Damn Can Koozie.....

Geez - over a month has gone by already. Obviously I never posted my NYC trip report, although I think I've probably seen all three of my blog readers since then so they've heard the story already. It was a great trip, though - I really hope to visit again and do some exploring off the beaten path in the city.

Time is still flying by but luckily there's nothing too crazy to report. School is going well - I'm really enjoying my class this semester and have learned some really cool stuff. Most recently I've learned how to hook someone up to an electrocardiograph (ECG) machine and how to interpret the waveforms of the heartbeat. Pretty neat. We were able to practice with a machine in lab and I'm happy to say that my heart appears perfectly normal - although my heart rate was 51 and it set the machine's "low heart rate" alarm off. I was pretty proud of that.

Although my heart is normal, something in my head is not. (I know.... shocker....) Seriously, though, I've been experiencing progressively worse and unexplained dizziness since April and am finally getting some tests done to figure out why. At first I thought I had a sinus infection but I had no other symptoms and my blood results didn't show anything abnormal (i.e. infection). The doctor cleaned out my ears and I thought maybe my problems would go away. They didn't and have actually gotten worse - I now have dizzy spells every day that last for hours. There is no rhyme or reason to them - there is no pattern to when they occur and they don't improve if I sit down or eat. It's crazy and it's been getting me down but I'm hoping to have some answers soon. I go in for vestibular testing in July.

The good thing is that I can still ride my bike, though, and have been trying to get out as much as I can. Steve and I worked at the Lumberjack 100 race last weekend and I am was utterly impressed and inspired by the racers. Part of me almost wants to make it a goal to train and try to race next year.... we'll see about that, I suppose. Steve and I took a quick trip up to the North Country Trail this week and rode from the M20 trailhead in White Cloud. It was just a nice day to be out and tooling around on a bike. Our bikes seem to have enjoyed themselves, too. Maybe we'll get a few new little bikes out of this excursion......

The day after the Lumberjack we went to my dad's to visit for Father's Day and this is what we found in his driveway:

The trailer is full of the water-logged contents of their basement. Due to the torrential rains that hit the Cadillac area (12 inches in 12 hours), my dad's basement flooded and we arrived just in time to help tear out wet carpet and move out wet furniture. It's awful enough to have 3 inches of water in your basement - I can't imagine what the people in the Midwest are going through. The lake levels in Cadillac rose so high that my dad's pontoon boat was lifted up and off its hoist and floated all the way to the other side of the lake. Many people lost their boats and their docks because the lake rose so quickly. Everything is good now, though. The boat is safe (and undamaged) and the basement has dried out and has stayed that way. Here in GR, we haven't had any basement issues of our own and that makes me happy.

And finally, two more pictures. I've been indulging my nesting instinct and have taken on a few domestic projects lately. One has to be kept secret for a little while longer and the other was just completed last week. It's my first attempt at upholstery and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I found this chair for $3 at the Salvation Army and probably spent about $30 on supplies for it. Not bad for a first try - although the problem now is that the cat has taken up permanent residence on this chair in the living room and has added a nice layer of cat fur to my upholstery fabric.

Anyway - I always promise to be better about keeping up-to-date when I end my posts but it never seems to happen. So no more promises - besides shouldn't you be working instead of reading blogs on the internet??

Happy summer!