Unstable heath and a race that tried to kill me.

 A few weeks ago I felt off. Really off. The downside of not having been to a doctor in a few years is some things just creep up on you. To be I have had bad luck with doctors. In 2018, the nurse practitioner (not a real doctor. Sort of.) I was seeing told me, with days to go before my first half marathon of the season, that if I ran the half in Carmel, I was going to die. It got in my head. At Carmel, I thought about dropping to the 10k. My name was already printed on the half shirt though, so... with the pseudo- doctor's words in my head, I hit my second worse Half time of 3:54:55. A month later, I did a bit worse at the Pig. It would be 4 years before my next attempt at a half, a painful 4:35 at the Foot Levelers. I remember using the port-o-pot late in the race and not being sure I could make it. I was taunted by my playlist going rogue, with ever-loving songs such as "It's a good day to die" and "I pulled my Groin." (The latter had a rather good beat, but damn it, I was really in pain. In my groin. It was mocking me.)

So, my health has not been the best over the last few years. And with the last doctor I went to refusing to even give me blood pressure medicine because I wasn't treating my sleep apnea... (I went to try to get an ENT referral because my throat was closing up while I was walking around outside. Not like allergy, but like airway sealing shit and needing to kind of "pop" it back open...) So... he became obsessed with the apnea and then didn't do anything about my BP. (I had a prescription for BP medicine that had run out.)

Anyways, in the middle of January I was really feeling off, and I knew something was very wrong. Brain fog, pain, issues with standing up and balance, nausea, chest pain, and general ennui. I could barely keep my lesson plans caught up day to day. I had a rare flicker of clarity (barely a flicker at that) and realized I needed to check my blood pressure right then. And... my school didn't have a monitor. I don't know if that is a surprise or not, but I got online and ordered one from Best Buy, picking it up on the way home. 

182/104

Half an hour later, 192/110

The next day, as it jumped to 196/99, I decided I needed to deal with it. So... I walked to the urgent care. (Yes. I am aware that 190 is well into the call for an EMS range. That's why I walked, so if they made me go, my car wouldn't be stuck there. And it is like halfway to the new hospital for what that was worth.) By the time I got there, they read my BP as 179, so... I at least got a new order of Lisinopril. After a week of that, my BP finally stopped hitting 180 regularly. 

That is when it got weird. I took the day off for a doctor visit (it was scheduled before I checked my BP the first time, but new patient takes a month to get in.) By that evening, I hit 116/77. It was back in the 140's the next morning but has generally been better. 

And then... I did a 5-mile race. I was about 2 minutes slower this year compared to last, but after finishing the race, I could tell something was wrong. I was not quite right. I was seeing what looked like spears of fire going out like a wheel in my vision, and a quick birthday lunch at Red Robin didn't help. We went over to the mall, and I still wasn't stabilizing.  My (new) watch wasn't able to get my SPO2 reading and was struggling with my pulse. I had my wife drive home, and once there I found my BP had his 97/66 (which the BP monitor said was ok, but was actually listed as Hypotension, and my heart rate was staying over 100. Yeah‽

It eventually got back to the hypertension of the low 140s (uh, somehow better?), which makes me feel a bit more normal, and my mind a bit sharper, but... Overnight my HR was ranging about 10 bpm higher than normal, and even now, sitting down, it is resting at 100 and my BP is still volatile. I pushed too hard with 5 miles, perhaps. It doesn't change that I have a half marathon in 2 months. I have more foot-miles in so far this year than I've had since 2019, and I should be in a better position when I get to that race. Still, I'll just need to overcome my own health in the process. 

Buckeye Trail (St Mary point 2 towards 3)

 I needed a hike today, especially as I needed more distance in general as the spring race season is right around the corner. For whatever reason, I headed up and hit Lockington Dam, and this time, the gates were open! (The parking lot, not the dam itself. Those floodgates might have been, I don't know.)

