Friday Fragments: Things I Learned or Did This Week

I found the idea for this post topic from my friend Karen, who regularly does it. I like her posts so I figured I’d give the idea a try.

I found out that age has not helped me overcome heat intolerance. When I was a kid, I would nearly faint from the intense summer heat and humidity that New York gets. I think that’s how I became such a voracious book reader. While other kids were running around the streets during the hottest days, I was inside, in a cool, dark corner, reading. The heat makes me horribly nauseous, achy, and tired. I feel like I have the flu. I have no energy. I am listless. I just want to LAY THERE. It’s like I’m a totally different person, because most of the time, I am goingoingoing.

I’ve always heard it said that as you age, you like hot weather more. I thought that might have happened to me, or was happening, because the past 5-6 summers have been pretty tolerant. But the past week it has been BLAZING hot. 97 degrees, with horrible humidity. It threw me for a total loop and realized all that “old age heat tolerance” stuff is mere wishful thinking. All I can do is sit in a dark corner in front of a fan and wait for the temperature to cool. My young son is the same way. He gets headaches and bad stomachaches from the heat, and feels faint. I wonder why this is? Is it the number of capillaries in the body or something?? Anyway, after checking the weather forecast, I saw why the past 5-6 summers have been pretty OK for me- we haven’t had such a heat wave since 2002, the last time I was sick from the heat. :sik: Only 6 more months til winter!!

And it’s no wonder southern folks talk in a drawl. If I had this kind of weather for 9 months of the year, I’d probably take forever to talk, too. lol

It seems that most people like summer over winter. I am on the opposite side (surprise, surprise). What do you prefer, summer or winter? Why?

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Despite the weather, I mustered enough energy to wash my bedroom walls of black mold. It happens every year. I have NO idea how the mold gets there, as there are no leaks in this location. It’s under a window that faces north. The entire bottom of the wall fills with black mold, about 12 inches up from the carpet. Every spring, I have to pull away the furniture and wash it with bleach.

Mold grows around the windows of the other rooms, too, but my bedroom is the worse. Maybe it’s just the heavy condensation all winter long…. the walls and windows are pretty thin. We have hopes to get new ones installed within a year or two, Lord willing. The windows are 110 years old, so I’d say they are due for a replacement!

Old houses are HARD WORK. Next time I get a house, it’s either going to be a new one or already renovated. I’m getting too old for this.

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I’m pretty peeved with Verizon residential and high speed Internet service, for a number of things. For one, they overcharged me on something I cancelled months ago, and decided to sic a collection agency after me for a bill that is their error. I have spent untold hours on the phone with them, trying to get this resolves since November. They can’t seem to get it in their heads that THEY owe ME not I owe THEM. Earlier this week, I spent two hours talking with 7 different people about the issue, again. I begged the guy to have mercy on me. I’ll go insane if this issue isn’t resolved. He said he’d fix it. We’ll see….

Verizon also had a hacker obtain email addresses of customers, mine included. So I am now being bombarded with phishing emails on my personal email address. Verizon has a way to report these crimes, but when I send them the information to the email they’ve provided, the email is returned to me, saying it’s spam. :blink: Oh yeah, and Verizon just converted all customers’ phone accounts so they are accessed with our personal email addresses… so all a hacker has to do is figure out my password since he already has my email address and personal information (and those are done with password-guessing software programs) and BAM, he’s got my account.

I could always end my relationship with Verizon (and I’m really desperate to do it), but who else is there? Here in NYS, Verizon is the only phone company. The only other alternative is Time-Warner cable, and I hear they are just as bad.

***

I’m very happy with my income lately. I have upped my giving to a charitable organization, and I think the Lord is blessing me for it. I am happy to help. Since I have been giving, I have been blessed with more income. I donate every month to Voice of the Martyrs to support Christians in other countries or to help fund Bibles in other languages. Of course, it’s self-defeating to give so that you can get something in return. God can see through that. When you give to others because you know their needs are greater than yours, or maybe it’s just because God says to give to someone even though they may seem more prosperous, God blesses that.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38

There were a few months when I was worried that I couldn’t make ends meet, but I gave anyway. There have been times in my life where I have been really, really impoverished- we’ve had no food on many occasion. Yet we never starved and something has always happened to provide us with what we need. It’s great to know that I can do the same for others in need, too.

And with my extra income, I bought an air conditioner today. :D SO maybe now I can get some of that chutzpah back. And maybe the air conditioner will help alleviate the mold problems. :D As far as fixing the Verizon issue, I wonder if that kind is only removed with prayer and fasting. :brudder:

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