8
Guess what, everybody! I have a cold this week! It's so exciting!
It was actually germinating its initial stages on Sunday. Very slight tickle in my throat. Thankfully, it seems to have skipped the particularly sore throat stage -- as did my last cold -- and gone straight to my nose running like a faucet and having heavy sinuses. I came to work yesterday and was mostly okay but feeling slightly heavy and tired; I declared I would stay home from work today if I woke up and felt worse.
I didn't feel a huge amount better, but I did feel better this morning -- not feeling any worse, I came to work today. As the day goes on, I actually do feel better. Shobhit really wanted me to bus all the way to work this morning, as if that would make any difference at this point, and I actually ended up doing that more due to circumstance than anything. I was ready to leave earlier than usual this morning, but the #11 bus was still nine minutes away from the stop outside our building when I got outside. There was a #8 scheduled to arrive at 15th & John eight minutes later, which made that perfect for me to walk the five blocks to.
On the rare occasions that I take the 8, that goes straight down Denny. It has longer walks to and from the stop at either end, but does cover the vast majority of the distance and necessitates no transfers. So on the word end, the #8 spits me out at 1st & John (actually half a block north of there, and the stop used to be a full block south of there but was temporarily moved due to construction on that corner), and I have the equivalent of about four blocks' walk to work from there. That area is at a weird intersection that is annoying to traverse on foot. In any case, the walk to the bus stop from home is 0.4 miles and the walk from the bus stop to the office is 0.3 miles, meaning I still walk a total of 0.7 miles when I take the #8.
By contrast, when I get off the #11 from home that goes straight down Pine Street to 3rd & Pine, from there my walk to work is roughly one mile.
I made mushroom risotto for dinner last night (box mixes, but with fresh chopped sautéed onions and mushrooms and peppers added). I also brewed the entire packet of Morning Glory Chai that I believe I got as a sample from work -- it makes about a gallon of it, although once I poured large mugs of it for both Shobhit and me, the rest fit into a fruit infusion pitcher we have that I'm guessing is the 84oz size. That's just slightly less than three quarters of a gallon.
Heating the huge pot of water for 45 minutes, then steeping tea in it for another ten, then straining it several times . . . I cannot fathom actually guying this product, especially if the 3.5oz packet retails for $9.99 (as it does at PCC). Shobhit and I pretty regularly make our own chai with tea he brought back from India, adding our own fresh chopped mint and ginger and sugar. It's faster, easier to handle with just two servings made each time, and tastier. I just made this packet so I could be used up. On the upside, I suppose just a couple more times we'll have ready-made chai we just have to reheat in the microwave.
Looking at the rest of my week, I'm fairly confident, based on how my cold has gone so far, that I will be pretty fully recovered by this weekend when we have the walk on Saturday and the bike ride on Sunday on the viaduct and through the Highway 99 tunnel. If I had to get a cold this week, it's certainly best it happened at the beginning of it rather than at the end.
Right now the National Weather Service says "a chance of showers" both Saturday and Sunday, so we'll see how that pans out. In all likelihood it will be dry when we're out there, but it will also probably be gray, cloudy, and chilly.
[posted 12:25 pm]