The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Eclipse

Today will be the eclipse.  We are not in an area of "totality", but we should still have a pretty amazing time.  I personally do not trust the glasses that are for sale... Even if they have the numbers that suggest they are NASA certified.  There are too manly fakes out there and even if approves, they say "maximum of three minutes viewing" which is to me an indication they are still not safe.  Instead, we will be viewing the eclipse through pinhole "camera" devices I made instead.  I think it will be far safer and more fun.  To my manner of thinking, the safety of one"s vision is more important that seeing the moon travel in front of the sun.  

I had a weird experience on Friday.  I was stung by a damn hornet that went up the leg of my shorts.  I used to work with bees in graduate school for a few years so I ha hundreds of bee stings and I have had perhaps a dozen hornet stings over the years, but this one behaved differently.  I did get the usual swelling and redness, but the next morning, the redness had grown to be my entire upper leg.  But worse, there was a searing MUSCLE pain in my leg with every step I took.  It was very intense and different from anything I had ever experienced.  I had taken Benadryl, and that did not seem to do much.  And, after it happened the evening before, it was just its normal minor inconvenience.  We went out to eat at a Mexican resturaunt with friends (I had delicious fish tacos and a couple Killian's Red beers).   But Saturday morning, all the crazy sh*t was starting with my leg.  Intense pain in the MUSCLE!  

I forced myself to do my run, which was much slower than usual because of the pain.   For the rest of the day I waited and drank a lot of water.  We went to Mass, and after Mass, it was still horribly painful.  So, I went to the Redi-Med here just to be safe.  The clinician looked at the site and said she wasn't sure, but wanted to treat me with antibiotics because it looked so different and she was concerned it might be infected and turn into cellulitis.  

Fortunately, the antibiotics DO seem to have helped.  It is still swollen and red (to be expected), but the searing MUSCLE pain was 95% gone.  In fact, the site of the sting is now growing very itchy ( a good thing and a normal reaction to the hornet's toxins.  I was able to do my exercise like usual and in this morning's run I felt pretty much up to snuff.  

PipeTobacco

4 Comments:

Blogger Forsythia said...

Yikes! Glad you're OK now.

Monday, 21 August, 2017  
Blogger Sharon said...

DH is highly allergic and has to go to the Dr. for shots. He swells up like that. It does pay to go in if you don't get better after the Benadryl. He seems to get worse with each time he gets stung.

I wouldn't trust any of those 'glasses' for watching the eclipse. I've decided to watch on the computer and take some screen shots. I imagine half the population in the viewing area is going to be watching in some way.

Monday, 21 August, 2017  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

holycrap...glad it's better..

Monday, 21 August, 2017  
Blogger Gorilla Bananas said...

Were people recording the eclipse on their camcorders, Professor? That is one way of observing it indirectly. Very glad to hear your leg is recovering.

Tuesday, 22 August, 2017  

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