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Wednesday, 16 April -

Day 19. One day of antibiotics course left. I should be feeling better than this.

This morning I did some Spring cleaning of my clothes drawers. Labashi has been bugging me about it a bit but she’s right. Over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of clothing I don’t ever wear. It’s time to just go through the drawers and start tossing. I worked for an hour or so on it but then was interrupted by the arrival of a package. I had ordered a compact flash card for Labashi’s old digital camera and wasn’t sure the new one would work in her camera. It turns out to work and also double the capacity of the previous card and was only $13.
I also received a new butane stove. We have one in the van but guess where it was when the house lost power for 52 hours back in February? It was in Florida with me and Labashi was stuck here without a stove. The roads were impassable for the first half-day but fortunately cleared up enough that she could go to her parent’s apartment.
I thought I’d just buy an el cheapo butane stove for $15 or so for this purpose. But when I started looking for stoves I learned our old one only puts out about 6500 btus and a super-efficient one can put out 15,000 btus. I ended up buying a stainless steel high-efficiency model with a built in wind screen. And instead of just keeping it downstairs in case of an outage, we’ll use it in the van and put the old one downstairs.
I took some photos of the Thruxton to show off the new fender eliminator kit and emailed them to my brothers and nephew. That prompted Orat to call and we talked about bikes and about our upcoming early-summer trip (if we can get organized).
That evening Labashi and I watched two episodes of ‘Southland’ Season One. We may be getting hooked.

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Tuesday, 15 April -

Day 18.

What a miserable day. It rained all day and my sinus infection took a turn for the worse. I was just so exhausted by early afternoon that I had to take a nap and slept from 1400-1600. Will this never end?
While awake I worked on (among other things) researching electrical connectors for my front turn signals on the Thruxton. It appears I may as well order the expensive pre-made loom rather than buy the components and make my own.
That evening we started a new TV series on DVD from Netflix. We started ‘Southland’ and watched the first two episodes.

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Monday, 14 April -

Day 17. Today was still warm but it was also very windy. At mid-morning I rode the Thruxton over to my tax-prep office to drop off some forms and pick up others and then shot in to Starbucks for a quickie. Back home, I spent a few hours writing an email to detail problems I had with the fender-elimination kit to the manufacturer. I also spent an hour or so researching motorcycle covers and then ordering three of them.
At mid-afternoon I spent an hour getting water out of our old sailboat. Over time rainwater collects in the bilge and it was time for a pump-out. After messing around with various manual methods over the years I recently bought a little battery-operated Terapump to make the job easier. I pumped 12 gallons out today and did some cleanup.
That evening I watched two episodes of Cabin Kings, a new one for me. Kinda fun. When Labashi became available we watched the last episode of the season of ‘Emily Owens, MD”. I’m ready for a break from that one.

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Sunday, 13 April -

Day 16 of my sinus infection today.

Ahhh!!!. Another spectacular day. I took advantage of it to finish up the installation of the fender-elimination kit and new rear turn signals on the Thruxton. I first had to run over to Radio Shack and Advance Auto for some electrical supplies (bullet connectors) but nevertheless finished up the installation by noon.
I then rode the Thruxton down to Starbucks to celebrate.
Late that afternoon Labashi and I drove to Kickin’ Kadilacs in York Haven for an early supper. We were just looking for a burger and fresh-cut fries but also had drinks and soup.
That evening we watched a ‘Rake’ episode and an ‘Emily Owens, MD’ episode.

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Saturday, 12 April -

Wow-- what a great day today, weather-wise. We’ve had a miserable Spring this year but today broke the pattern. The temperature hit the low 80s and it was clear and sunny.
I spent much of the day working on the Thruxton. I’m installing a rear-fender elimination kit from MaundSpeed. This kit eliminates the rear fender projecting out from under the seat cowl and replaces the large, oval, alien-spacecraft taillight with a nice, traditional design from the era of the classic Triumphs.
I had problems, though. The Torx bit I was using to loosen the fender screws chewed up one of the screw heads and I could no longer turn it. That lead to a screw-extraction process and that itself was a problem. I broke the screw extractor off. Fortunately, I was able to get a new pair of vice-grips onto the edges of the button-head screw and turn it. If that wouldn’t have worked I’d have had to drill the screw head off like a rivet head.
I also had a few minor problems with the kit. Machine screws were missing for the front of the under-seat mudguard. And nylock nuts for the tail light were the wrong size. I had to go get replacements at Lowes.
By the end of the day I was confident in the physical installation but have not figured out the wiring of the new turn signals and tail-light.
That evening we watched ‘Women Who Kill’, a comedy special headlining Amy Shumer, and then an episode of ‘Emily Owens, MD’.

