You know what is no fun? Is living in the mid-Atlantic in summer with no air conditioning. That derecho knocked out our power and I got to spend several unpleasant days with the two dogs and four cats, and all of us suffered. Just sitting still, I had sweat rolling off of me.
The power went out at 11:30 or so on Friday night, and came back on at 3:30 Monday morning. That doesn't sound like very long in retrospect, but it felt like forever right then. And I couldn't open the fridge or freezer, where all the yummy stuff is. I pretty much ate granola bars. I didn't even want the granola bars. It was too hot to be hungry. What I wanted was a huge cold drink with a lot of ice. Instead I drank 90 degree 0 calorie PowerAde because we had some in the sunroom.
Man.
Anyway, that's over. Now it's time to go hiking. I decided to go ahead and do a trail journal again. It's kind of a last minute decision. I am not promising journalistic excellence.
This link probably works.
I've spent much of the last two weeks clutching my right arm which hurt a lot for something that didn't even get scraped. I finally got an MRI on Friday, and got the results today. I have arthritis. The arthritis got irritated and pinched a nerve. This is an improvement over the two previously proposed options, which were a herniation of a previously bulging disk, or a brain tumor (because I also have increased migraines and dizziness). So arthritis is looking pretty good at the moment. Although, last year's MRI of my neck only showed one bulging disk, and this one shows four. I am self destructing quickly. I'm now up to eight bulging disks.
I might get all wacky and try acupuncture. Or something. But first I'm going hiking.
Showing posts with label journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journal. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
2003 AT trip report Day 2
Monday, May 5
Brown Gap
I wake up to the pitter patter of rain on the hammock. Dang.
I get up and start packing. No movement comes from the
two tents.
I voice my opinion that it's not going to stop raining, and the
other two start packing up.
It rains. Rain, rain, rain. I arrive at the gap where the
shelter is supposed to be. There's a path. I follow
it. There are footprints on it.. there must be a shelter,
right?
Eventually the footsteps peter out and I'm in the middle
of some very nice evergreens. No shelter. I go back
to the trail and notice the real path to the shelter, 20
yards down the trail. Oops. Once at the real shelter,
I strip and put on warm clothes for the lunch break.
After lunch we put our cold wet clothes back on and
keep walking. We considered staying at the shelter
but it was early and we wanted to go a bit further.
The campsite we aimed at turned out to be notso hotso,
but we set up anyway. Nothing else in the vicinity
seemed better.
Getting down to the campsite involves a steep slope
no matter how you do it. We wipe out. I do some damage
to the seat of my Provent pants, sliding butt first.
I set up my hammock on a slope, leaving the tiny valley
floor to Leapfrog and 10-kid (Nancy's new trailname.)
It's been raining quite a while and it's still dry, so it might
be okay.
During the night they find that it's not okay. The waters
begin to rise. The Nomads turn into small waterbeds.
Leapfrog feels unwell during the night. I don't feel
so hot myself. But at least I'm pretty dry.
10-kid shouts over the rain that if a car comes, she's
getting a ride. Sometime during the night, a car does
come. She shouts over the rain. I can barely hear her.
Not wanting to get out of my hammock, I say "Do you
really want to leave that badly?" Silence. "If you
feel the same way in the morning, we'll find a way out"
I tell her. The car has moved on anyway.
Lightning crashes. It rains really really hard. I
put in my earplugs to sleep.
Brown Gap
I wake up to the pitter patter of rain on the hammock. Dang.
I get up and start packing. No movement comes from the
two tents.
I voice my opinion that it's not going to stop raining, and the
other two start packing up.
It rains. Rain, rain, rain. I arrive at the gap where the
shelter is supposed to be. There's a path. I follow
it. There are footprints on it.. there must be a shelter,
right?
Eventually the footsteps peter out and I'm in the middle
of some very nice evergreens. No shelter. I go back
to the trail and notice the real path to the shelter, 20
yards down the trail. Oops. Once at the real shelter,
I strip and put on warm clothes for the lunch break.
After lunch we put our cold wet clothes back on and
keep walking. We considered staying at the shelter
but it was early and we wanted to go a bit further.