I got my hiking pole out of my trunk, thought I broke the lower segment, fixed it, and followed the blue blazes out of the park. I have to admit, it was one of the clearer hiking areas I've seen in some time, and was a good mix of being off the grid and then suddenly almost in someone's backyard just to be in the middle of nowhere again. And it had some great surprises.

Like this. Halfway between the dam
 and the next road.

I really did enjoy the randomness of this section, even if I did have to do some climbing over trees. 

They were easy enough to climb.

I once heard it said that they leave trees like this to prevent ATVs from being on the trail. I don't know if that is true, but it does make it interesting. I still remember hiking at a state park and finding a tree had fallen onto a bridge in such a way I didn't feel safe climbing over or under it. Thankfully the bridges were clear of trees. 

But how it got here is another matter.

I noticed that the far end of the trail (where the trail would follow the road, and I instead turned around) had a sign about being a trail for the Miami and Erie Canal. (I think that is also listed on a bike path section near Sidney, though that is not part of the Buckeye Trail.) On my return, I almost missed my turn off the path to my car. I saw it, wondered about it being access for something, and forgot that was actually the trail itself, where I had started the hike. So... yeah. It was really clear going forward, but I needed to turn. (Or did I? My watch said to turn...)

I saw this sign where I turned around.
Not where I started.

I got back to the car, updated the hike info on Strava, and decided to head the long way home. From the road I could see out my car window that had I not turned I would have come out on the road, next to another similar sign, as well as one saying that the Miami and Erie Canal Trail was an Eagle Scout project. Good to see, and even if it overlaps an established trail, it seemed nice. Either way, it was nice to get out and hike. Its been far too long. 

A new year

 I stepped away from my blog last March, somehow I half-finished a post on the Dublin Pub 1 miler, and then... never finished it. (I am going to blame the realization that I had just switched to iPhone and realized the formatting was not great. And I didn't want to try fixing it at the time.) I actually got a phone call that day to start a long-term subbing position, and then, everything got busy. There was a fair bit of travel, a half marathon, and Coastermania at Cedar Point, and I started a new job teaching in my own classroom. It has been a very busy year.

Right now, I'd say most of my adventure is centered on a pair of guinea pigs. I actually got two of them just before Thanksgiving, and one of them got sick and died. I had to wait to get a second one to make sure the first wasn't also sick. And since that would take making sure the new one didn't fight the first, it took a few extra weeks to get the second, and boy was there a size difference. So... they did get along. Rather quickly in fact.

Yes, the little one gets along great and is growing fast.

I will say that the ordeal with getting the replacement has left a sour taste in my mouth for Petco. I had a grant (Pets in the Classroom) to get the main setup, but because I had a discounted animal, when they had to replace the one that didn't make it, I couldn't just get one from another Petco, it had to be the same store. And... they ran out when the quarantine was up, so... 

There is a lot planned for 2023, and guinea pigs are not the main thing. (No matter what they tell you.) I have two half marathons scheduled through May and a few other races. But I needed to reboot the blog, so here we are. 

Don't let his innocent look fool you. 

Misadventures a plenty!

The main purpose of this blog is the joy of adventure, and more to that, the misadventures that result in the pursuit of said adventures. A few weeks ago, I accidentally found an intriguing place on Google maps near me, one that I still don't know how I found. I won't say a plan was formed to go there, but I texted the Google Maps info to a friend, and it became a goal. 

Sunday morning, he sent me a text to see what I was up to, and being that I literally had nothing planned, we agreed to go down to Memento Mori just to see what they had. We had also planned to hit a sports bar on the way back. That is easily more than enough plan, typically. 

A few hours later, timed to match Memento Mori's opening time, we headed south and arrived to find them closed for a week due to illness. To be fair, I later would check their Facebook page to find that about half an hour after the plan was hatched, they posted they would be taking the week off. Had we started everything off just a bit later... 

