The plants will like it

I'm listening to "War of the Minds" by Flame.  It's a great song.

Happily, I think I'm in a "manic" phase - which these days is very low key.  I feel a little happier than "not depressed".  I have more interest in things, and more energy.  And, that's it.  These days.

Yeah, it's not as "fun" as some of my old manias - my favorite was the time I was out in the yard, I dug a 4x4x3 foot deep garden bed in just a couple of hours!  [laugh]  I do try, if I get a "good" one, to "point" it at some, useful, project.

However, the goal, I guess, is not having them at all.  The curse of bipolar: it's so fun to be up, so addictive... and so dangerous.  [shrug]  No one wants depression, no one.  The manias are the danger.

So, I got a fair amount done:  I figured out a heating problem.  I hate being cold in the morning when I get out of bed.  I don't want to run the heater all night.  Ron doesn't want a large bill.  

The other day, lying in bed, I got it: put a small utility heater (like the one Ron has in the man cave), ON A TIMER!  That's it!

Today, I got both the heater (12 amps) and the timer (15 amps - so safe),  at Walmart for about $25 and tax.  I tested it, set it to run for a half hour only.  It worked great.

I am going to love this so much on Monday morning, when I get up at 3 (!) AM to get my deliveries.  I can set the timer the night before, to start about 20 minutes before my alarm.  By the time I get up, my room and maybe the bathroom (I have a bathroom door in my room) will be pleasant.  And, once I'm up, it turns off.  I'm so tickled.

The rest of the time, I don't really care about the temperature.  I can put on a sweater and be fine.  Ron keeps his (small) man cave nice and toasty with another small heater.  I've noticed, too much heat will trigger a hot flash - and I don't like them!  The thermostat can be a lot colder this winter, and save some money.

You may remember my blog, a few months back, about "owning" my house.  How I tend to act like I'm visiting my house instead of owning it.  When I was in Galveston for my birthday, I had the thought "I love coming to this motel - they have wonderful shower heads.  Why don't I look into getting one for the house?"

Today, I did that, too.  I found a nice shower head, for $10.

A huge factor in my decision: it has a pause button.  I lived in a home, in CA, during an extremely severe drought.  I remember one year we got a total of 11 inches rain.  For the year.  Dad bought shower heads that had pause buttons.  Once I got wet, I'd hit the pause button, lather up, and then turn the water on to rinse.  Dad also had a system to save "gray water" from the showers for reuse in the garden.

We are in the midst of an extremely severe drought.   I thought, both of those ideas have a very practical application here.  While I showered this morning, I thought, I could use 1/3 of the water if I had a pause button.

My "new head" does that.  And the new bucket I bought can help catch gray water for the garden.  For instance, turning on the water, waiting for it to heat up; that water can go in the bucket for certain.  From what I read, anything but the shampoo/conditioner rinse water can be used on garden plants.   Plain soap, apparently, breaks down pretty quickly.

I venture to say, depending on my mood, I may or may not reuse gray water in the garden.  When I'm manic, like now, it's "easy".  When I'm depressed, I'm  hard pressed to climb in the shower to bathe, much less play environmentalist.

I'm sure the plants will like it.