A Down Week

This week started out nicely. I took advantage of some unseasonably mild temps Monday afternoon for a 34-mile gravel ride to the southwest. My quads were a little sore from more miles than usual on my indoor trainer the previous week so I was hoping the ride would loosen them up a little. Later in the afternoon, in a matter of maybe 20 minutes, I began to feel weak and shaky. I had to lay down. Then I got the chills and couldn't warm up. I spent the evening shivering by our gas fireplace with a blanket over me. Except for a trip to GS Labs in Shakopee to a drive-thru Covid testing site the next day, I had no idea that I'd be on the couch or in bed until this morning (Friday).

The testing site performed 2 nasal swab tests for current Covid infection and one finger prick antibody test to see if I've had any previous exposure to the virus in the past few months. They were all negative. My illness had all the makings of a bad seasonal flu but one that hit me harder than any other I can recall. I recorded a whopping 210 steps on Wednesday. I'm mostly out of the woods now but I've got a lingering cough from deep in my chest, a mild headache, and my voice is weirdly weak and shaky—that's not something I've ever experienced before.

Tammy thinks I may have had a bad reaction to a drug I'd begun taking (mesalamine) two weeks earlier for a recent diagnosis of mild Crohn's Disease. I stopped taking it, not wanting to prolong the awfulness of what I was feeling in case she was right. I really don't think that was it because this felt more viral than a coming together of some various side effects from a drug. It's difficult to know but I'm not about to go back on it to find out. It didn't appear to be doing anything for me anyway.

I'm hopeful of getting the Covid vaccine this coming week. Tests in the cities aren't easy to secure just yet but I do have a reservation set aside for Tuesday in Bemidji if I want to take an 8-hour round trip. I know that seems excessive but for a retired guy looking to kill a day, I don't mind. Plus, I've never been to Bemidji.

Okay, I'm going out on a limb to say that we've got this winter in the bag. The 10-day forecast takes us to within a week of April and it looks very mild. 

Now that I've got my new wheels, I would really like to someday take a trip to western North Dakota and spend a day or two or four on the Maah Daah Hey Trail. A friend sent me this link and it rekindled my desire from a few years ago to make it happen. My Orbea would thrive in this environment. I only hope I can say the same for me. It's on my bucket list...after retracing some of my favorite routes out of San Diego.

It was refreshing to hear Biden speak last night in his first address to the nation as president. The bluster of the previous guy was replaced with sincerity by Biden. The glossing over of the pandemic by the previous guy was replaced with a head-on approach by Biden. And the lies of the previous guy were replaced with honest truth about what we're up against by Biden. I think a lot of us forgot what a real president is supposed to sound like. I feel for the younger people among us for whom the previous guy is all they've known in a president. I'm hopeful that Biden can and will inform their understanding of what a president should be.

That's all I've got.