So. It turns out that what I have is not a nasty cold, per se, but a not-too-bad case of bronchitis. I realized shortly after getting to work yesterday that I was feeling rather worse than better, and my cough was descending into that 'sounds-like-an-unhappy-Rottweiler' territory, so I decided to visit a doctor. Said doctor diagnosed my usual 'early winter combo special' — a sinus-and-bronchial infection.
Fortunately, I decided not to be a stubborn schmuck and caught it fairly early, so while I get a couple days off work to lie around the house and pretend I am some kind of pampered prince (DD is an awesome nurse), I should be back in action pretty soon, and I shouldn't have to suffer the agony of weeks and weeks off the bike or anything like that. I'm supposed to work in N'Albany on Friday, but I think I'm going to have to file that in the 'wait and see' category, because my job at Target is very physical. I'm taking prednisone and Bactrim right now, which usually work pretty fast, but I don't want to be an idiot and overdo it, either.
Meanwhile, Quicksilver has also gone to see the doctor — more specifically, Billy at the shop is repacking his bottom bracket for me. At least, we think that's the problem.
There's a weird little clicky thing going on when I turn the cranks that I initially assumed was generated by one of the pedals, since I was perceiving it solely (ha! sole-ly! get it?!) through my right foot, but I've since started feeling it all the way through the bottom bracket in both feet. Initially, since the plan was to replace the pedals anyway, I figured it could wait 'til I get the new ones — however, as soon as I started feeling it on the other side, I decided a checkup was in order. Fortunately, that transition took place less than a mile from home, so I was able to kind of limp QS back to the garage on Monday without adding too much strain. I suspect that the compounding factor was probably some unintentional big-gear mashing on Monday morning's ride.
My guess is that this is basically payback for riding QS through the sand pits at our 'cross practice park a bazillion times, but then, the road bike has aggregated some pretty decent mileage in the past several months and it may just be that it's time for a BB overhaul. Either way, Quicksilver is hangin' at the shop without me today, and we'll see how this all shakes out.
I'm hoping it won't shake out like the time I broke the bottom bracket on a Murray 'Stopgap Special' from Kmart and all the ball bearings shook our and poured all over the road and then, as I looked on in horror, disappeared into a runoff drain. Since Billy is an extremely competent mechanic, however, I'm not worried (at least, not in any rational sense — in a totally irrational sense, some part of me is all like, "OMG mah bay-bee is sick! What ever shall Ah do?" and would swan if it knew what 'swan' meant when used as a verb).
So I'm road-bikeless for today, but I don't feel up to riding anyway. Lying around and watching bike movies is more my speed at the moment.
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