The campsite we aimed at turned out to be notso hotso,
but we set up anyway. Nothing else in the vicinity
seemed better.
Getting down to the campsite involves a steep slope
no matter how you do it. We wipe out. I do some damage
to the seat of my Provent pants, sliding butt first.
I set up my hammock on a slope, leaving the tiny valley
floor to Leapfrog and 10-kid (Nancy's new trailname.)
It's been raining quite a while and it's still dry, so it might
be okay.
During the night they find that it's not okay. The waters
begin to rise. The Nomads turn into small waterbeds.
Leapfrog feels unwell during the night. I don't feel
so hot myself. But at least I'm pretty dry.
10-kid shouts over the rain that if a car comes, she's
getting a ride. Sometime during the night, a car does
come. She shouts over the rain. I can barely hear her.
Not wanting to get out of my hammock, I say "Do you
really want to leave that badly?" Silence. "If you
feel the same way in the morning, we'll find a way out"
I tell her. The car has moved on anyway.
Lightning crashes. It rains really really hard. I
put in my earplugs to sleep.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
2003 AT trip report Day 1
Sunday, May 4
North of Davenport Gap
With Miss Janet away for the overnight party, a hiker staying at the house takes over breakfast preparations. I have a yummy biscuits and eggs. We all hang out in the back yard in the sunshine. I notice a lot of things hanging out to dry. Hmmm.
Miss Janet brings the first load of hikers back. She is going to be very busy today. A bored zeroing hiker offers to shuttle us to our starting point. It will save us a lot of time. Yay! We drive and drive and drive and see a little bit of Asheville and finally get to the AT at I-40 near Davenport Gap. We've weighed our packs while loading up - 31, 31, and 34 pounds. Not too bad, for five days food. The others take tons of "getting ready to go" pictures, and we're off.
It's really pretty out. The sky is hot and blue. You can smell the pine trees. I love that.
Soon we have a stream to cross. In our first injury of the trip, Nancy falls in and skins her knee. No lasting harm done, we doctor her a little and continue walking. I notice signs for Standing Bear Farm.
In the late afternoon we arrive at our planned stopping point, a little spit of land between two streams. The bugs are ferocious. We quickly set up and get in our shelters. My hammock fly ends up staked in the middle of the stream, as there isn't enough land to go around.
North of Davenport Gap
With Miss Janet away for the overnight party, a hiker staying at the house takes over breakfast preparations. I have a yummy biscuits and eggs. We all hang out in the back yard in the sunshine. I notice a lot of things hanging out to dry. Hmmm.
Miss Janet brings the first load of hikers back. She is going to be very busy today. A bored zeroing hiker offers to shuttle us to our starting point. It will save us a lot of time. Yay! We drive and drive and drive and see a little bit of Asheville and finally get to the AT at I-40 near Davenport Gap. We've weighed our packs while loading up - 31, 31, and 34 pounds. Not too bad, for five days food. The others take tons of "getting ready to go" pictures, and we're off.
It's really pretty out. The sky is hot and blue. You can smell the pine trees. I love that.
Soon we have a stream to cross. In our first injury of the trip, Nancy falls in and skins her knee. No lasting harm done, we doctor her a little and continue walking. I notice signs for Standing Bear Farm.
In the late afternoon we arrive at our planned stopping point, a little spit of land between two streams. The bugs are ferocious. We quickly set up and get in our shelters. My hammock fly ends up staked in the middle of the stream, as there isn't enough land to go around.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
2003 AT trip report Day 0
Before I started using Trailjournals.com, I was in the habit of posting trip reports to AT-L, the Appalachian Trail mailing list (which I'm still on.) Because I never throw anything away, I still have those sent emails. I came across my trip from 2003 last night and decided to repost the entries. The trip started at I-40 (at the north end of the Smokies). I hiked with Leapfrog, who I met in 2001 while hiking with DeLee, and Leapfrog's friend Ten-kid.
Saturday, May 3
Erwin
My friend Alex from work drove me to Miss Janet's House in Erwin, where I met up with Leapfrog and her friend Nancy. POG is hanging out when I arrive. What a nifty surprise (for both of us!) The place is full despite a bunch of hikers heading to the hills for a cookout.
