1. Every once in a while, when traveling, we stay in a bad room and our Friday night room at La Quinta (dog friendly) in Erie, PA was one of the worst ever. So, this morning, we gathered out things as quickly as possible and hit the road.
Today was our longest drive of the trip so far as we crossed Ohio and entered Indiana and headed north a short ways to Long Beach, IN, a town on Lake Michigan where Debbie's brother has a house.
Debbie and I enhanced the drive's enjoyment by listening to much of an audiobook: The Book of Eels, by Patrik Svensson. My interest in eels grew out of reading Lucy Cooke's terrific and witty book, The Unexpected Truth About Animals. Lucy Cooke devoted one of her chapters to the eel and Svensson not only writes a more expansive study, he also weaves many passages of memoir into his book, giving it more depth. We didn't quite finish the book. I'm enjoying it a lot.
We arrived in Long Beach, IN around 2:00 (CST) or so, found the house key, brought in our stuff, and settled into the screened-in back porch for some fresh air and relaxation.
2. Our niece, Danielle, and Debbie's brother, Brian, arrived after a few hours and we cracked open beers from a local brewery, Burn 'Em (I enjoyed a farmhouse ale) and, later, I tried another farmhouse ale that Danielle had hoped I'd like, Apex Predator from Off Color Brewing in Chicago. I liked it a lot.
It was a good evening -- lots of catching up on family news, good beer -- in short, a jolly time.
3. Every once in a while, my right big toe acts up. (Three different doctors have tested it and told me it's not gout.) It gets angry. It gets inflamed. It hurts. As I was packing up to leave Erie, I thought I might have tweaked this toe in a way it didn't like, and, sure enough, as I drove across Ohio, the swelling got underway.
In a perfect world, I would have been able to ice my toe right away, but I had to wait until we arrived at the lake and then I began a regimen of ice on, ice off, ice back on again.
As I write this blog post, on Sunday morning, I'm ready to resume the icing. I got through the night pretty well, with some moments of pain waking me up, but not many.
I think it's getting better already.
Ice is a miraculous healer.
No comments:
Post a Comment