Parking Permit

 

As I drove into the greater boundary of the U this morning, I veered off my normal route and drove down to the U's Campus Police Station in order to purchase my parking permit for the upcoming academic year.  It was a good idea and a good choice for me to do so today, as it was about a week after they became available, and was roughly two weeks before the flood of students would return to campus as well.  

Waiting one week AFTER they were announced to be available was helpful to AVOID the long lines of the contingent of the many "Type A" personality type professors, other faculty, and staff who typically clog Parking Services of Police Headquarters immediately after the "release announcement".  And, purchasing said permit two weeks ahead of the masses arriving also was wise.... as the hoards of students attempting to qualify for and to potentially purchase the "closer" student parking permits, and even those students resigning themselves to the parking lots out near the far reaches of our campus' version of "Timbuktu" mean the lines and wait times can be hours during those periods.  

Today, I walked in, was the ONLY person besides the young lady behind the counter, and I was able to fill out the paperwork, show a photograph of my vehicle's license plate,  pay the nominal "faculty fee" and had my permit affixed to my vehicle in less than a total of 5 minutes!   

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My wife and I had been waiting to obtain our second Covid-19 Booster.  We have been eligible for the second booster for perhaps a month or so, but we initially were hesitating a bit.... hoping a form of booster vaccine more SPECIFIC to the Omicron sub-variants would become available. However, all indications are that this Omicron sub-variant focused booster will now be available at earliest by perhaps November.  So, this past Friday afternoon, we both took the plunge and received our second booster injection.  Mostly we picked Friday, so that I would have an especially robust (hopefully) immune response profile when classes start again rather soon.  

As seems to be the typical pattern now.... my wife experienced NO symptoms from her second booster.  I on the other hand, was utterly WIPED OUT all day Saturday.  My injection arm ACHED and it was painful to move my arm.  I had general full body muscle aches all day.  I alternated between feeling very hot and flush.... and having significant chills, and all Saturday afternoon and evening I had a massive headache that felt of the type typical of a sinus infection, although my nasal passages were clear.  Luckily, I knew this second booster was our goal on Friday, so I finished my 55.5 miles (~89 km) of running for the week BEFORE we obtained our boosters so I did not need to run on Saturday or Sunday.  

Very atypically for me.... I slept in on Saturday until 11am when my wife came up to wake me to make sure I was still alive, as I never sleep that long.  After she woke me, I took the dog outside, but then crawled back into bed and slept again until we went to Mass Saturday evening (I was scheduled for several things to do during the Mass, so we could not postpone and go Sunday instead.).  When we got back home, I slept some more, got up and watched ~1 hour of television with my wife, and then again went back to bed.  Just to help illustrate how wretched I felt all Saturday, I would estimate my PCS was at a "0"... I did not think about them at all. 

Fortunately, like with previous Covid-19 vaccines... when I woke up on Sunday, I felt back to normal, and was STARVING as I did not eat anything the day before (I did drink a huge amount of fluids Saturday, so there was no risk of dehydration.).

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My wife and I made a new recipe for dinner on Sunday of Ethiopian Curried Chickpea Soup.  It was absolutely delicious.  It was a "blended soup" which means we used our plunge blender to blend the chickpeas, broth, vegetables and spices into a thick, creamy, uniform soup.  A highlight of the spices in this soup was an Ethiopian spice blend called "Berbere" which is wonderful.  You can buy Berbere as an already prepared blend or make your own.  The mix of spices in Berbere includes:   cayenne pepper, onion powder, ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, fenugreek, garlic, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, paprika, and chili powder.  It is exceptional and very flavorful!  The soup was wonderful.  I ate mine with a piece of dark pumpernickel bread embedded with caraway seeds.

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I awoke this morning at 4:45am, and was running on the pavement at 5:05am.  I ran 13.2 miles (~21 km) today, taking a slightly more leisurely pace than usual in case I was would potentially experience some "vaccine symptoms".  Luckily, everything was fine and it was a very pleasant run.  

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PCS Today = 7..... the thought of having a pipe feels so tempting, and that desire to taste and feel the flavors and impacts of a strong burley leaf are quite strong.  I suspect as I work on some final changes to some of the lab materials in one of my courses today, I will be frequently glancing at my rack of pipes and the pipe tobacco humidor I have here in my back office at the U.  I have already picked up three of the pipes and have gripped the stem of one between my teeth.  It still felt utterly comfortable there.

PipeTobacco