They'll Be Nailing Shut The Front Door

     Yep, the doors and windows will get boarded up and red-chalked crosses on 'em to warn off the inquisitive: I'm still sick.

     Felt good enough yesterday to take out the trash and then get to the foot doctor at 0930 -- I may have a metatarsal thing that happens with age, there are a couple of nerve bundles between the bones that get annoyed and go into a feedback loop of pressure causes swelling causes more pressure causes more swelling and so on.  It feels like there's a marble under the center of the ball of both of my feet.  It's been going on for years and any more, I wear only Keen closed-toe sandals, which have a very wide toe box.  Naturally, there's a possibility of expensive orthotic insoles, which I would rather avoid.  For now, steroid shots into each foot and my isn't that an interesting experience?  Um, no.

     So then I had little sticking-plasters on each foot (which I later found to be nifty curved bandaids that pretty well matched the shape of the balls of my feet).  Still feeling okay; went home, regrouped, rested and then on to the dentist for a regular exam and cleaning. I warned 'em about The Plague and they pointed out they've been doing the Universal Precautions drill for a couple of decades: gloves, masks, disposable lab coats, full-coverage goggles and all instruments are either disposable or get autoclaved after use.  All right, then.  Had the usual surprise: there's a tooth wants filled.

     Went home, still didn't feel too bad (both medical specialties involve the patient sitting back in a very comfy chair and relaxing, which I am good at; my dentist and I go back nearly thirty years and we're the same age.  I trust her.*), and decided I could pedal my bike over to Twenty Tap for a nice lunch: Pork Bahn Mi and a simple salad.  After all, I could shift down and use my arches to pedal; the rolling resistance of 80 psi "city" tires is very low.  This was unwise.

     It was a lovely sunny day.  Rain was coming but it was a long way off.  Rode over, had a lovely lunch, succumbed to the lure of chocolate gelato -- one way I can tell I am fighting this viral sinus/lung thing is I'm hungrier than usual -- and got my bill. 

I'd eat another one right now.

     They sat me behind a divider, with my back to the window.  I'd turned and glanced out a few times, checking on my bike, but the frozen treat had taken all my attention: it's really chocolaty and real gelato and I was 110% There Now.

     Which was too bad, because when I gathered my things and looked out, it was hammering down rain.  Not in sheets but in a thick cloud of raindrops, big ones. I had been careful enough to bring a trash bag and a rubber band, which I had used to cover my bike seat on arrival, but there was No Darn Way I was riding in that much rain.  I moved out to their covered sidewalk seating, where a waitress grabbing a quick smoke 8.0000 feet from the door asked, "Is that your bike?"

     "Yep."

     "Going to be a wet ride."

     I just grinned.  Radar on my smartphone said a gap was headed our way (it helps to know the NWS radar lags behind real time by seven minutes: they do a lot of analysis and conversion before handing it out).  As the rain slowed, I unlocked my bike, moved it under the awning and transferred the plastic bag and rubber band from over my seat to over my purse.

     The rain slowed even more; I had my helmet and odd synthetic sweatshirt that lets water through very slowly, so as soon as the light turned, I was out from under the awning and across -- on foot.  There was still too much standing water, and too little time to mount.  Across to the grocery, under their overhang, and then I saddled up and rode home, carefully.

     It was too much walking.  I stowed the bike, limped in, dried off, discovered the interesting curved bandaids by removing them and changed to my nightgown.  Dozed off and on until cat-feeding time, then fell asleep until about 2315; woke up and could not get back to sleep.  Storms came through a couple of times, all flash and boom and waves of rain.  Finally managed around 0400 and slept until eight-thirty.  Temperature up and down.  Coughing.

     Coughing a bit more today.  Did nothing of note except try to keep off my feet.  Weather turned really pretty in the afternoon but did me no good.  Temperature spikes any time I eat.

     Need to get over this.
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* I am very fortunate in that while my childhood dentist experiences were utterly average (not so great), once I was on my own, after six or seven years of not being able to afford dentistry and a lot of problems that culminated in wisdom teeth that came in crooked and/or shattered (yeah, seriously, one was just a cluster of shards that proceeded to come loose randomly), nearly all my adult dental experiences have been very positive.  My parents paid for initially resolving the worst of it in the guise of birthday and Christmas presents (possibly the very best presents I have ever been given) and I have done my best to keep up ever since.  My present job has offered dental insurance from the outset and I leapt at the opportunity.  I can fall asleep in a dentist's chair.