Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. I spent the 6th through the 9th incredibly sick. I contracted some kind of an infection from a tick bite. My temperature was between 100 and 102 all week and every muscle in my upper body felt like it had been beaten with an iron pipe. Between the muscle aches and the night sweats I was only able to get about 2 or 3 hours of sleep per night. The doctor pulled some blood cultures for West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis and thankfully both came back negative. I never experienced a headache so the doc said that pretty much ruled out meningitis. I was given a prescription for an antibiotic that helps fight off Lyme disease and by the morning of the 10th I was feeling fairly normal. I was completely drained and weak though and had no energy whatsoever. The 10th was also the day I was supposed to start my vacation, which was actually my rotation as a leader at my son's Scouting Camp. It was also the morning of my 400 yard camp swim test.
I had to swim 300 yards doing the breast stroke and then 100 yards doing the back stroke, then tread water for several minutes. I'm not sure if I spent more energy swimming or trying to prevent my face from contorting into a frightening look of death, but I made it. I couldn't walk straight for about five minutes after I climbed onto the dock, and I kept yawning (gasping) for air for about 4 hours after I left the swimming area. My ears also popped (like when you're in high altitude) and I couldn't clear them until the next day. That's when the real fun began.
Our Pack-group consisted of 10 Cub Scouts including two sets of brothers and my son. Over the next five days we would walk between 25 and 26 miles (according to the GPS) and deal with everything from lost toothbrushes to mild dehydration to sibling rivalry. The 6:15 a.m. wake-up calls were a little harsh in my opinion. Rain storms are awesome when you're in a tent; not so awesome when it's 95 degrees out at midnight and the humidity is 100%. My tent was like an oven half the nights I was there and falling asleep in a huge puddle of sweat seemed normal by Thursday. But the kids had a blast and nobody was injured. That last part isn't completely true. One of the scouts cut his finger during a whittling class on day two. On day three he fell down a paved hill and skinned his knee. On day four he bit his own finger during lunch. For a moment I thought maybe he was trying to escape piece by piece.
I arrived home on the 15th and immediately did a lot of smelly laundry. The past two weeks had been physically and mentally draining, but the next day was going to be the biggest challenge and completely drain me emotionally. I made a trip up north with my best friend's widow. We kayaked out onto his favorite lake and scattered some of his ashes not far from the rope swing he and I played on as children almost 30 years ago. We toasted his memory with two bottles of Molson Canadian and shared some stories and memories of the man we both loved so dearly. Then we drove east and ate a seafood dinner big enough to sink a humpback whale; no regrets. My friend, Jim and his wife had been together since high school and they were still going strong. You could see the love they had for each other when they would stare into each others eyes. It was like the whole world would stop for them. He was my best friend but he was also my technical adviser on all things electronic, my therapist, my career councilor and my closest link to so many childhood memories. I hate not being able to call him. But he comes to me in my dreams once in a while and I'm thankful for that. He passed away just three weeks after his 39th birthday. I miss him so much.
After I returned home from the lake I fell asleep at 4 p.m. and didn't wake up until 10 am the next day. I finally had caught up on my sleep. It's a good thing too. I had to go back to work the next morning. I showed up to the office this Monday looking ten times more exhausted than when I had left.
I need a vacation!
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