub set up and running, and for two days we have met with utter failure. Yesterday, it was set in place, filled, and turned on. It started tripping its circuit breaker as soon as any piece of equipment cycled on. So today we drained it, and the Mr went through piece by piece, figuring out where it went wrong. It came down to the heating element, and after calling around, we found a store in town that carried exactly what we needed. So the heater coil is now new and newly installed, and the circuit breaker stays on when everything is running. Except there is no heat. The water has stubbornly refused to warm beyond 53 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if we could remember where my stepmother packed the owners manual before we left Georgia, but we haven't a clue where it is. We've looked online, but this tub is not brand new, and the manuals we've found are for newer models. For now, all I have is a big cold pond. So I've named it Melody. (If you know who Melody Pond is, award yourself 50 nerd points.)
I can't seem to get warm today. Last night we failed to turn the heat back on in the house, and we are in the middle of one of those cool Colorado spring weeks. I woke chilled, which isn't unusual when one wakes in a room that was almost as cold as that spa water (warmer by about 4 degrees). I haven't been able to get comfortable ever since. Here it is, the end of April, and I'm wearing long underwear under my clothes (top and bottoms). I was as active as I could make myself be today, running in and out of the house, helping outside, going on errands. It wasn't that I was so motionless that my own body heat shouldn't have kicked in. But no matter what, my feet feel like I've been running through snow, and I spent all day complaining about it. I can't decide which is worse, having hot flashes as a woman who never sweats, or freezing no matter the activity. I think maybe the worst part is not being able to find a happy medium, but instead swinging wildly from one extreme to the other.
The good news is that I am one day in on a two-to-six month journey towards improvement. I started my new lupus medications today, which require a long, slow build to full potency. They put me on one of the anti-malaria drugs that oddly also helps with lupus (and they really don't know why). We always laughed at drug ads that use phrases like "this is thought to work on the neural pathways that control pain." They have no idea what the drug does, but it seems to make patients complain less, so they make money on it. Woohoo. Ah, well, if it ends up helping in the long run, I'll stay on it. It would be better than taking pain pills that make me loopy.
I am not sure why I agreed to come outside on a night like this. I've been freezing all day, the air outside is distinctly crisp and cool, and yet here I sit, a blanket around my shoulders, in front of the fire pit. And for all that I have three layers wrapped around me, that man is in shorts. Something is not right with this picture.
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