While disappointed, what we could see through the window was interesting. (And also weird.) I think I saw a pufferfish hanging from the ceiling, various taxidermy (including a giraffe my friend might just be obsessed with now), and various other random things. Do I need a straight jacket? No, but they looked to have a selection. There was at least one musical instrument with a broom handle in them. I don't know how to actually verbalize much of what I saw through the large windows. We agreed that this would need another attempt, and headed a few miles north to hit a comic book store. 

Now, we know how the day was playing out. This time, we did the smart thing and called the comic book store before we drove to it to make sure it was open. GPS took me right there, and I knew the area that it was in. I pulled into the parking lot... and no store. We discovered it was down some stairs in a hidden back area in the back of the strip mall, and the parking lot did not make a full loop. We almost made it to the store on foot when we became distracted by a cat cafe. The confusion of what was in front of us only served to lure us in. 

Kitty Brew was not what I expected. I have been to a few cat and dog adoption places where they stick you in a small room with an animal, and you get to know an animal. This was quite different. This was more like an aviary at the zoo, cats all over, and you are in their world. The cat side of things charges an eleven-dollar hourly fee to chill out and play with the various cats en masse. It is a reasonable amount, since that helps care for the cats and covers the rent. There was a little irony, in that many of the cats come from a rescue about 15 minutes from my friend's house, which was an hour north of Kitty Brew. We don't really carry cash, but they let us take a quick look. I think my friend gave them $5, and we went to the coffee shop next door.  (Note: They have a live feed! You can also check their donation wish list with Amazon.)

The coffee shop is actually the same place, with tables next to large windows in the wall so you can drink and look at the cats running around. Aside from drinks, they had cookies as well as a small gift shop. I probably would have gotten a hot chocolate if we weren't on our way to a comic book store.

A few doors down had us at Nostalgia Ink. My friend hesitated at first when we looked it up, thinking it was a tattoo parlor. There is some irony here as the comic book store was next door to Every Body Tattoo. It was a decent enough comic shop, though I am not as into comics as I used to be. My friend found a few he was looking for, and we headed back to the car, where I was almost blocked in by an idiot who parked in a no-parking area behind me. It took a few tries, but I was able to back out of the lot, and we continued on our way. 

Being hungry, we headed south a few exits to Union Centre, forgetting that the local NFL team playing in the last game before the Super Bowl. This really caused logistical issues with the parking of the local sports bars. I was really looking forward to some really hot wings, and Twin Peak's listed Pineapple Habanero sounded like it would be good. Parking was pretty much overfilled at all of the restaurants, meaning we would need to go somewhere a bit farther away.  

Thankfully, it gave me a chance to stop at Duluth Trading Co which I have wanted to do for a while. I didn't know what to expect, but it was kind of like a cross between a hunting store and a meme. They were big on underwear. They did have some interesting outdoor gear, including the silicone cups similar to the ones I picked up in Madison a few weeks ago. I picked up a new safety razor since my old one has some issues now. It wasn't a bad price, and my friend ended up paying for it. (He also made sure to get the largest bag they had. I think it was twice the size of the paper bags at Kroger!)

With the entirety of the planned trip now voided and plenty of time left in the day, we headed over to Jungle Jims. I actually took random roads and didn't bother with my GPS for this. I actually ended up about a mile up the street from there, unsure if I was actually in Fairfield or Hamilton. (My friend asked, and I've made the drive up route 4 between them a few times. I still knew which direction to turn.) 

It was the first time I've been in there since the newest remodel was complete, and that made part of it disorientating. We were met with a person guessing ages and weight, like at a carnival, so I came away with one of the weird moving steel fidget things. They probably have a name, but there were in a bulk container, and not labeled. Free is free though. We actually headed out the second entrance, because I knew a Wings and Rings was over there, and we were still hungry. Instead, we found an open CiCi's. 

To me, CiCi's is a great place where I eat far too much. We first experienced it around the time my oldest son was born, after we had moved to West Chester. He would eat olives off our plates, and chewed the crust while he was teething. When we had his first birthday, I picked up an entire brownie thing for the party. Sadly, many of the locations closed, including the ones we always went to. So for that day, pizza was beating wings. We ate more than we should have and watched the first quarter of the game. It wasn't looking good for the Bengals as we left, and went back into Jungle Jim's. 

