JULY 27, 2025 – Two days ago I skipped my daily (substantive) post. I was feeling terribly under the weather. With the aid of a single 500 mg Tylenol (equivalent) tablet each of the past two nights and a third today at noon today, I was able to hold discomfort at bay sufficiently to get some work done on the Pergola-on-a-Platform project. It was very low stress work—marking lots of measurements, drilling holes for the lag screws and taking a few turns with a ratchet wrench. None of the effort was taxing work. I took frequent breaks to sit on the dock or the porch to read more of MAO – THE UNTOLD STORY, the astounding biography of Chairman Mao written by Jung Cheng (author of Wild Swans) and Jon Halliday (2005)[1]. (Stay tuned.)
I’d originally intended to stay up at the lake well into Tuesday and return home to pick up my MM med, which I have to start up again (it’s three weeks on; one week off) Tuesday night. But feeling as lousy as I do, I figured I should leave the Red Cabin this evening and launch an investigation of my health condition first think tomorrow morning.
Today I was optimistic that apart from general lethargy—perhaps attributable to the extreme heat and humidity—once I hit my stride again, I’d be in the clear. In hopeful anticipation of this, for much of the three-hour drive home, I worked over in my mind today’s post, to be entitled, “N” for “Nonconformity” (and other words). The weather and my body, however, imposed other imperatives. had different plans.
Just a half hour from home, I ran into what can be described accurately only as “an extreme rainfall” that would intensify and continue for 45 minutes. I was so fearful of driving off the roadway, I hit my flashers and crawled along for about 12 miles before pulling over at a C-store. Water was gushing out of the parking lot so furiously, I began to wonder about flash flooding in the area. Just a few minutes later, public radio announced the latest update bulletins by the NWS. From these I gained enough information to sit tight for at least another 20 minutes. I was grateful these public entities have not yet been completely washed away by the Republican hatchet men and women in Washington.
Long story short, as it is said, the story I had intended to craft and post this evening was co-opted. As has been my practice over the past several months, I would have completed it before going off to Nod. Not this evening. Something’s taken hold of my physical resources. Lyme disease? Some run of the mill out-of-season virus? Covid (though I was vaccinated before RFK decided to upend public health in America, but has that virus mutated since?)? Something more systemic?
I don’t like indulging in medical talk. Despite how much I went through in 2022, medical talk still creeps me out.
Okay, enough (medical talk). I hope and trust that a good night’s sleep and another Tylenol will provide some relief.
Subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
[1] Time called it “An atomic bomb of a book.” So far (past p. 365 of 600), I can say categorically that Time got it wrong: it’s “A hydrogen bomb of a book.”
