Not exactly same old, same old in Normal entries

I don’t know if my life is boring now or if I’ve forgotten how to pick the interesting pieces out of a scene, an event a happening. For the last few weeks I’ve struggled with fatigue, hmmmm, I’ve struggled with my bedsheets; the fight between me and fatigue is unbalanced, fatigue is bigger and fights dirtier.

Yesterday, for some reason, I got productive. What was so different about yesterday, other than me doing some shit? Barometric pressure. It’s a theory. So far I can only corroboration for one malady that’s affected by barometric pressure; migraines. I’ve had two doctors tell me I probably have migraines, but not with enough … certainty? Bollocks? Pathy (opposite of apathy, I might have just made that up) … to write it down anywhere. In fact, both were sort of jovial about it. It always sounded serious to me and though the effect is the least serious of all my injuries and the other shit I mew and keen about, I’m less than gruntled that my “quarterbacks” are playing armchair quarterback, to stretch the analogy, they are yelling from the sidelines instead of fondling the pigskin.

I was going elsewhere, I’ll get back, but I do need to say that I don’t really want them doing anything about the migraines that I don’t have hard enough to write them down. Otherwise I’d be kicking and screaming and getting the living bejesus diagnosed out of my poor but pretty head. They haven’t pressed my perineum and asked me to cough or shoved a finger up my ass to check the size of my prostate. The latter at least they’ve asked about, for the last five years when they ask I say ‘I had one a year or so ago’. My low-level lack of gruntling has more to do with medical micro-management in a palliative sort of way and their collective inability to make a holistic approach. I don’t have a hernia or prostate problems, but that’s never stopped all previous doctors from checking once a year. My new intern will be female, I think I’ve got her first year of residency. She’s probably going to be more likely to want those simple tests run and will call in a male to do them, out of protocol, she’ll be more aware that she’s not doing them.

Today is kind of unusual pressure wise too. It’s the first day all summer when the humidity was under fifty percent in the morning and still low for almost afternoon. I woke at six, had a cup of coffee and went back to sleep until 830.

One of the things I did yesterday was replace the stem going from the fork to handlebars on my bike. I’m built like a Pitbull; wide neck, short legs. There are only two bike shops within riding distance, when I discovered a solution they both were out of stock of what I wanted and they both wanted me to bring the bike in though on a first come first served basis. The one guy used car salesman’ed me. Also, neither one actually said they’d sell me just the stem, they both wanted to charge me labor. On a brief tangential note; I know how to change the oil in my car, but oil changes labor is cheap enough that it’s much more attractive having them do it. Working on a bike is joyful and abates my curiosity. In 1973, I could dismantle a bike and put it back together, I even had a trueing fork for when you build a wheel from scratch (each spoke needs to be tightened or loosened to get it to roll true). Bikes are made differently now, not wildly different, but the whole fork assembly on a mountain bike is different than the touring ten speeds I used to build.

I was pretty proud of myself for doing it correctly, test driving, happy with the job and the ride but curious about the open space (the height of the new stem connection to the fork was about a 10 mm shorter). I stopped by the one shop to ask about spacers. The place was full of customers, customers that my sales sense told me wanted to buy. Even so I was approached almost immediately by one of the two salesmen (the other was in back for some reason). I asked if it was important. I guess on a mountain bike compression on the front fork is necessary. If the spacers cost more than 99 cents I might have tested the importance theory (I rode a good twenty miles to test without incident).

Oh shit, Pitbull, stems … moutainbike handlebars are set downward and forward. Although it didn’t keep me from riding the position was hard on shoulder and back. Instead of down and out I got a stem I could set, and did, to a ninety-degree angle. Despite things the sales guys told me, I did not experience any loss of control from less weight on the forward tire. I think if one was crashing down a mountain off-trail, one might want to shift weight forward, I don’t know, there aren’t any mountains here. In Oregon where I did occasionally do that, it wasn’t on a mountain bike.

I also did laundry and made a batch of balm using an emulsifier and orange wax which is a co-emulsifier. Not sure why they call it wax, it’s liquid, made from orange rind and I had to guess at proportion, the only advice I could find was “don’t use too much as it will stain where you apply orange”. So, I poured maybe half a teaspoon into 16 fluid ounces. Seems to have worked, no need for spacers. And I managed to stay awake all day.