vaca update
By shag carpet bomb • Sep 27th, 2009 • Category: Belly Button Lintby the way, for those of you who asked….
it turned out that my vacation mostly sucked. i mean, if bad things could happen, it happened!
Sat, beautiful weather, but it was the last beautiful day until Wednesday. It poured and poured and poured. The bedrooms, which are on the second floor, while the living area is on the third floor, started leaking rain in from the sliding glass windows. This exacerbated a likely already existent mold problem, which set me off. I got sicker than a dog with allergies. Then, after two days of sneezy runny nose itchy throat and eyes, I got the nastiest flu. And I’m still sick from it. At work, my boss called my Typhoid Mary.
We both got tested before we went back to work, though. No gots swine flu. I was shocked. I thought for sure, something as nasty as this, that knocked both of us out had to be nasty swine flu.
I’m not one to whine, so we made the best of it. Wednesday it was nice, so with some sneezy weezy, we drove over to Roanoke Island and I did get to watch the sun set while we took one of those sunset sailing cruises on a tall ship. I’d wanted to go on an airplane ride or parasailing, but my ears were so plugged up that R thought it was a really bad idea. Alas.
Then the rain set in again. I think we went to the only mall that exists on the outerbanks that day. oh, and we went to the acquarium, which was a small one. Got to see some turtles. Thought about driving over through this big march to get to Raleigh NC, but decided against it when the rain started pouring like hell. It poured like that for 3 hours.
At home, I could have read, however, I ended up renting a house with the world’s worst matresses and crap sofa/loveseat. They were made of wicker and had a very thin cushion, so any length of time on them was painful. I couldn’t sleep well because bronchitis set in. About the only way I can survive a night with bronchitis is to be able to sit up on sofa or chair. it keeps me from hacking as bad as might otherwise.
Why is it, with bronchitis, you hack and cough until about 4 a.m. and then finally find sleep?
When we got back, we went to the doctor’s only to find out we had nothing serious. ??? I did ask for some magical cough syrup people had told me about. It has codeine in it.
After years of no insurance, I finally get insurance. Then I want to get me summa them good narcotics i’ve been told about. I get it and guess what? It didn’t do jack for me. the bottle is gone and I’m not going to ask for a renewal because it was less than worthless, I swear.
I guess I’m a non-responder to narcotics or something. About the only time I thought I experienced something, I realize now it was just the freakin cold.
Anyway, because the weather wasn’t conducive to sitting on my rocker on the porch reading, nor were the beds or furniture conducive to comfortable reading, I didn’t do one likc of reading the entire trip. I was either too uncomfortable or too miserable with allergies or the flu to be able to read. When I get like that, it’s much better to be somewhat occupied — like visiting various artisan shops or art galleries or cheesy tourist attractions — than to sit around at home anyway.
Oh, there was one overcast day that later turned sunny from 4 - 8 p.m. That day we went to ocracoke.
There, people, on Ocracoke I have found the place that I would love to spend my summers. What a wonderful place. Only 738 people, not a chain store to be found, and 13 miles of wilderness beaches. It is glorious. You can only get there by ferry. We only did a little bit of beach combing, because it was getting late and I we were both feeling sick, but it was awesome to watch the waves wash shells and rocks and driftwood ashore. Amazing.
I visited this great little artisan craftsman shop where I splurged on some pottery. I would have loved to have time for more, but by the time we got across on the ferry, did a little sightseeing, got something to eat, and explored the “downtown” ocracoke area, there was only an hour left of daylight and time to head back on the ferry.
anyway, that was my exciting vacation! I plan on trying to get an inexpensive place on Ocracoke for my spring vacation or maybe take my kids there for christmas. It ought to be wild and desolate there for the holidays. The trip to get there, which takes you past the house in Nights in Rodanthe, feels long and desolate — it is — and can be quite treachorous in terms of road flooding. I wonder if the kids will like it if there is hardly anything to do except loll about?
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Your moments on the beach, both times you really write about them sound so wonderful and evocative, you MUST go back. Find yourself a place with decent furnishings and no mold problem and try again on the amenities front.
Sorry to hear the weather sucked, sucked sucked. As for the reading list, tourist schlock has its own logic and you should not necessarily feel obliged to apologize about that!
As for the intoxicating cough syrup, I used to know someone who swore by Robitussin DM or anything generic with its active ingredient as “a wholesome alternative to illegal drugs.” Personally, I have once or twice had really good success with it when it was a hacky bronchitis chest cold. Another sort of odd suggestion: Thyme tea. One time in the midst of that kind of cold, I was staring at the tea aisle looking at my options.
The Thyme tea smelled absolutely VILE and I do not remember drinking more than a sip or two of it, but someone despite the FOUL smell, the vapors really helped.
Has work already swallowed the vacation glow?