Poison ivy status: The backs of my hands have blistered up. My arms are terribly itchy. But it’s all there on hands and arms. No fever, no real additional spreading. Just a painful inconvenience. I have been applying Neosporin and Cortisone and some other lotion that we have that has the magic words on the label. Extra Cortisone has been acquired. Calamine lotion, too. I wake up itching, of course. More accurately: I wake up scratching, which is when I’m doing the most of it. Will power only gets you so far and not that far at all when you’re unconscious.
It doesn’t feel nice in the heat. It is about to get terribly hot. We are approaching the end of week one of this by the book consequence to hasty and stupidity.
You know what else doesn’t feel good just now are my cycling gloves. Fingerless gloves are meant to be a protective bit of accessory, but the worse of my blisters are on the backs of my hands and … ouch.
Anyway, we went out for a short ride today. Just long enough to get in some posed photos.
There is a Strava segment near our house and it seems to me that I should be offended that I don’t own the best time on the Strava segment that is near our house. It is a .8 mile stretch that starts with a downhill and then comes back up. It’s nothing, but, then, neither am I. Also, I usually try this on those days when my legs feel good, but always at the end of a ride, when “good” is a relative term, anyway. (You wouldn’t do it at the beginning of a ride, because you aren’t warmed up, but I should try that sometime, just to see.)
Anyway, we only rode for a half hour and so my legs were basically warmed up but I was not tired, so i gave it a go.
And now I have the second fastest time of that Strava segment, improving my best by three seconds, and now just seven seconds off the overall.
I’m, also, almost out of tricks for improving my time. Not sure where I can find eight more seconds.
Here’s another little video from earlier this month at Kruger National Park. This elephant was, momentarily, not happy that we were there. I was characteristically thrilled he was running right to me. I took out the audio because mostly you can hear our guide try to warn him off, and then begin to move his truck as a precaution. But the elephant was running a bluff, and we’re all still here of course.
I was, initially, a bit ambivalent about the idea of a safari, but found myself won over on the first day. The views were lovely, the animals we encountered were outstanding and each one felt unique, and our guide was top notch. The entire experience was stress free, aside from early morning wake ups. If we ever find ourselves in South Africa again, and going on a safari again, it’ll be with Wild Wings. And if you’re considering doing such a thing, do it. And book it with Wild Wings. They were terrific.
