December 5, 2024
In Portland, Part 2: Surviving the scourge
We leave Portland to start the drive south to California and then Tucson tomorrow morning, so let’s have a last view upriver toward the Saint Johns Bridge from our 13th story aerie before we go:
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It looks much as it has for a full week straight. When we were in Barcelona looking ahead, we foresaw two weeks of cold, grey, wet weather here. It hasn’t worked out that way at all though. The last week especially has been cold alright, with highs in the mid-forties and the lows at or near freezing. Beautiful conditions, and ones I probably would have steeled myself and bundled up for a birding bike ride along the Columbia Slough or on Sauvie Island. If not that, then I’d certainly have gotten out with the Raven and driven to some good birding spots to experiment with the new camera.
And although it’s too cold for Rachael to want to hop on her own bike, she’d certainly have bundled herself up for walks up into the west hills. And of course there were other plans - a drive up to Seattle to spend Thanksgiving with the family, a trip to Salem to attend the memorial service for a recently passed friend, coffee dates with friends - especially Bruce and Jonathan - we really owe Jonathan a cup of coffee if not a dinner at his favorite restaurant for his generosity in meeting us at the airport.
That didn’t happen. None of that happened. On Rachael’s part, she arrived with a cold and congestion that carried through for the first part of her stay; and after that it was just too bitingly cold out for her to think walking was a good idea. And then after she went to the doctor and got four different shots that left both of her arms sore for the next three days she hasn’t physically felt like doing anything until recently. Since then though she’s been going down to the workout room in the building and making good use of their cycling machines.
My situation has been different. Not long after the previous post I got a headache, one that has been more or less constant ever since. I almost never get even minor headaches and nothing even remotely like this. It was really terrible at first, the worst headache of my life. Reading up on it and my other congestion symptoms it tracks very well with symptoms of sinusitis and accompanying headaches.
And here I want to apologize for not listening with more sympathy and understanding to everyone who’s told me they had sinus headaches in the past, including our son Shawn who has suffered from them off and on for years. I had no idea.
So I really haven’t done anything to speak of beyond the essentials other than to go out for coffee in the morning and then get through the day and long night living from one ibuprofen pill to the next. The essentials unfortunately included four (!) trips to the dentist - which sounds much worse than it really was - and three trips to the doctor. The first was to the urgent care clinic six days ago, where I was prescribed an antibiotic, Flonase and an inhaler for the congestion. The second was Monday for my previously scheduled visit with my primary care physician, most of which was spent discussing my current condition. The third was two days ago, for a CT scan of my sinuses to hopefully confirm the diagnosis. I’m still waiting for those results and for the doctor to recommend next steps.
In the meantime though, most of the time for the last two days I’ve been feeling better. Except for minor spikes the headache has been less dominating. I’m sleeping better, able to focus on something other than myself most of the time, and am starting to get a curiosity about the world again. So that’s hopeful.
Before the headaches started though I drove out to Sauvie Island to test out the new camera, cleverly remembering to put the battery in first this time. I’m not too impressed with the results so far though, mostly because I don’t really know what I’m doing yet and because I may need to get a tripod to make any real use of such a powerful zoom - in which case it’s likely to stay in the states when we go back to Europe in the spring. Which is fine - I do a lot of birding in the winter and saw nearly half of my birds for the year here in the states.
And, I did come up with one new bird in the outing - and it was far enough out that I doubt I’d have been able to identify it for sure with the other camera.
So Crescent City tomorrow. Where it’s fifteen degrees warmer than here, and then south to our six night stay in San Luis Obispo two days later. We’re both more than ready to head south.
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It’s been between 65-73 the past week here in Santa Cruz..hope this is a good thing for you to look forward to! Safe travels!
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