Thread Drift

[Crankin]

Went for a 4.5 mile hike today, with no ill effects. There wasn't much climbing (just a few rollers), but I think I will be fine. My temperature was below normal this morning, yay.
The only thing I am worried about now, is that you have to be super careful in the sun when taking sulfa drugs. I always use sunblock, but I will be using a lot tomorrow, as it's going ot be sunny and 82 degrees. A lot of the ride is shady, thankfully.

[emily_in_nc]

Glad you did okay, Crankin! And I saw on another the rides thread that you were able to do your ride leading as well. GOOD that you got better so quickly!

[Crankin]

Yeah, I think i am not 100%, still, but I was able to get through it. Being the sweep helped! There were points in the ride that I felt like I was swallowing pollen and my sinuses are a bit worse today. I used my sinus rinse, but it still is "off." Rain today, so it all will be gone. My black car is yellow from all of this pollen.

[ny biker]

We've already passed through the yellow-car stage of the pollen season here. I think I can actually stop using antihistamine eye drops now, certainly am not needing them twice a day at this point. I love seeing all the flowers and green trees which helps me get through pollen allergies -- at least there's an upside to the suffering -- but I do have to be prepared to suffer more for a day or two after every spring bike ride.

One of my friends in this area posted on facebook recently about having the flu. Maybe a springtime strain is going around? Meanwhile I have a sore throat today. I woke up with it yesterday, considered not going for a bike ride but I needed the exercise and yesterday was the better day of the weekend in terms of rain storm likelihood and severity. So I rode, and felt fine. But now this morning the sore throat is worse. If it's not better tomorrow I might work from home in order to rest my voice -- after the paralyzed vocal cord experience last year I try to be very careful to avoid any laryngitis.

[Catrin]

Glad to hear you're recovering and you got through the ride!

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[Crankin]

The mom of one of my teenaged clients called to cancel, saying they all had the flu. Same progression as my stuff, so I guess it's going around.
Riding Saturday set me back a bit, but I rested yesterday until we went out for dinner and theatre, and I seem to be ok from lifting at the gym today. I have to be good, as Friday I am going to Philadelphia for the weekend, for a baby shower for my DIL, who lives in CA (her mom and sisters live there, so she is there for a week). My son is off teaching English to military cadets in Paraguay and then to officer training in KY, so he won't be home until a month befor her due date.

[OakLeaf]

Glad you're feeling better. Have fun this weekend! Hope your DIL is doing okay.


OK, this is kind of gross and kind of embarrassing, but too funny not to share. So let me preface it with a reminder that we do live out in the country, and in an older, cheaply built home - so while we're hoping to keep the inside in somewhat better, there's really no keeping the outside completely out.

So, after stuff got stolen out of our house last week, we set up some webcams and (kind of apprehensively) went away for the weekend to a music festival (which was great). Saturday evening we're listening to a band when our phones alert that the camera by the front door detected motion. I bring up the visual ... waiting for our slow home internet to respond, then waiting for the overloaded cell network at the festival site to respond ... and finally see a roach crawling across the lens. So now we know the cameras work, and respond plenty quickly to motion ... and no one came in the house while we were gone.

[Pax]

Hahahaha!!! That is too funny, Oak! That's some sensitive cameras you've got there.

[Crankin]

I will miss the web cam photos of turkeys, squirrels, and chipmunks when we close on the house. The funniest one had to be yesterday. A huge bird, species unknown, landed on the camera, and the wingtip (it was huge) was in the photo.
Glad you haven't seen anything really scary.

[emily_in_nc]

That's funny, Oak! And a good test of your system!

[Catrin]

Sensitive indeed, I laughed and cringed at the same time - I know about not being able to keep the outside, well, out. Glad it was now worse than a bug!

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[ny biker]

Reminds me of the day I returned to my NYC apartment after a vacation and found a giant roach on the wall right inside the front door. I screamed. They usually lived elsewhere in the big old pre-war apartment building but sometimes something would disturb them and they would end up visiting me.

In my current home the usual visitors are spiders, which don't bother me so much, and centipedes, which are icky.

[Pax]

When I lived in a pre-war high rise in Chicago, it was a bug free life... until they did the monthly bug spraying. They'd start on the first floor (I lived on the 12th) and as they got closer to my floor I'd start seeing roaches, by the time they did the 11th floor I was inundated! I had my official roach killing outfit of goggles/flat metal spatula/rubber dishwashing gloves, and I'd start whacking them, then cleaning up with bleach. It only lasted a couple of days, but it was every month!

[ny biker]

I don't think I had any bug problems when I lived in Chicago. It was along time ago so maybe I just don't remember. I lived on the corner of Clark and Fullterton, in a corner apartment. Since Clark runs on a diagonal relative the main street grid, the roads are not at a right angle, so the corner of my building was not a right angle, which meant that my bedroom was not a rectangle. I loved the unusual shape. It was a fairly large 1BR with an eat-in kitchen. The only apartments I've ever had with eat-in kitchens were in Evanston and Chicago.

The only thing I didn't like about that apartment was the street noise, especially in summer when the windows were open. There were hospitals nearby so the the ambulance sirens were pretty frequent. And there were these motorcycle guys who liked to ride up and down Clark Street in the middle of the night even though they had to stop at a red light at every single intersection. Their bikes had very loud motors and they would rev them while they were stopped at every light. I really did not like them. Living there taught me the importance of finding a home on a quiet street.

(Although sadly living on a quiet street does not mean you will have peace and quiet in your apartment. My chandelier rattles with every stomping step the new upstairs neighbor takes. I have taken to sitting in my car outside the building and playing with my phone instead of going into my home after work, because no one is stomping on the roof of my car. There is too much crap going on at work these days and my commute just got way harder due to mass transit service reductions to address major safety and maintenance problems. I just have no energy left to deal with the stomping and rattling.)

[Pax]

NY, that is tough, not wanting to go into your home, your refuge, is really painful. Hope you can find a resolution to the situation soon.

I lived at Foster and Sheridan, nice area, just really old. I think we had bug problems because the ground floor was three restaurants... pretty sure they contributed to the issue.