Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

So, as I’m flying home from Milwaukee Friday night, I notice that a scratch on my elbow that I’d been serially re-opening for a few days is suddenly swollen and sore.  Since I’d slept for a while on the MKE-MSP leg of the trip, I wondered if I’d whacked it against the arm rest, as we’d flown through some turbulence.

Saturday morning, I inspect the arm and muscles near the elbow are swollen and sore, and there are red patches spreading around the arm.  I ask Mrs. Perils for a second opinion, and she hauls me out of bed and sends me off to Urgent Care at our provider.

There, I learn that it’s a bacterial infection called cellulitis (thought that would happen on my thighs before my arms).  They told gave sold me a fistful of sulfa tablets and told me to come back if it spread beyond some GoogleMap-ish dotted lines they’d drawn around the red spots.

5 hours and two sulfa tablets later, I note that it has spread, and I’m feeling a little feverish, so back I go (stand in line, sign more releases, explain, explain).  This time, they call an infectious disease specialist, and come back with fistfuls of needles.  The doc wants to plunge his into my elbow to extract a sample for testing.  The nurse (nice woman, but still with the needles) is there to plunge an IV into my other arm and drip a dose of antibiotic so I’ll get a faster hit.  They give sell me a different antibiotic prescription, and tell me to come back in 24 hours for another IV if it looks necessary.  I have the option of having the IV removed, with the possibility of having to be stuck again on Sunday (I get the whim-whams about having needles stuck in my veins).  I opted to leave it in, and spent Sunday a little queasy about the thing just hanging off my arm.  No pain from that, but my elbow was on fire from the sample extraction.

I hustle from the ER to SeaTac to pick up my Mom, who was arriving from Detroit and, fortuitously for me, if not for her, an hour late.

I sleep well and wake Sunday feeling awfully good.  Some red spotches have disappeared, and my fever is gone.  I head up to the Urgent Care again and we look at the thing under good light, and it seems to have spread a little in other areas.  So, another IV hit and instructions to come back the next day.  I tell them I’m flying to Medford at 1pm for a week, and that it’s all paid for and much of it is non-refundable.  They say they open at 7am - come in then for one more IV hit for the road.

I’m hoping to see some kind of turnaround in the morning.  I’m thinking I’m going anyway, and correspond with them as they get test results back and figure out exactly which bug we’re dealing with.  I’ll take both sets of pills, and play it by ear.

More from the road.

On my way to Milwaukee again today, leaving probably the last remains of summer in Seattle.  Overcast today for the first time, I think, in about 3 weeks, mercifully obscuring the Cascades from my view as I fly out.

An epiphany of sorts - our son attended his 10th high school reunion yesterday.  Doesn’t seem that long ago that I’d arrange my morning departures to ferry him there.  I didn’t attend my 10th, didn’t make it until my 25th, by which time folks were really mellow and there wasn’t any detectable one-upmanship going on.  Not sure that would have been the case at the 10th, where newly-minted graduate degrees and promotions would have been on parade.  I’m curious what the kid’s experience was yesterday, but not hopeful about gleaning anything overly analytical

Hey, the kid’s a supermodel!  He got a free copy of the book out of the deal.

More from Cheeseland.

Sort of a lazy and unambitious weekend. Ambled around, did some errands, hit the gym, took some pics. Here are a couple from a walk Mrs. Perils and I took around Green Lake, near the house. On the left, some turtles hauled out to bask in the sun; on the right, a red-winged blackbird that I was attempting to photograph on a branch suddenly flew at Mrs. Perils and hovered in front of her.  I had already zoomed in on him, so when I swung to try to catch him as he did his dance with Mrs. Perils, I cropped her mostly out of the photo. We couldn’t tell if it was defending territory or was used to being fed by passersby (Click any photo to enlarge):

Stuff is growing abundantly all over the yard. Below is a monstrous rose bush that has grown from a lowly stick that my dad gave me to fly home with about 15 years ago. It has this glorious week of bloom, then spends the rest of the year sending out runners all over the place. On the right, our front yard:

In the back, we have a vegetable garden in progress. Below, our son, his girlfriend and Mrs. Perils lay some groundwork a couple of weeks ago:

And today we have a lot of things above ground and looking hopeful: beans, corn, spinach, arugula, elephant garlic, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers:

One other thing - 35 years ago today, Mrs. Perils and I got ourselves hitched, proving that a Ball & Chain forged in Ohio is pretty impervious to rust.

