2/20/2012 - Walk it off

Oh, my baby left me.
She took off to I-Oh-Way.
I said my baby left me.
She took off to I-Oh-Way.
I miss her so bad.
Glad she'll be back this coming Sunday.

I've had a sort of low grade case of the blahs lately. I'm sure having Lulu gone contributes but it really started a couple of weeks ago when I got hit with what I'm now pretty sure was a case of H1N1, at least, judging from the swine flu that hit me in Newport a couple years ago. Symptoms were the same: every muscle in my body ached. The only remedy was to lay down and take some NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). It only lasted 24 hours but the repercussions of my NSAID use lasted somewhat longer. For those of you who are bothered by TMI (too much information), you might want to skip down a couple paragraphs where I'll talk about something else. But, for those who want to learn from my mistake, stay with me. I'll be as non-graphic as possible.

First off, my choice of NSAID was ibuprofen. We generally turn to ibuprofen for muscle pain and aspirin for headaches, sore throats, etc. We don't use acetaminophen and I haven't had a lot of luck with naproxen sodium either. So, true to form, I took ibuprofen. You might want to google ibuprofen to check out the possible side effects. When it comes to the end of the line, digestively-speaking, aspirin has one side effect and ibuprofen has the opposite effect. Well, I ate almost nothing on the day of my H1N1 and took a lot of ibuprofen. Enough so that said side effect set in. So, although the pig flu was gone by the next day, I continued to feel like crap. It took the better part of a week for things to, well, get moving again, so to speak. During that week, I really felt crappy (again, so to speak). Anyway, that's all behind me now (okay, enough of this 'so to speak' stuff - I almost said 'crap' but that would have just compounded the problem). But still, I've just been feeling a little off.

This morning when I got up, my legs were sore like I'd been hiking although I hadn't walked hardly anywhere in some time. Also, my left wrist hurt. Not sure what that's all about. But anyway, I decided to take coach's advice and walk it off. I felt badly in need of some exercise.

So, I grabbed my pack and my shopping list, strapped on my Chacos and hit the road. Walked briskly (at least for the first couple miles) to Home Depot and bought some water filters. Then on to the Telcel store to renew my banda ancha (the little USB cell modem that allows me to post these things). From there it was on to Mega to buy a few grocery items and then the long walk back to the marina. I didn't have my pedometer with me but, if I remember right from when Lulu and I clocked this trip once, it's about 8 miles total. By the time I got back to the boat, my legs and feet were aching bad. But at least now they had a good reason. It seems to have worked. I'm pretty much over my ennui now.

I stopped in at a Similare Farmacia to get some pills during my walk. You know, even though, as a whole, the Mexican people are very friendly, warm and polite, there are times when they are downright rude. I know that's a generalization and I hate to say it because it opens things up for some very prejudiced comments, but that's just how it seems sometimes. I'm standing there at the counter, waiting my turn. The pharmacist is explaining how to use a lice-fighting shampoo to the lady ahead of me. Then another lady customer comes in and joins in the conversation. Meanwhile, I'm waiting. This goes on for quite awhile. My presence has not yet even been acknowledged. Then this older guy who the pharmacist obviously knew comes in. And he just starts telling the pharmacist what he wants. Then the first lady pays for her shampoo, the second lady lets the pharmacist know what she wants, and he proceeds to work with them while I stand there politely. Finally I'd had enough and just left. There are a lot of Similare stores around. I've seen this in other places. Street taco stands are a good example. If there is room to belly up and shout out your order, that's what happens. No waiting your turn. If there's a line forming to the right, someone will come in from the left and GET WAITED ON! Not always, but often. It's maddening. And don't get me started on grocery stores. But then again, shoppers with grocery carts in the USA are also incredibly rude and insensitive as I remember it. Generally speaking, of course. I know you're not like that and neither am I. For the record, the next Similare I stopped at treated me very nicely and had what I was looking for.

For what seems like a long time, we've had food on the boat that needed to be used before we went out or bought anything new. I'm mostly referring to meat and fresh vegetables. It was frustrating because we'd be at the store and I'd see something that would taste really good or we'd see a restaurant we wanted to try or we'd just be in the mood for pizza or a burger. But, no, we had food that needed to be used before it spoiled. Well, as of last night, I've used all of that food up. Hot damn! The world is my oyster. I can have whatever I want. But I'll be damned if I can think of anything I want. Oh, now that I'm back at the boat and have been looking through some recipes and articles on the internet, primarily at Serious Eats, I can find lots of stuff I want to cook and eat. But I don't have the makings and I don't want to go back to the store again. So, what am I going to eat tonight? Well, at first I checked out their Ramen hacks and almost decided on either Aloha Ramen or possibly Sweet and Sour Ramen since I have the ingredients for both of them on hand. But I finally decided, screw the ramen, I'll just cut to the chase. So here's what I'm having for dinner tonight.

O'Brien potatoes (wait, let's make that O'Sanchez potatoes since I used an Anaheim chile instead of a bell pepper), over-medium eggs (okay, one of my eggs had a blowout) and fried Spam. Yep, that's how I roll sometimes. I actually like Spam. I know, you'll probably be taking all of my food recommendations with a grain of salt from here on out but, dammit, I've got to be me!

Think it can't get worse? Want to know what I had for lunch? A refried bean sandwich, that's what. Spread a good thick layer of refried beans, straight from the can, on a slice of buttered bread and top with another slice of buttered bread. Taught to me by my old buddy Richie Fuller, a Gunner's Mate from DeSoto, Texas. I served with Richie on the USS Tolovana (AO-64) back in the early 70s and a refried bean sandwich was like manna from heaven when a guy had a serious case of the munchies out at sea. Still love them today. Don't knock it till you've tried it. You might be amazed.