At 11 two beds are still empty but have stuff on them. Martha Graham thinks the stuff belongs to hikers who've gone to the cookout and tells me to go sleep in one of them. I do, and end up displacing somebody who was there after all. Martha Graham can be very firm.
It all worked out. The other top bunk was supposed to be taken by somebody who was really too sick to be climbing in and out of a bunk. He slept on the sofa in easy reach of the bathroom.
Erwin
My friend Alex from work drove me to Miss Janet's House in Erwin, where I met up with Leapfrog and her friend Nancy. POG is hanging out when I arrive. What a nifty surprise (for both of us!) The place is full despite a bunch of hikers heading to the hills for a cookout.
At 11 two beds are still empty but have stuff on them. Martha Graham thinks the stuff belongs to hikers who've gone to the cookout and tells me to go sleep in one of them. I do, and end up displacing somebody who was there after all. Martha Graham can be very firm.
It all worked out. The other top bunk was supposed to be taken by somebody who was really too sick to be climbing in and out of a bunk. He slept on the sofa in easy reach of the bathroom.
Monday, October 10, 2011
In which I have adventures with DeLee
I was busy backpacking this weekend. I just spent a while writing trailjournals entries, so I'm just going to point you at them and some pictures and leave it at that.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Like a bird. A big, blue bird.
This morning was the first time since last winter that the air had a damp bite to it. It felt like icy kittens licking my forehead. Just a taste of things to come.
Today kind of started out like the last two days, but then something astounding happened. Something went right! A longtime VMS guy at work had a vtterm that he's letting me borrow. Finally, I have some insight into what the machines were doing! A huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I didn't even realize how much it had been bothering me. I mean, I knew I was stressed, but I didn't know why. There are *lots* of reasons I could be stressed out right now.
And stress was the major reason I was thrilled to jog this evening. My stress release options aren't that great at the moment. So it falls to exercise to keep me going. I felt so good jogging. Going downhill I felt like a bird on the wind. Passersby saw a middle aged sysadmin jiggling down the street, but in my head I flew triumphantly down that sidewalk. It was *GREAT*. At the end when it was time to walk home, I decided to jog up the hill first. I've only jogged down it so far and I was curious if it would feel awful. But it didn't. It felt pretty good.
After that I was off to yoga, another great stress reliever. And in fact I feel pretty mellow now. The two Hershey's kisses I had when I got home didn't hurt. :)
One of the things the naturopath has me doing is keeping a lifestyle journal for two weeks. I have to note down the date and time of every thing I ingest and excrete, my feelings, and all my major activities. I've never done that before. Writing down every time I go to the bathroom has made me realize just how often I pee. I pee a lot, yall. I feel like my lifestyle journal is judging my peeing frequency. Now I resent my journal for judging me. Damn you, Xerox copy! You have no right to point fingers.
Today kind of started out like the last two days, but then something astounding happened. Something went right! A longtime VMS guy at work had a vtterm that he's letting me borrow. Finally, I have some insight into what the machines were doing! A huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I didn't even realize how much it had been bothering me. I mean, I knew I was stressed, but I didn't know why. There are *lots* of reasons I could be stressed out right now.
And stress was the major reason I was thrilled to jog this evening. My stress release options aren't that great at the moment. So it falls to exercise to keep me going. I felt so good jogging. Going downhill I felt like a bird on the wind. Passersby saw a middle aged sysadmin jiggling down the street, but in my head I flew triumphantly down that sidewalk. It was *GREAT*. At the end when it was time to walk home, I decided to jog up the hill first. I've only jogged down it so far and I was curious if it would feel awful. But it didn't. It felt pretty good.
After that I was off to yoga, another great stress reliever. And in fact I feel pretty mellow now. The two Hershey's kisses I had when I got home didn't hurt. :)
One of the things the naturopath has me doing is keeping a lifestyle journal for two weeks. I have to note down the date and time of every thing I ingest and excrete, my feelings, and all my major activities. I've never done that before. Writing down every time I go to the bathroom has made me realize just how often I pee. I pee a lot, yall. I feel like my lifestyle journal is judging my peeing frequency. Now I resent my journal for judging me. Damn you, Xerox copy! You have no right to point fingers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)