Sort of neglectful here lately. We’ve had a spate of really nice weather, and I’ve been out enjoying it as much as I can. there have been a few bloggable events.

Do any of you follow Discover’s The Deadliest Catch (I don’t, really)? One of my clients (the same client that sent me to Adak, Alaska  a few years ago) operates longliners and catcher-processors in the Alaska crab and groundfish fisheries, and celebrated the 20th anniversary of their flagship vessel last week with a luncheon at dockside. Here is the ship, which I photographed a few weeks ago as I paddled my kayak in the Ship Canal near Ballard (Click any photo to enlarge):

I arrived at the luncheon just as the vessel’s captain was about to conduct a tour of the ship, and I hustled up the gangplank. I’d been on the boat before for a short tour and to work on some onboard computers, but a tour given by the 15-year captain was a treat. The Starbound is a catcher-processor, meaning that it has a full fish-processing factory below decks to process its catch. Below, left is the bridge, bristling with electronics both for running the ship and for looking for fish. First question: where’s the wheel? Jack Sparrow would be lost here.

Below, center is a typical crew quarters. Fully crewed, the vessel houses 110 people. There are two more bunks to my left, and this unit shares a bathroom with a similar unit. Since they work 12 - 14-hour shifts, I don’t imagine it’s that often that all 5 or 6 sailors are in the room at the same time.

Below, right is the laundry room. There are two more washing machines and a dryer or two behind me.

More pics - Below, left is the boat’s main engine. 9 cylinders (spare piston hanging in the left of the photo) and, I believe he said 750 hp. Next pic to the right is the deck facing the stern, where the net is hauled in if they’re fishing for cod or pollock. I think he said that each load from the net is 9 tons. The fish travel through a hatch on this deck down to the factory, where they start their journey to fish-and-chip land on the conveyor, next right. After they’ve been cleaned and fileted, they are flash-frozen in the ingots on the far right. The end product is a 150-lb brick of frozen fish ready for delivery to the wholesaler.

So, after I took those tricky photos (no trick, except to use the zoom) last Wednesday, we set out on an evening’s kayak paddle to venture up the Duwamish River, host to Harbor Island and various Superfund sites in Seattle’s industrial core.  We launched from West Seattle into Elliott Bay and a strong northerly wind.  Consequently, we had some challenging chop that didn’t dissipate until we were well upriver.  Still, we figured that things would calm down as sunset approached.  On-the-water photos were taken with my Canon A720 IS, not the new camera (Click any photo to enlarge).

Things calmed down on the lee side of the island, and we dawdled in the halflight before charging back into the bay, where the water had settled a little, but was still rollin’. Below, left, you can see Starbucks’ world headquarters.

More pictures in a slideshow here.

Once the weekend arrived, I played around a bit with my new Canon SX1 IS.  Here are a couple shots using macro mode:

Plus, I played around with the HD video capability. Since I have nothing here to view HD with, let me know what you think of this:

OK, I’ve got nothin’ else right now.

First images from my new Canon SX1 IS camera, which I picked up Tuesday afternoon. It’s a sub-SLR, 10-megapixel with a 20x optical zoom, the same size but a bit heavier than my old S3 IS. Most of the extra weight is concenrated in the lens.

I drove over to West Seattle after work Wednesday night to meet up with some folks for an evening kayak paddle on Elliott Bay (pics and narrative to follow). Prior to launch, I took the following photos of downtown Seattle, all from the same standing spot. The first on the left is a straight shot with no zoom. The next two use progressively more zoom, and the fourth is a crop-and-expand excised from the third. I think the distance to the Space Needle from where I was standing is at least 5 miles (Click photos to enlarge):

I’m looking forward to exploring some more of its features. You’ll be the first to know!

