Happy 68th birthday to my wonderful husband! The birthday boy is now enjoying a good meal and watching his show.

I have decent energy today, but I’m now smart enough to know that it’s not connected to the CPAP. It’s just one of those temporary reprieves I get every now and then. Better energy means a better mood. So I won’t want to kill myself as much today. LOL.

He’s been using electrolyte drink mixes before donating, but because he won’t be able to donate for a few weeks due to his surgery on Monday, he hasn’t had any lately. I took a leftover packet to try on my fatigue, but since I actually have some energy today, I’ll hold off and try it tomorrow. The maca was worthless. Trying to sleep over the next week is going to be pure hell on me—chronic fatigue or not—because of all the storms. A storm is rolling in right now, but when I’m awake, I love listening to them.

Last night, as the bugs were biting my feet in the kitchen, I started to think—these aren’t sand fleas. So I did some research and thought they were biting midges. That’s when I noticed the little black specks sitting on top of his medicine bottle and around the windowsill by the sink. I started to suspect they were connected to the succulents sitting on the sill, even though I didn’t see anything in their soil. 

I left Tom a message about it since I crashed before he got up. When he got up, he used a magnifier and took a picture of the top of his medicine bottle to identify the fuckers. That’s when he discovered our problem was booklice. They don’t bite, but if you’re allergic to them, they can cause a red, itchy rash that looks like bites. Their name is misleading because they don’t eat books and they’re not lice; they just look similar and eat mold. They’re not dangerous, just annoying. 

That would explain why they were attacking my feet and not his—because I’m allergic. Leave it to me to be the one who’s allergic! He thinks it was the bombs that caused the rash on his legs, which never itched. The bombs killed whatever was alive, but not their eggs. Our guess is they came from the soil we used for the succulents (or the plants themselves). We moved all the succulents as well as the money tree out to the lanai. I never want another indoor plant again other than bamboos, which I’ve never had a problem with.