I had been feeling sickly for some time now.

As an Uber and Lyft driver I’m exposed to a good many people and during my off days when I felt the worst, I kept thinking maybe I’d contracted something from one of my passengers.

One one occasion, I had a passenger I’d picked up from a trip to London call me a few days later to let me know she had Covid. I waited a few days, didn’t drive and waited to get tested. By then, I was feeling kind of puny, but two tests later, (better safe than sorry and to be sure), my tests came out negative. It could be anything.

Well, maybe not. I had been so tired and sleepy of late, that I reasoned it was the change of weather. The weather has been gloomy and rainy and I wasn’t venturing out. I don’t drive in bad weather in a state where the average driver is unaccustomed to handling it. So, I’d been staying in a lot more than usual.

The other morning as I laid in bed pondering whether or not to get up just yet, I dozed off. Suddenly an alarm went off. I was startled awake. It wasn’t the fire alarm, I knew that. Moments before even, in a groggy state, I’d asked the husband to shake out the toaster because the burnt crumbs was aggravating and smelled awful. Huh! Even half asleep I noticed something. Even then, I tried hard to detect smoke but that wasn’t it. So… I get up and hunt down the annoying alarm. It was flashing red and I had to get my glasses to read what it was saying, which was, “Get fresh air”. Wow!

Huh! I opened all the doors and windows and went outside. I realized then, my breathing had been impaired and I was nauseous. I went back in to locate the source.. I turned off the gas to the heater and called the gas and electric company but they were not open for the day. “Call back in two hours”, it tells me.

Hubby had already left for work. He’s the one who suggested turning off the gas. I left a message at the non emergency fire department number. They would get back to me four hours later. lol

Two things and to show how faulty my brain was working was… 1. One of my brothers works for the gas and electric company. 2. My other brother had been a paramedic with the fire department!!! I didn’t think of either. Brother two asked why didn’t I call 911? He said that would qualify as an emergency and they would have also checked my blood for Co2 poisoning, right there on the spot. I told him, I didn’t want to bother if it was a non issue.

Taking it a step further, when the heating and air guy came out to check it, I discovered the source of the problem and… he showed me all these fried wires!!! Not only was there leakage, but they were the result of flames of the furnace having left their designated space and fried the wires.

I looked at him and back at the wires and calmly state, “so in essence I was sitting on a time bomb” and he says, “yeah, sort of”. SunnavaB!

Brother three wanted me to get my blood tested and so did number two brother. I never told number one brother about it, but I’m sure he would have concurred. In any case, I asked the doctor and he said, “oh that will leach out on its own and a blood test isn’t necessary despite my age, which was why the brothers wanted the checkup. So, the following day when I talked to the doctor, I felt fairly okay, the nausea and headache had past and I even went for a walk.

That evening, I suddenly began having trouble breathing. My chest hurt and I kept bouncing in and out of bed unable to sleep and afraid that if I did I wouldn’t wake up the next day. I have felt like crap since, but I think I’m finally getting over it. I never went in for the blood tests because it was still raining and I didn’t have the energy to venture out. It had been a groggy week! It ended up taking over a month to feel normal again.

The guy that came out and checked the furnace turned everything off related to it and also checked all my other gas sources. I’ve still left some windows open and it’s colder than you know what. I’m in southern California, but it’s been unseasonably cold this year already. We don’t get this cold til January or late December. So, we got a new furnace ten days later the following week. In the meantime, it was warmer outside than inside during the day, so a good time to stay outdoors.

Why didn’t it affect the husband? Two explainable reasons. One. He’s twice my size. Two. He’s seldom home. I am here alone pretty much all the time, which is why I drive. That’s my company and entertainment.

I’m much better now, but I just want to remind everyone who lives in colder climes to be sure and have your furnace inspected and be safe.

Today, the husband took me out for breakfast and we walked the beach before he goes off again. It was a beautiful morning and I got some cool pics.

Right?

In case you’re wondering- some of my posts will be catch up writings that I somehow failed to launch. Enjoy!

PS – I know I lost a good number of my usual followers- so I thank you all who came back. in that time some things had changed on the app and I’ve had trouble responding to comments. So, I’m letting you know ahead of time. Cheers!