1st COVID shot

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I bit the bullet.  I had my first COVID19 shot today.  I’d been dreading having it for several reasons, but I needn’t go into them now as everyone has already heard every reason / excuse under the sun to not have it.  But, in talking to a doctor at a pharmacy, who has seen COVID19 patients come in and (most times) go out, I’m convinced that it is likely a good thing to do.  Only time will tell the lasting effects of it.  mRNA medical technology has not been around long enough to know for sure.  Will we all get cancer from this?  Will it mutate and change our actual DNA?  Will it prove to be just another harmless vaccine like so many others?  But, compared to fighting for my life for a week in ICU only to die drowning in lung fluids, I’ll take my chances with the vaccine.  Thy will be done.

the heat continues

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The air has been smoky here in Southern Alberta for several days of the past few weeks, results of fires burning across BC and so many other places.  Even indoors, my eyes have been itchy many days.

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camp cut short

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At about noon, I came down with a headache.  It was heatstroke.

Heat exhaustion suggests strenuous activity mixed with heat as a cause, while heatstroke suggests simply overheating (too much exposure to the sun).

I decided to go home.  Besides, there was a machine droning noise from less than a kilometre away, like model airplanes or go-carts, for several house.  When that finally stopped, all I could hear was traffic noise from the nearby road, a connector road from the highway to in-town.

I went there to maybe meet friendly fellow campers and hang out and maybe suggest a hike or cycle somewhere.  People kept to themselves.

I got back at about 5pm, unpacked and put away everything, and lied down with lots of water.  Thus the end of my weekend get-away.

camp at Pincher Creek

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I called the night before last to book a spot at Sleepy Hollow Campground. Luckily, they had one left, except that, when I showed up yesterday evening, they had some cancellations and rebookings and had moved everyone around. At first the manager / owner was going to put me at a giant site big enough for a 30′ trailer (with power & water, which I don’t need), but I have a much smaller one instead.

It’s a good thing i brought along a bug screen tent. Sooooo many mosquitos here! It is my first time using it.

Breakfast was yoghurt with cereal and lunch was salad with hotdog wieners. The book I’m reading is The Friendship Book by Francis Gay and a Zane Grey novel I borrowed from F.

another heat wave

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A couple of weeks ago we had a heat wave for several days.  It reached 38°C and stayed there – without breeze, cloud, or shower of rain.  The cooler nights were barely cooler, adding to the present discomfort and that of the next over-heated day, too.  I find it very sad that more forest fires are burning than ever before, and hotter to boot.  Lytton, BC is 90% gone now due to a sweeping forest fire.  This week, beginning today, is said to be just as hot.  What do you do to take refuge from this dry deluge?  I stuff my feet in a plastic tub of cold water and read on the edge of the tub.  I go for bike rides and use the heat to my advantage, not bulking up with protective clothing.  The pounds / stone / kg that I put on during COVID is something to try to sweat off this year.  We keep the house windows closed all morning which adds to maintaining our cool (in the house).  Later in the evening, we might have 1~3 hours of A/C on.  Nice & cool, relatively.

a week without coffee

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No coffee for one week now.  The last coffee I had was 1/3 Folgers, 1/3 Starbucks house blend, and 1/3 nothing but empty space.  The second-to-last was one spoon of Folgers and the rest Starbucks house blend.  Before that, nothing but straight high-test espresso beans steamed in a mocha pot.  But all that’s history now.

I had a couple of days where I ate enough Tylenols and ibuprofens to kill a good sized horse, but I’m pretty much in the clear now.  Only 2 ibuprofens.  So what are the side effects of quitting almost cold-turkey?  Headaches, a couple of backaches, sleepiness, and, believe it or not, sore hips.  Yes, three nights in a row I woke up during the night with sore hips.  I never would have imagined.  Yes, it could be from something else, but I don’t believe so.

So – will I ever drink coffee again?  Hmm.  I once went 346 days without coffee overseas.  I walked by a Starbucks on Jungang Ro (Street) and had a triple Americano.  I remember the euphoric rush of caffeine wash over me as I sat at my little round table with a copy of the IHT.  Utter and complete bliss.

All that is a distant memory now.

40°C, global heatwave

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Pretty worrying.  The entire northern hemisphere on the glob is in a heatwave.  For the past few days, we’ve seen temperatures hovering around 40°C.  Lytton, BC, has stolen the North American “hot spot” from Nevada.  Lytton, unfortunately, is now gone.  The fire season has started already.  Fire ripped through the town, and 150 people evacuated.  No one injured, so they think.