luciferian_chick

I went somewhere on the 4th that I've been meaning to go to for a long time: Multnomah Falls. Of course, I then got sick two days later and because of that, being tired when I got home, and ADHD, I am only just now getting around to posting here about it.

I took a bunch of photos while I was there. It's not a place I can go often, because there's a special bus that has a stop there, and it costs $10 to get there, and another $10 to get back into the Portland metro area. Though there are other interesting-looking hiking places to go further on that route, and it'd be the same $20 round trip.

I had this planned route where I was gonna go to the top of the falls and then continue on to this other waterfall. But I failed to take into account the elevation. GaiaGPS told me what the elevation was, and I just ignored it. I got only a fourth of the way through the planned route before I got too scared and went back. I mean, it was a steep climb, but I've done steeper, and this path was paved so it was a lot easier than it would've been if it had just been gravel or dirt. But past a certain point, they stopped having safety railings, and the potential fall kept getting more and more gnarly looking. Then I turned a corner, found the worst offender, saw the path was getting pretty crumbly looking, and went from "I can do this" to "NOPE" in 0.4 seconds, and immediately turned around and went back. The bridge was scary, as it's narrow and full of people, and made of stone or concrete, not sure which. And I had to go over it twice. I only managed it by reminding myself that the thing was built in 1901 or something like that, and it was still pretty good looking. No obvious problems or repairs, that sort of thing. Oh, and staring straight ahead and dissociating from the knowledge that I was inches from falling to my death.

Apart from pictures, I have a couple souvenirs I bought at the gift shop. One of those safety whistle things, where if you get lost you can call for help with it. It's on my keychain. And also I got a hoodie with the words "Multnomah Falls" on the front, for $20. Which is a pretty cheap price for a hoodie. My other hoodie, with an image of Medusa on it, was like $35 or $40 from Amazon, a year or two ago.

Among the photos are a few screenshots of the GaiaGPS app. Two of them show the track of where I went at Multnomah Falls, and the third has my stats for that hike. And then there's a couple selfies. The rest are mostly photos of the falls, the surrounding mountains, and a few other interesting bits. One of them is a photo of the inside of the bus. But here's the basic stats for that hike:

Ascent 203(-228) ft
Average speed 1.1 MPH
Average moving speed 1.4 MPH
Max speed 3.4 MPH
Distance 0.94 miles
Max elevation 291 feet
Min elevation 60 feet
Moving time: 40:02

Because I had chickened out so early, and because of how long I had spent at the bottom and at the gift shop before heading up there, I missed the next bus and had to wait two hours for the next one back. Which I spent mostly being bored and listening to music, because by then I was too tired to try even part of the trail again, and the only other trail I could find in the area was also steep and annoying, so I gave up on that one pretty quickly.

Have the photos (in basically the order they were taken):

( Photos under the cut. They are clickable thumbnails. )

Well, I managed to finish the brackets for the chapter I intend to work on, as much as can be done (I leave a few matches to be determined during my actual writing.) But I am tired at the moment after having lunch.

A bunch of the matches got decided by dice rolls, though, as they weren't very important. What I do is I take two D6 (the kind of dice that most people are aware of), one of which is orange and the other is white. One student gets the orange die and the other student gets the white one, and I roll both at the same time, and whichever number is higher wins the duel.

Anyway, next time I should be able to start actually writing, now that the prep work is done.

This current tournament is a home game for Fae Springs, the first one since book 2. Book two's tournament was against Salem School. This one is against Shawnee Mountains school, which they had a tournament in the previous book against them, at the other school. There's important character reasons for this, but I also didn't want to repeat the setting for it. Hence Fae Springs getting a home game.

Went to WinCo today for a few things -- decongestant, chicken drumsticks, juice, and old fashioned egg noodles.

I am very glad that I don't get ill with colds or other contagious stuff anymore, this last week being an exception. Because when it does happen, the illness hangs around for fucking forever. I'm mostly back to normal now, but occasionally still coughing and with a little congestion.