For me, Jungle Jim's is sort of a normal place for me. We used to do a lot of grocery shopping there when we were local, and we got used to navigating the impulse buys to get some great deals. My friend, however, had only been to the banquet center, and never experienced the full scale of the place. 

We were not there long, and as we left, my friend thought that just maybe we could hit one more comic book store before heading out of town. With five minutes until closing, he called up Queen City Comics and got them to agree to stay open long enough for us to stop in. For whatever reason, it actually worked. I don't know how many comic books he bought, but it was a fair number, and I picked up a few things as well. It was ironic, but looking back this was a key stop for the day. While not in itself a key event, it delayed us by about 15 minutes.

We were about 2/3rds of the way to his house when heard the Bengals had gotten the game a bit closer,  so I turned on the radio, which just happened to be the game. We listened to it go to overtime, and just three stoplights from my friend's house, the game was over. We were just minutes from his house and had we not stopped at that last store we would have missed the end of that game. I'm not a Bengals fan. I'm not even really a football fan. But you don't have to be a fan to appreciate how that game ended. They beat a lot of odds that night, so as the Super Bowl draws near, I'll be able to see a local team playing for the first time since I was so young that I really, really didn't care. And this time, I'll not care a healthy amount less.

Madison IN

Just outside of the state park was the small town of Madison, Indiana. With about 12,000 people, separated into two main areas, I'd say tourism might be their big business. With what seemed like a dozen places with Red in the name, and a few other random places, the tourist area was our main hangout beyond Clifty Falls. 

We started in a parking lot near the middle of town, between the town and a river. Ironically, the first place we stopped at was a bike shop. Fizz'z bike shop was practically a hole in the wall, but hey. so are most of the great bike shops. I know deep down, I was hoping for a Montague, something I have been trying to chase down since the day my dad died. (Back in August 2003, the day before the great Midwest Blackout. I discovered my bike had been stolen between finding out my dad died, and the power going out. It was not a great couple of days.) The bike shop didn't have any Montagues, but they did have a tandem with riser bars. It was very tempting, and I really could have bought it if I really wanted to. But while it was a good price, my new car had zero chance of getting that thing back home. Maybe if I had a roof rack? Then again, the shop's internet was down that day, and with it, the credit card machine. So... Onward we went.

Up next was Gifts That Last which was very much a new age store. It has been years since I've been inside a place like that, it would have to have been when I was an Undergrad. Not even Crazy Wisdom in A2 compares in many ways. There were some neat things there, crystals, terra cotta warriors, large geodes, and so on. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was in high school, back when I had a nice rock collection.

We proceeded to Madison Made, which was pretty much a laid-back shop that seemed to be there to cater to tourists. We got some cups there but didn't really feel a draw to any of the shirts. (If we went back a second time, maybe.) 

We then stopped at Red Roaster, which was part of the whole Red places. (We had planned to get a pizza from the Red Pepperoni, which was across the street from the Red Pepper, but didn't get around to it.) I got hot tea, and it practically burned my fingers through the cup. And by that, I mean I had to wait almost half an hour to even begin drinking it. I like hot tea and coffee, really, but there are limits to just how hot it needs to be. Their tea was way too hot. It would actually cause us to have to double back for McWhiggins, since I couldn't take my drink inside. 

The next place we were able to stop was Fountain Alley Body Care. Somehow, we ended up buying a bar of soap. It smells nice, for what its worth, and we probably would go back for more I guess. We laughed about this a little since when we were in New Orleans there were two different stores handing out slivers of similar soaps. These slivers easily could have been mistaken for candy, and that would have been a horrible mistake to make. Full bars don't look like candy though, so yeah‽

We also stopped into Madison Buy Sell Trade which reminded me in some ways of the antique store one of my friends dad had years ago, but with a heavier lean towards modern things. I picked up a manga sampler from Yen press, who for some reason I had thought went out of business. I am so far behind on manga, though it is really expensive over the long term. 

