Monthly Archives: January 2014

Cool FL Weather – Jan 2014

For the most part, centralĀ Florida winter weather is great. Unfortunately, there will beĀ a few times during the season when the temperatures drop below freezing, or even a little above that for several days. I was going to refer to this as ‘cold’ weather but I was raised in Chicago and I watch the national weather to see sub-zero weather with feet of snow piling up.

So, it’s not a major threat to survival when the temps drop below 70 but I did discover something recently. Normally, I’m very frugal when it comes to running the furnace or electric heaters (when I’m paying for my own utilities). If the temps drop into the 30s or even high 20s overnight, I usually deal with it by wearing extra layers inside the RV and throwing an extra blanket on the bed at night. In the morning, I’ll run the furnace for 15-20 minutes just to take the chill off, then wait for the temps to rise to a comfortable level. This has worked fine in the past but in the last few weeks we were getting the low temps at night and not going above 50 during the day.

In my eBook, Home Is Where The Wheels Stop, I mention that fatigue is cumulative. Well, it looks like cold is also. Going into the second night of cold temps, I actually set the thermostat so the furnace would kick in periodically during the night and, perhaps more amazingly, left the furnace on during the day. I had the thermostat set low so I wasn’t burning a lot of propane. But as the cool weather continued I found myself adjusting the thermostat up each day even though the outside temps were still in the same range. Maybe the cold is cumulative, or maybe I’m just getting older and not able to handle it as well. One of my neighbors is significantly older and I can still hear their furnace running, even on nights when I leave my windows open.

Itchy Feet

Normally, itchy feet for an RVer refers to being ready to roll on down the road to the next campground. For me (this year), the phrase means that plus healing from my broken ankle.

Since I’m committed in this area for an undetermined amount of time, I can’t really look forward to hitching up and pulling out. So, I took the next best option and drove across the state to visit the Tampa RV Super Show. I guess that’s a vicarious pleasure for a stationary RVer. I’d been thinking about getting a different type of RV for awhile so the show was a good place to do some research. The type I was interested in is a Super C. No problem. I spotted a great looking Super C within a few minutes and headed straight for it. It certainly looked big enough to fulltime in and tow a decent vehicle behind it. Then I noticed the price tag. Wow!! It was marked down for the show to $465k. List price was over $500k. Hmmm, I probably need to start buying lottery tickets again.

After that I stuck more to my price range and looked at the towables. In the last few years, they’ve definitely made some changes in standard features and options. I still may need to buy those lottery tickets though to get all the options I want, then maybe a bigger truck to tow it.

Now for the other meaning of itchy feet. In December, I had my last ortho appointment and the doctor announced that I was at maximum medical improvement. I guess in English that means ‘you’re as good as you’re going to get’. Over the last 3 months, it seemed like I could feel the bone mending. It wasn’t painful, just a sensation in the spot where the break occurred. Well, I’m still feeling that sensation and there’s still some swelling in the ankle. Maybe there’s still some improvement going on. I sure hope so. In the meantime, I’ll keep exercising without going overboard and trying to lose more weight to take it a little easier on those joints.