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Friday, 11 April -

Day 14 of my sinus infection.

I’m sleeping better but am still soooooo slow to recover. I’m almost half-way through my course of antibiotics but have yet to feel they are working. I’m nowhere near being ready to return to the gym. I spent the day on the web and ordered a few items from Amazon. I ordered a new butane stove, this one much more efficient than the one we have in Mocha Joe. Once I get it checked out I’ll move the old one to our power-outage stash. Hopefully this more efficient stove will improve boiling times and its built-in wind screen will make it less vulnerable to winds as we cook outdoors.
As it happens we had a short power outage this week while Labashi was cooking supper in the microwave. I headed out to the van to get the butane stove but the power came back on before I made it to the door. Nevertheless, that just reinforces my resolve to improve our power-outage stash and not get caught again with our outage gear with me in Mocha Joe with Labashi stuck here at the house with nothing..
I also ordered a compact flash card (of all things). Labashi still uses our old Nikon Coolpix 800 (circa 1999) digital camera and needed a new card for photo capacity.

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Thursday, 10 April -

Day 13 of my sinus infection problem. My GOD, this is lasting forever.
Labashi was up very early (0400) to get her day going. She was taking Dad in for a surgical procedure and he had to be at the hospital at 0600. I had thought I’d hear her get up and I’d wish her a good day but I didn’t hear a thing. I had again been unable to sleep until something like 0230.
But I did then wake at 04445, wondering why I hadn’t heard her moving about as she prepared to leave. And that was enough to jinx my sleep for the night. I read until 0700 and then got up. I’m too groggy to get up, too awake to sleep.
I spent most of the day on the web and caught up the last few days on the blog. Labashi called mid-afternoon to say the surgery had gone well and she’d be having supper with Mom and Dad.

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Wednesday, 9 April -

Day Twelve of my sinus infection saga. I finally got a good nights sleep last night (for a change).

This morning I was talking to Dad via Skype when he asked what was wrong with my eye. Rats, I now have an additional thing going on.... a drooping eyelid. After looking up the connection between sinus infections and possible eye socket infections, I sent a note to my doctor about my eyelid. He called within the hour and asked if I could come in.
My doctor led me through several tests and I soon realized I was being tested for a stroke. He also wanted to rule out Bell’s Palsy. In the end it appears the slightly-drooping eyelid may be related to my very poor sleeping habits over the last several weeks. My eyes are a bit sunken. In any case, I was glad to rule out an escalating situation with the infection. If it were an infection of the eye socket I should have swelling and/or pain and have neither.

That afternoon I watched ‘Room 237’ and ‘The Eyes of the Mothman’ on Netflix.

That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Rake’.

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Tuesday, 8 April -

Okay, then! Day Eleven brought my appointment with the doctor. He prescribed an antibiotic and Flonase. It was nice to get outside for a bit.

That afternoon I had a long Skype conversation with Orat.

That evening we watched ‘Shameless’ and ‘Emily Owens, MD’ episodes.

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Monday, 7 April -

Day Ten. Time to get an appointment with the doctor for a follow-up. Unfortunately, that won’t be until tomorrow.

I spent yet another day on the web.

That evening we watched ‘Gasland’, an episode of ‘Endeavour’, and one of ‘Shameless’ (UK).

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Sunday, 6 April -

Day Nine of my sinus infection saga. Not a good day. One of the worst of the string, in fact. In addition to the lethargy and drainage I also have a low fever.

That evening we watched the last episode of the ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ Extended Edition, an ‘Emily Owens, MD’ ep, and a ‘Shameless’ episode.


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