By now, my tea was gone, and we could enter the maze that was McWhiggins. It was a strange mix of modern and vintage toys, and some really random toys that I honestly have no idea what era they came from. There were things I hadn't seen in years, and there were a lot of tempting things there. I'm honestly not sure how we got out of there without spending a bunch of money.

After this, we headed over to Lanthier Winery. It was actually the second one we stopped at, but the first one, Thomas Family Winery, was closed. No sign on the door, just closed. So, one thing that is interesting about Indiana compared to Ohio is that they are not required to charge for wine samples. Now, I do find that interesting, because there seems like there is a great imbalance between Ohio and Indiana in this. Indiana is free, and Ohio is like $1 for a sample. Maybe Ohio is going for profit. No idea, and trying to look it up just got me outdated and weird information. The law seems confusing on purpose. (Actually, I can follow it, but I can't explain it. Though I now understand why different places have different prices while still saying State Minimum pricing.)

After this, we headed back to the park. That evening, after a Walmart run, we stopped at Mad Love where they seem to have a thing for smash burgers. Honestly, until that night, I thought smash burgers were a trademark of the restaurant with that name, not a style. I think I had eaten too much, maybe it was the giant pretzel, but I struggled to finish that meal. I think this might have been among my favorite places in Madison that we stopped at for food, not that we stopped at a lot of places. Mad Love really reminded me of a mix of Hard Rock Cafe and the bar at the hotel we stayed at during our last trip to New Orleans. While I think there is a Hard Rock in Indiana, I really don't care to go to it. (We went on both trips to NOLA though.)

Madison was an interesting place, but I don't think the downtown would hold my interest for more than a day. A few of the places I would go back to, but I don't know if I would be able to make a true multi-day trip out of it. I hope to get back there when it is warmer to explore the park more, though I don't think it will be a priority. Maybe if I get back into camping this summer, I might camp there. I don't know. 

Clifty Falls

We arrived at the Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana about 12:30 AM on Saturday, for the three-day weekend. It was a dark drive, and one of the first real long drives of sorts in the new car. We got everything unloaded from the car into the hotel and were asleep rather quickly. It was really dark, we were tired, and all I knew what there was a giant pillar of smoke behind the hotel. (I looked it up, it was probably steam, the building being the powerplant for the area.)

A downside of getting there so late was that we didn't make it out for snacks on the way there. That is actually one of our big things for traveling, we get snacks and such once we know if there is a minifridge or not. We haven't gotten brave enough to try using Amazon grocery delivery yet, but hey. Our last two trips to Carmel had us a few blocks from Meijer. It was an easy drive there with the food, and across from a few restaurants. Both of our trips to New Orleans had us shopping at Rouses near the hotels. Ironically, Meijer in Carmel was closer than Rouses, but we didn't use a car in NOLA. Carrying a half case of water half of a mile to a hotel was not the best of plans...

We managed to eat at the buffet the first morning there, which I wasn't very happy with. The meat was cold, but I ate a lot. Enough that I hardly had room for dinner, for what that was worth. We did hit Walmart though, which would get us snacks and breakfast for the rest of the week. We got some exploring done, but not as much as we would like. A short hike on Saturday got us some great views of the town and the powerplant. I forgot my hiking sticks, which would have been great for the terrain.

To be fair, most trails that are near me are a lot flatter than Clifty Falls has. It had some great flat areas, but there were a lot more steep areas than I expected. I had planned a second hike originally, but I ended up skipping that when the snow started. I'm not sure if I had the right gear for that, and I wanted to use my camera. I don't know if that was the best decision, but I made it. 

On our last day there, while it wasn't showing, I struggled to decide between hiking and trying to trail run. I know there was a flat trail (according to the park) near the hotel, but I had some doubts, and with being trails and some fresh snow, I instead hiked back to the south entrance which was a long walk down a rather steep hill. Actually, the hike down wasn't bad. The walk back up the hill was the hard part. 