At some point in the over-a-decade since I've gotten ill with a cold, the OTC drug companies seem to have stopped making decongestants that do not contain a pain reliever. Which is wild, because I remember when decongestants with added pain relievers were new and controversial.

Okay, there is in fact one exception to that, from what I've seen: I ended up getting the Mucinex knockoff (same drug, store brand), which is okay because I'm mostly still dealing with potential chest congestion (I don't feel anything odd in there, but I keep hawking up phlegm, which is very telling). Though I was reluctant to get it because the last time I had a cold, Mucinex didn't exist yet.¹ Also the last time I had a cold, the most common decongestant, pseudoephedrine, was not yet basically a controlled substance because I didn't even hear the word "meth" until years after the last cold I had, and I lived in Iowa at the time; Iowa has been the meth capitol of the US since I was in high school. I may be autistic, but it was impossible to live in Iowa back then and not hear about meth at least a dozen times a day. So yeah; last time I needed pseudoephedrine, you could still buy a few dozen boxes of the stuff without anyone batting an eye about it. Now, reading all the backs of these decongestant meds, I didn't recognize a single fucking name, and there were like 30 different brands. Thirty different brands and the only one that didn't have some kind or other of pain reliever in it was the Mucinex knockoff. Also, I couldn't even find pseudoephedrine on any of them. Has it been banned entirely?

Fun fact: Guaifenesin [gwy-FEH-nih-seen] -- the drug in Mucinex and its knockoffs -- is derived from an Indigenous American remedy, the guaiac tree, which is a plant in a "caltrop" family. Interesting irony there, given that caltrop seeds are like living LEGO bricks with sharp spikes.

On another note, I am slow cooking some chicken, to have chicken noodle soup for the first time all week. Closest I've had to chicken noodle soup this last week was Soon Veggie ramen with some hamburger added to it. Soon Veggie ramen is basically like the Shin Ramyun stuff, but a lot milder. Still spicy, but the half dozen times I've had it, I did not have any diarrhea, so that's good.

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In other news, my old little grocery cart that I got years ago at Goodwill for $10 finally broke its leg and had to be put down. (Seriously, one of its legs broke off, and now it barely resembles a cart anymore.) Brooke (kengr) bought me a new grocery cart because she has Amazon Prime and I don't, and also I'll be paying her back when I get enough money to do so. (The old one is now a laundry hamper.) It was very easy to assemble, needing no tools at all -- not even included tools. Just push some buttons down and snap things (wheels and the front axle) in place, everything else was already done; it was so easy that I figured it out in two minutes after having completely missed the fact it had instructions included. It only took that long because it took me a minute to realize that the plastic caps on the back axle needed to be taken off first. And it came with an included waterproof liner that fits perfectly and is indeed waterproof (it was raining a lot today on my trip to WinCo), though it does slip off if I leave it on when I fold the cart up. My only complaints about it so far: it moves around on the bus so it has to be held still, which is something I haven't been used to in a long time because my Goodwill cart didn't have any wheels on the front, so it didn't move much when it was on all fours. It was bought used, and was $10, and it lasted at least two years, possibly longer; I don't remember how long ago I bought it.

The only other minor annoyance is that I can't figure out what the manufacturer meant the extra storage basket in the back of it to be meant for, because it's too small for me to put my Gaia bag in there, and the spaces between the slats are so big that most things I put in that rear basket immediately fall out. If it had slats going the other direction as well, it would be more useful. As it is, I'm gonna have to find a bag of some kind that will fit in there. I tried putting my little handbasket that I found in a Free Pile once in there, but it wouldn't fit.

Favorite thing: the waterproof liner thing, its lid Velcros shut so readily that if I didn't know better, I'd swear it was a magnetic clasp instead. In fact, I'm not actually convinced there aren't also magnets inside the Velcro bits.

Anyway, out of words for now.

( PS )

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1 = Hell, I'm fairly certain that the last time I had a cold, Google didn't exist yet.

Dunno if it's the anti-cold herbal tea I had or the spicy noodles, but both nostils are open again at the same time, and my chest is a lot less congested.

Now to try to get more sleep finally.