- (https://b-ark.ca/ksKKwg)
I’m riding in the 2025 Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer, raising money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and have so far raised $2,744, exceeding my $2,500 goal and surpassing my 2024 effort!
Help me by donating here
And remember, by donating you earn a chance to win a pair of hand knitted socks!
Asthma Sucks, or How To OD On Salbutamol
Most people who know me know that I’m lucky enough to be a mild asthmatic. This is especially true when I’m exposed to allergens, in particular cats, which can give me a severe attack in mere minutes. Even more fun, the effect can be magnified if I happen to have a chest cold.
Well, on Friday, we went play poker at Javan and Christina’s… and they have a cat. And I have a cold. The poker was good fun. The asthma, not so much. Fortunately, I brought my inhaler… but, with the cat, not to mention the gradually increasing temperature of the house (thanks to the additional bodies), and all the talking and laughing, I had to take a number of doses in a fairly short time in order to control things.
But, it gets better! After getting home, the symptoms flared up, so I took another puff and tried to get to sleep (I would have also taken a Claritin, but I’d taken some allergy pill that Massie had (which is, evidentally, ineffective for me) and wasn’t in to mixing meds). Then, at around 2am, I woke up, wheezing away (see, isn’t this fun?), and did what you’d expect, and took another couple of puffs. And that’s when everything went bad.
You see, the drug in my inhaler is one called Salbutamol. It’s a beta-2 antagonist and binds to receptors in the lungs, triggering the fight-or-flight response normally generated by adrenaline, resulting in a smoothing of the bronchial muscles and a widening of the airway. In a pinch, it’s a miracle drug, capable of moderating an asthma attack in minutes. Unfortunately, it also triggers a number of side effects which, under normal circumstances, rarely occur for me. Except for this time. The difference, however, is that, after some reading, I’ve come to the conclusion that I, in fact, probably overdosed on the stuff. Among the fun things I experienced:
- Hand Tremors
- Heart Palpitations
- Significant Anxiety
As well as increased urination and mild muscle cramps in my feet. Joy! To be honest, I think it was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced… imagine feeling uncontrollably nervous and scared, combined with a racing heart and the sensation of pressure on your chest. Then throw in difficulty breathing, thanks to the asthma, not to mention exhaustion due to lack of sleep.
As you can imagine, there was no way I could go back to bed with all this going on, and so I went downstairs to watch TV and try to relax… and I never really went back to bed. I dozed periodically here and there, but never really slept, and in fact didn’t really sleep until the next night.
So, let this be a lesson to all you asthmatics out there! Salbutamol is a powerful drug! Don’t mess around with this stuff! Exceeding the recommended dose is a very dangerous, unpleasant, and frightening experience, especially if you don’t know that’s what’s happening. Be careful!
Jolly Rancher Rocks
Anyone who knows me knows that I have a really nasty addiction to junk food. I love the stuff. You’d think I’d grow out of this, but I really don’t. It’s not good. Particularly for my ailing teeth. I especially enjoy trying out new types of candy, and have had the pleasure of discovering some tasty new treats (Sour Skittles, Sour Patch Keys, Sour Twizzlers… hmm, I see a pattern forming…). My latest experiment is a new Hershey product called Jolly Rancher Rocks:
Now, I’ve always been a fan of the Jolly Rancher flavours. I remember back in the day when I first tried them out… so very tasty. But I’ve always been the type to chew my rock candies, and the odd not-quite-brittle texture of the Jolly Rancher made it more likely that I would fracture a tooth rather than the candy itself. Moreover, I often found that the standard rock candy was slightly larger than I prefer.
Hershey’s new Jolly Rancher Rocks product seems to solve these problems. The candy comes in a plastic container with a locking lid (a fairly high-quality container, I might add), and the candies themselves are small, fairly brittle rock candy spherules, around 5mm in diameter, in the standard Jolly Rancher flavours. This repackaging of the standard Jolly Rancher rock candy works quite well, allowing one to mix and match flavours and enjoy as much or as little as one would like. And the locking lid makes it easy to eat the candies a little at a time.
So, in the end, I give the new product a thumbs up. In fact, given my choice, I think I’d favour the rocks over the standard rock candy format we’re so familiar with.
The Deck is Done!
Well, sort of. There’s still plenty of work to do, like installing railings, stairs, evening out edges, installing facia, and other such things, but the bulk of the work (framing and decking) is complete!
Now, it’s been a while since my last update, and some people are really interested in seeing some pictures. So, I thought it about time to post a few shots of my work. First off, I have a couple photos showing the completed framing:
As you can see, it turned out pretty well (thought not perfect… the right-most joist on the upper deck isn’t quite square with the rest of the frame). Truth be told, I think framing was the most enjoyable part. It’s not terribly tedious, but it really gives you a feel for what the final outcome is going to be like.
Speaking of which, second, I have a couple shots of the completed deck. The first is an attempted overhead panorama. Unfortunately, the image is a bit warped, but it gives you a decent look at the final product:
And lastly, an elevation shot, showing the deck in profile against the house:
Not too bad, eh? Again, there are a few warts that I, having built the thing, are probably more likely to notice, and only one semi-major thing: it appears the lower deck shifted forward a bit during construction, and so the front beam and posts are leaning forward slightly:
I suspect this is minor, so I’m not terribly worried about it, but worst case I can unscrew the joists, lift the deck (which isn’t has hard as you’d think), push the beam back, and rescrew.
So there you have it! ‘course, now we need to find a way to actually use the 250+ square feet of deck we now have…
Garden Update
This is a bit of a belated entry, but hey… better belated than never, eh? Well, I suppose that depends on the content of the entry…
Anyway, last weekend I decided to ignore the fact that it’s so late in the season and planted a garden anyway! After which we had near-monsoon weather, but… so it goes… hopefully my seeds don’t drown. The end result is depicted below:
As you can see, I’ve planted a few crops:
- Romaine Lettuce
- Corn
- Parsley
- Peas
- Dill
- Carrots
The idea was that, hopefully, these crops all can be started late (with the exception of the corn… that’s mostly an experiment). So, in three months, hopefully we’ll have some fresh veggies for the bunnies! Oh, and a few carrots and peas for us.
