Many wonderful, mountain biking-related opportunities occurred this past weekend:

• National Trails Day;
• High Country Pathway ride and camping trip;
• Hanson Hills CPS race.

I did not participate in any of these events. It’s really quite sad.

I’ve participated in National Trails Day activities since I began doing trail work in 2007. I was absent, this past weekend. I was supposed to go to the High Country Pathway ride and possibly show up at Hanson Hills to cheer on some friends. Again, I was absent. Why?

Well.

I’ve been sick. I started out with general crabbiness on Monday and Tuesday. I don’t know if that is related to my illness, but it really isn’t far-fetched. I was still feeling out of sorts. Wednesday, I began having some very mild symptoms, and those symptoms convinced me that I was coming down with something on Thursday. Friday, the symptoms worsened, and I told my friend, Jon, that I would not be joining him, Ali, Glen, and Brad on the HCP ride.

Saturday took the cake – at least it did at the time. I woke up and slowly walked into the family room at a snail’s pace. I had no energy and I felt like death warmed over…at least I thought so; then Sunday happened. It was a repeat of Saturday, only I felt worse that morning.

Monday, I felt a little better, which is a good thing. You see, I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. so I could shower and take my mom to her doctor’s appointment at Michigan State because I know the campus. I hopped in the shower and was only too happy to get cleaned up, because I was pretty sure I had the stale funk of a typical hospital patient by Monday morning.

After I finished sudsing up and putting conditioner in my hair, I grabbed the shower hose to rinse off. At the commencement of operation rinse-off, I suddenly felt a whoosh of light-headedness combined with that whooshing sound one hears when passing out becomes a great possibility.

I rinsed as fast as I could, and hastily got out of the shower, grabbed my towel, and half-wrapped it around my body as I ran to my room. I sprawled the towel out on the floor and laid on it while propping my feet on the dresser. I was pretty sure that passing out was a reality, but I managed to escape that fate. Instead, I lay there listening to the somewhat-alarming whooshing sound, wishing it would go away. It subsided after a couple of minutes, but I still heard a little whoosh and had a little of that odd feeling for the next couple of hours.

When it was time to go, I told mom she had to drive. Yup – I banned myself from driving for the day.

I’m still sick, today. I certainly have more energy. In fact, I was able to write this post, which was something I was completely unable to do, this weekend. I still have a cough, I still feel sick, and I feel fluid in my right ear. It sucks.

The bad news is that I think I might have to decline Jon’s demand, as per our Friday phone call, to show up at this coming weekend’s Addison Oaks camping trip. We’ll see.

That’s my sob story, and I’m sticking to it.