Not a very loquacious week, sort of typical when I’m in Wisconsin.  I did get to use my Wisconsin bike for the first time since November, but the weather turned on Wednesday and I was caught in a righteous thunderstorm on the way home from the gym I use when I’m here.  Lightning was crashing all around, and a woman in a van actually offered to give me a lift when we were both stopped at a light (yes, I stop for lights, even when Thor’s using me for target practice).  I was a block from my hotel, so I declined, to the disappointment of the knife-wielding gaggle crouching in the back of the van.  One cool thing - my hotel has a large, 2-story atrium with opaque plastic panels for a roof, and the combination of the din of the rain drumming on the panels and the lightning making the whole ceiling flash like a flashbulb was impressive.

Tomorrow, we’re being visited by an old high school friend (I shouldn’t call her “old”, I guess, if for nothing else than to avoid Mutually-Assured Derision) who’s making her first visit ever to Seattle. She’ll only be here for a day, so the pressure’s on us to make it memorable.  She’s in this photo of us dancing (!) at our Senior prom, in the white dress just behind Mrs. Perils.

I’m making two plans - one if she wants to see the usual stuff that tourists see: Pike Place Market, aerobatic salmon, etc, and one to check some more out-of-the-way things.

So I’m in transit now, eating illicit pizza at the Delta Sky Club in Minneapolis (the rule is no outside food, we’re supposed to be happy with their pretzels & cheesy bits.  But I wanted wine with the pizza, and I’ve prepaid for it with my Club membership).   Uncommunicative seatmate on the flight here from Milwaukee, which was fine, I needed the sleep.

But did I sleep?  Nah - I read a couple of articles in the New York Review of Books.  For some reason, airplanes are the only venue in which I read them, but they come once a month, and I fly once a month, pretty much, so it works.

OK, off to my Seattle flight.  Have a good weekend, everyone!

Sitting in the Charleston, SC airport for a flight back to chilly Seattle after 4+ days of walking barefoot on the beach (Click to enlarge)

Rode bikes, paddled kayaks and ate lots - too much, I’m sure - Low Country food, and had a wonderful time with brothers, sisters-in-law, one step-niece, one grand-step-niece and one aunt.

Here’s an amusing pic from a bike ride we took into Murrell’s Inlet:

Running for the gate. Perhaps more pics when I decompress.

Quick note, as I’m plunging into a frantic 2-day work week in anticipation of our departure for Pawley’s Island, SC on Wednesday. I got out on a soothing afternoon kayak trip, launching at Magnuson Park and crossing Lake Washington to explore the shoreline around Kirkland.

Here I am just before I launched, decked out in my fabulous GoreTex drysuit from Kokatat. It has rubber gasket seals at the neck and wrists, and the feet are completely enclosed in “booties”, which I protect with neoprene boots. It was expensive, but much cheaper than a funeral (Click any photo to enlarge).

I found a little wetlands park in Juanita Bay that I didn’t know existed before, and poked around in a couple of its byways. I found myself tailing a beaver (up ahead, making a “V” wake). Yes, it’s raining.  Try not to act surprised.

This looks dramatic, but the rain really didn’t last that long, and I had an invigorating trip back across the lake to Seattle.

The visit to South Carolina is our annual trip to the beach to mingle with my mom and brothers. Hoping for some warm weather, and for the fires in the area to be out.

I have a few photos from my mini-vacation to Alki/West Seattle Thursday afternoon. Alki is a large headland that juts into Puget Sound and forms the southern border of Elliott Bay, Seattle’s harbor. It’s where the first white settlers landed back in the mid-1800s. Much of the peninsula is bordered by a two-lane arterial and a bike/pedestrian trail.

I had paddled my kayak along its perimeter many times, but had never actually walked the path. It always looked so busy with bikes, skaters and runners from the water that I thought it wouldn’t be a very pleasant meander. Actually, however, there are separate paths for pedestrians and wheeled recreators, and it makes for a nice diversion, with some panoramic views (Click any photo to enlarge):

Along the arterial, a sort of gold-coast of high-end condos is supplanting what used to be a strand of funky cabins. As you can see below right, there are a few prominent holdouts :

A lot of the dwellings exude a level of playfulness.  I have a brother who would really fit the mailbox below, left:

This front porch was a sort of museum of nautical/piratical bric-a-brac. I like how, in this photo, the pirate head inside seems to be perched in the reflection of the palm: