A hot plate

Susan caught a cold ten days or so ago, and was mostly recovered, except for a persistent cough. It was not typical, in that she has been sleeping fine, but during the day it would just not go away. She decided that it was similar to the cough she had ten years ago or so, which we finally traced to our gas stove, and here again, we are using a gas stove.

So, today about noon, I set out to find a hot plate on which we could at least do some of our cooking to minimize the use of the gas stove. I first checked a couple of stores close by, without success, and then went to the Coral Ipermercado at the Mall del Rio, and they had several. In particular, I had a choice between one burner or two, so I bought the two-burner model.

We have been using it since early afternoon, [and have not used the gas stove at all since noon] and Susan is already coughing a lot less. It seems strange to me that the combustion products on a gas stove could have this effect, but it does. I can only assume that the odorants used in the gas [different here than at home, but still present], combust to form byproducts that annoy her lungs. Propane itself combusts to form water and carbon dioxide, and I refuse to believe that either of those is the culprit.

Anyhow, the only other thing of note for today is that it rained again late this afternoon and evening. I don't know how widespread these rains are, but it would seem that if they are as widespread as they appear, then the drought should be fading fast. We did not have a power outage today, and with tomorrow being New Year's Eve, we should not have one then, nor again until Monday at the earliest. If we don't have an outage on Monday, then I will hope that we are past them, at least if we keep getting some rain.

No pictures for today.