I don't know if I would want to stay at the inn again, at least not in winter. I didn't actually get around to seeing the waterfall the park is named for, but I also missed out on the railroad tunnel, which is closed until later in spring due to hibernating bats. I might need to make another trip out this way again, but I still have a lot of Ohio parks to catch up on. 

Halestorm / Evanescence

We finally made it to the concert on Jan 14th, which was rather lucky, as a snowstorm came in a few days later, canceling their Pennsylvania show. Since this was a bit worse for timing than the original December date, being after work instead of on a Sunday. Of course, this became a day I was up an extra hour early, for no good reason. Ironically, my wife's job shut down that day due to staffing issues, so she didn't have to go in. This actually made things a little easier, since we had a long weekend trip planned before the concert was rescheduled. I was really happy to have gotten my favorite coat back that same day we were to leave, but a cover for my car so luggage and such wouldn't be visible failed to show up as scheduled. (It was due to be in on Friday, but did not arrive in time.)

After I was done at work, I actually made great time getting back home to pick up my wife, got the car loaded, covered the gear with my Flying Pig blanket, and we headed south. We probably should have stopped for diner, but where is the fun in that?

We got a great spot in the parking garage next to the Heritage Bank Center for $20, and about the time the doors were set to open, we headed up. I probably should have had my coat on me for that, since we ended up standing outside in the dropping temperatures for a good 20 minutes, and I did not have my warmest kilt on. Or a jacket. I debated buying a hoodie from one of the merchandise scalpers that were walking around the lines, with handheld card readers for ease. It wound up that the shirts they were selling were not actually inside the area at all, there were no shirts other than the scalpers with both of the headlining bands listed. We actually were a bit disappointed in that.

Finally, as the line sort of moved a few feet, we found out that our floor seat tickets meant we were on the wrong side of the building. This meant a quick trip around the building, and after they checked our Covid status and ID, we were in the warmth of the building. We found the merchandise windows and looked over the gear. The shirts were easily double the price of the outdoor hawkers, at $40 each, and $70 for hoodies. Initially, we got a shirt for Evanescence and headed to our seats. It was a long way down, being on the floor, but it was not too bad.

I headed back up to get snacks, and I found a few different things. More than I could carry, and I knew that Garmin was going to give me my stair climbing goal that day. For the first trip, I got a Lilith Czar hoodie for myself, and two soft pretzels. The second trip up was for two drinks in Tiki cups. They were amusing, but it probably was a bit cold for frozen drinks. Not that I was going to let it stop me from getting a Tiki cup. I got back to our seats, and my wife mentioned a bag she saw someone else have from the vendors to hold stuff. Once more onto the breach, this time I ended up buying an overpriced Halestorm tote bag. (I would discover later that the hoodie has the ♀ sign on the hood. I wouldn't have bought it had I seen that. Wearing that with a kilt could send some mixed messages.)

Eventually, the show began, the opener being Lilith Czar. She did a few songs, and I had heard a bit of her stuff on Spotify before the original tour date was postponed. She did a few songs, then Halestorm got set up. We were more familiar with their music, We stood up for most of their songs, and noticed our feet were getting cold. Really cold. Once we were standing, and not in the temporary seating that they put on the floor, was realized that ice for the hockey rink was still on the floor, under the wooden floor they placed for the concert. And that ice was a lot colder when standing.

There was a short intermission that followed, as they rebuilt the stage, transforming it between the two headliners. It was rather impressive, and soon the show continued.

I wouldn't be able to say what my favorite part of the show was, they weren't my favorite artist per se, but I enjoyed the music. It was interesting the times the other headliner would come out and have both of them singing together, It was also interesting when the artist encouraged people to use the lights on their phones like previous generations used lighters. Thousands of cell phone flashlights lit the area surprisingly well.

Once it was over, we began what felt like a long drive to the hotel we had booked in Indiana. It was about the same drive time from the concert to the hotel as it would have been to go home, but I hate to say, we really wished we had more to eat than a soft pretzel.