back on the bike

I mentioned my head cold of last week. I drove to work--two days in a row. Even worse, the head cold sucked.

I went to a "doc in a box" yesterday to get some relief from the clogged sinuses and very sore throat. I came out with prescriptions for some cough syrup and some antibiotics--the latter seemed a bit weird to me since I really felt the head cold was more viral- than microbe-based. I guess the swab the doctor did (gag!) told him that I needed to fight germs, too.

I knew I'd feel better today, even though I almost felt worse last night. The cough syrup has some Codeine in it, so it made me a bit drowsy until I adjusted to its presence in my system. Between that and the antihistamine I took before going to bed last night, I slept like a proverbial rock (well, at least much like my normal patterns instead of the fitful mess I'd been the last couple of nights).

I have a few friends who have done the cross-country bike trip. They tell me that it's common to schedule rest days so as not to make the mental trip a battle. I had been thinking about whether I needed a break from riding to work all the time several days ago, only to find myself forced to take such a break.

Of course, that made this morning's ride to work all the better. I had a couple of brief coughing fits that brought up some interesting gunk from my lungs and bronchial passages, but each time I found that I was breathing just a bit easier after getting the gunk out. My chest has loosened a bit as the day has progressed. My throat still hurts a bit, but it's much better than it was.

I mentioned in a prior post that the City of Lyndon is going to be taking leaves away this week. Jenn and I raked most of the leaves into piles that we hauled by tarp to the front swale. Since I've been fighting the head cold, Jenn insisted on doing a lot more of the heavy lifting than usual. We used a smaller tarp than we did last year, which made the loads more manageable. We still have at least one good leaf-dump to go, and I'm sure it won't happen until after collection day, but at that point I can probably just run over them with the reel mower and leave the remains in the yard.