This has been a strange and ultimately uncomfortable weekend, both emotionally and physically. The air had cleared enough by Saturday that I was able to go to both the festival at the park and a street fair. But we missed our 30th reunion at Reed and that was harder than I think either of us had anticipated.
First for the fun. Taking my transport chair out for its inaugural voyage was an unqualified success. We took a Lyft to Astoria Park to get started. Then David walked me through the festival with all of its rides, games and food vendors. As David pointed out, all of the rides were designed to do exactly what my stomach was doing by itself, so we skipped those. We picked up a giant cotton candy and headed out to walk and roll along the waterfront.
It was a beautiful day and in addition to the geese and pigeons, lots of people were out picnicking and just generally having a good time. We admired the industriousness of some folks who brought a hammock out and tied it to two trees with a perfect sight view of the East River and Manhattan. Good on them!
When we got to the edge of the park, David offered me the option of continuing along the waterfront or seeing if he were up to push me to the second street fair. I chose the fair and we started up a decent hill. After a block, while David stopped to catch his breath, I realized that my pump’s alarm was going off. I had been holding my feed backpack in such a way that caused a kink in the line. It was an easy enough fix, but just one of those important learning curve details that makes everything just a bit more complicated these days.
David did make it to the street fair, at which point, I disembarked and walked the length of the fair so I could both get some exercise and look around. I bought a pair of Guatemalan pants because draw string pants are my jam these days.
We also stopped at a booth run by a serious Astoria booster, selling nothing but Astoria-themed merch. This shirt cracked us up because Astoria, Oregon is where The Goonies was filmed and the just celebrated Goonies Day this past week.
I got an opportunity to channel my father and tell the proprietor and a couple of locals that both Astorias were named for the same person (John Jay Astor, if you are curious). Then, like good Oregonians we talked up Astoria, Oregon and convinced the locals that it would be worthwhile trip.
After some delicious tacos and mediocre horchata, David announced that he was up for pushing me all of the way home. In all, he clocked 3 1/2 miles. Thus proving, without a doubt, that, my health willing, we are ready to explore again.
That last bit is always the trouble isn’t it. My pain is improving and it is changing, which leads me to suspect that the antibiotic may be working. But nothing comes for free these days. I woke up at 6:30am with liquid diarrhea, thus putting me further behind in my dehydration and messing with my electrolytes.
Given my firm commitment to staying out of the ED, I have been pushing my usual electrolytes, drinking pedialyte and sucking on pedialyte popsicles all day. Well, at least between naps. And I am feeling well enough to write this post, so I am going to presume that my ongoing efforts are paying off. I just really miss feeling well, but that was probably too much to expect after a big excursion like yesterday.
As I mentioned earlier, this weekend is also our 30th Reed reunion. It was really bittersweet to see people posting photos and sending greeting from reunions. It was nice to see people’s smiling faces. And the long distance greetings made us feel warm and loved. But we had really hoped to be there and were just sad that life (and my body) got in the way. Maybe we will be able to make it next year.
I admire not only your courage, but your epistolary skills and energy.