Page 577 - Demo

Aging Gracefully571be able to tolerate. And they cost significantly more than our battery solution. Now, when we have an extended electrical outage, we can plug our refrigerator into one of the batteries, which has enough juice to keep it operating for the first day, then we plug the refrigerator into the second battery for the next day. While the second battery is in use, we can charge the first battery using the solar panels (which takes about 7 hours), and it%u2019s ready for the third day. In other words, we can use one battery while charging the other, and can keep our refrigerator operating for as many days as necessary. We also bought a second smaller battery, so now, in addition to a reading lamp, TV and DVD player, we have enough portable power to operate our computers %u2014 and the solar panels can be used to charge those batteries as well. Granted, we%u2019d have no air conditioning or heat during an outage, but because our house is superinsulated, it loses heat in winter (and gains heat in the summer) very slowly %u2014 not enough over several days to be uncomfortable. Nor do we have enough back-up power to operate our stove or microwave oven, so we eat cold meals or drive into town for hot food. In the spring of 2024, we had three power outages within a six-week period, which was more outages in a such a short time than we%u2019d ever experienced in the past. Two of the outages lasted for less than a day, while the other was for almost two days %u2014 and our battery back-up system worked quite well.%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022Besides reading books, Lynn and I subscribed to two magazines, Discover and Smithsonian, which we enjoyed very much. In its July/August 2025 issue, Discover had an article entitled %u201cAllergic to Everything,%u201d which contained some information about chemical sensitivities, although the article primarily discussed mast cells, which exist virtually everywhere in the body. It referred to mast cells as %u201cfrontline sentinels of the immune system.%u201d For years, it had been known that mast cells released histamine and other chemicals in response to natural allergens, which resulted in reactions like sneezing, coughing, and itching.