Date: 2010-06-20
From: home

To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

End of week one of taking antibiotics for stupid Lyme disease. Progress: No hours of agony last night! Starting 6/12 I'd had several hours of very annoying pain every night. And last night it never showed up. Though my knees still hurt in varying locations. I think it's progress.The couple with the herb smarts that I met a while back had made a point (why? did they know I was getting sick?) of telling me about a very good book about healing Lyme disease. I ordered it from Amazon and it showed up two days ago. I read the whole dang thing, even though it references all kinds of complicated science-y doctor-y stuff. And I immediately ordered herbs based on the book's recommendations. And the herbs aren't even here yet and I already feel better! That's a good book!I ordered astragalus and andrographis. It also recommends cat's claw and resveratrol, but I already had those from previous iterations of Lyme. And I am sooo suspicious about how I suddenly got really sick when I started taking them every other day instead of every day (when I was running low on supplements and trying to stretch what I had to the next town). Yeah, I think they were probably helping me out. The book does actually recommend using the herbs as a preventative in endemic areas. The book, btw, is "Healing Lyme" by Stephen Harrod Buhner. He is not one of your wacky "antibiotics are evil" types. He recommends the herbs in addition to antibiotics, or used alone if you've tried antibiotics and they haven't worked for you. I'd recommend reading it for the description of how the disease works if nothing else.I went out to see my horse yesterday and was seized with a strong desire to ride. If I'm still feeling pretty good on Wednesday I'm meeting my friend Tara and she's going to lunge me on the horse. Vertigo hasn't been two bad the last two days, so I figure it might be all right. Though it will probably be nine hundred degrees out and I'll have to cover all of my skin. So there could be heat stroke. But I think it's worth it.In total lack of hiking news, I thought I'd review some more gear items. I'm starting to worry that I'll review the same thing twice. If I do, I wonder if the reviews will be similar? Anti-Gravity Gear alcohol stove: This is pretty similar to all the other pepsi can stoves out there, except the holes are halfway down the sides. Which means that once it gets going, you can set the pot right on the stove. This is a huge benefit to me, as I have gone through at least three different pot support methods and didn't like any of them. Other than that it pretty much works like any other alcohol stove, e.g. it boils water and that's it. No simmering. It burns until it uses up its fuel. For my purposes that's fine. For dishes that want to cook a long time (i.e. pasta sides) I stir vigorously after it boils, until the fuel burns out. Then I stick the pot in a cozy and let the heat continue cooking the food until it's done. Works great.Pot cozy: this is homemade. You can buy them premade for your specific pot at anti-gravity gear, but they're easy to make at home. Mine is starting to wear out. It's a little crumpled, and the metal is rubbing off the bubblewrap. However it still works perfectly as far as I can tell. Pot cozies are essential backpacking items to me. Weird that I seldom see anybody else using one.Titanium pot: I've had this long enough that I no longer know who made it. I got this one because it's fairly small but deep, and had a shallow spout for pouring. (Pouring has been an issue with me in the past. Wasting your precious hot water by spilling it is a huge aggravation.) The pot handles are uninsulated, which could be a problem. There is no safe way to put the pot on heat or remove it. However my friend Emma gave me an awesome wool mitten to use as a potholder. As a result I still have all my fingers and knuckle hair.Eating utensils: I am extravagant and carry two. I have a Lexan spork which is handy for things that need to be stabbed, such as noodle soup. And I have a long handled titanium spoon. The long handle is so I can spoon out of deep things such as Mountain House meal bags without getting ick all over my hands. It's not like I have a bathroom out there in which to rinse off after dinner.