The Track on Base, and Allergy Test Results

Episode № 63 talks about the track at Little Rock AFB, and some upcoming blog posts. Plus results from my first allergy test!

Full transcript and show notes are on my show notes blog! ⚡️ LadyJupiterPodcast.wordpress.com ⚡️

Transcript

Episode № 63 The Track on Base, and Allergy Test Results

Welcome back everybody!
Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share. I’m happy that you’re here with me.

In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military (including something that I enjoy about our current duty station), then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with my most recent domestic diversion.

Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update.
Mister Jupiter has been busy, but mostly home on time all week. One nice thing about him being home and busy at work, is that he’s more likely to take his lunch to work versus eat out each afternoon. This is obviously good for the bank account, but it’s really great for our freezer. You see, our freezer is full of frozen meats and veggies, and I just bought a fundraiser cheesecake, so I need him home to help me eat our frozen meats to make way for treats.

Regarding local favorites, I want to mention the track and jogging path on Little Rock AFB. It’s Burger King adjacent (which I find both funny and typical of American Air Force Bases). It’s a normal track surrounded by a nice jogging path. The track has a playground, there’s a nearby pavilion, baseball or softball fields (if there’s a difference I don’t know what they are), and a skate park - all accessible from a one-way street with parking on both sides. As a bonus, this recreation area is practically in the center of the base, so I plan on using that long parking lot and central location for bike & sidecar loading and unloading when Kid Jupiter is ready for that. He’s still not too interested in the sidecar, and it’s also too cold for me to enjoy being outside, so we’ll try it again when it’s warmer.

Anyway. I like walking the track with Kid Jupiter. We’ll stroll for one lap, then climb on the playground before going home for lunch. Our last visit to the track was so perfect that I finally registered for a virtual 5K. I knew that I wouldn’t actually run it, but I planned on walking the five kilometers with Kid Jupiter over a few days - and that’s just what we did! Mister Jupiter joined us (also virtually, because we walk when he’s at work) and we just received our Will Run For Pizza finisher medals - yay! We haven’t ordered our prize pizza yet, because I’m waiting for Papa John’s heart-shaped pizzas. If you want to register for any silly virtual 5Ks, I have a referral link for you in the show notes!
📌 Virtual Run referral link

For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…I finally closed out my 21 in 2021 series - that silly challenge to do 21 things in one year. I’ll put a link in the show notes for you, but the short story is that I only completed thirteen point four things - more than half, and definitely more than zero.
📌 21 in 2021, 13.4 complete 📍- The End

It got me thinking about doing a 22 in 2022, but then I thought “wow, that’s almost two things a month - I would only meet that goal if I documented my pizza and beer!”

And so was born my Pizza & Beer Yearbook. It’s going to be a Public Note (there’s a category link in the show notes), and I’ll just update it for as long as I think it’s funny. I am kind of curious to see how many times I do have beer & pizza in a year, but I’m really excited to nominate different pizzas or pairings - like a yearbook. “Most likely to order again” “most likely to cause heartburn” and so on.
📌 Public Notes, all

Another reason that I wanted to share my pizzas and beer is because ordering pizza is the closest thing to eating out regularly that we’ve been able to do all pandemic. My Fish & Chip Rankings (link in the show notes) taught me that some dishes are best when eaten in the restaurant - but that’s hard when indoor dining is unavailable (or unsafe), and you’ve got a toddler in the mix. Pizza was meant to be delivered, and I’m here to show my appreciation of that fact.
📌 Fish & Chip Rankings

Otherwise I also updated Outfits of the Day Q1, to include an outfit that I didn’t really wear, but I just wanted to see how the short-alls fit (overall shorts that is). The new-to-me black and white checkerboard short-alls make my backside appear very wide, and I look forward to taking up a lot of visual space in warmer months because the pattern is distinctive and perfect for festivals…if festivals ever come back.
📌 Outfits of the Day :: Q1 2022

And now for my most recent domestic diversion I wanted to tell you about why last week’s episode was delayed. This isn’t some guilty confession or anything, I just wanted to share because I think it’s funny.

So time was a factor as usual; I could only maybe record once or twice over the week. But unlike other episodes I managed to record several takes…but deleted all but the last one. Why? Because I finally got an appointment with an allergist.

I’ve been taking daily cetirizine for years, but before this appointment they needed me to NOT take it for four days. Well - I’m a good test taker, so I stopped it for five days. I was SO congested that I couldn’t keep any recordings, they were awful. Last episode wasn’t the best, but it was manageable. By the time I could record that episode I was back on my daily antihistamine, but my sinuses were still clicking.

But I’m finally on the path for more consistent audio once I get all of my medications. I had my very first skin prick test where my back got to sample 56 different compounds and we could see what I was reacting to, and how severely I was responding. The good news is that I am not allergic to animals - no reaction to dogs, cats, rats, and more. Yay! The bad news is that I’m allergic to weeds, more allergic to trees, and very allergic to grass. My grass allergy was the worst and my skin needed some topical epinephrine to finally calm down. Do you know what Arkansas has a lot of? Weeds, trees, and grass. Luckily those things are only an issue about ten months of the year, so I can usually get a tiny break in the winter when all the plants are taking a nap.

So I’m back on daily antihistamines. But instead of one daily tablet, I’ve been prescribed two daily tablets, a spray to use most of the year, and a rescue inhaler for those beautiful picnic days when grass is trying to kill me. I’ve been prescribed various allergy medications from providers before, but this is the first specialist I’ve seen for this, and definitely my first test with definitive proof that I am allergic to nature.

Anyway - expect more weird health updates to come along this year…because this pandemic is showing me that what I thought was normal wasn’t actually normal at all…I’ll be writing about them in one blog post to publish later this year if I keep notes and remember this goal.

And a follow up from last episode - I’m still working on figuring out my perfect planner. The current iteration is printing and focusing on one month at a time.

Right now I’m printing a single iCal month on a sheet of paper, but the paper layout adjusted so the top half is the monthly calendar (populated with that month’s pre-determined events), and the bottom half is blank space - for notes, menu planning, and tasks to complete. This works because Mister Jupiter and I still have easy access to our shared Google Calendar, so we can both add and modify any event, and we are still planning things months in advance. Seeing the current month on paper is still good for my brain because I deal with the daily minutiae like getting Kid Jupiter out of the house regularly, and meal planning.

Finding utility in a single page like this makes me wonder if I need to retire my new A5 planner and just use a portfolio for unfolded sheets? Or maybe keep the planner and buy more pockets to place folded calendar print outs?

I prefer the utility of seeing one month on one page, but I love the size of A5 that Filofax made popular. In the end I only have time to look at my planner every other day for a few minutes. And I suspect that the organizational gurus who preach about morning journaling routines either don’t have toddlers in the house, they can do stuff like wake up at 5am, or they have early nannies maybe an au pair. I don’t wake easily, and a little person needs me; the last thing I need is an inanimate object demanding my attention too. No sir (or ma’am) my capacity is significantly less than others, but I can cook! I’m aware that my child will demand less of me in the mornings, and I might maybe learn to wake up early (after sleeping that is - It’s easier for me to pull an all nighter than it is for me to go to bed and sleep at a reasonable hour).

Regardless, my perfect planner needs to survive with my intermittent use. I’ll keep working with it and see what shakes out.

And that’s it for today’s episode.

Show notes and transcript are available online. Visit LadyJupiter.com/podcast - scroll down to the link for Episode № 63 The Track on Base, and Allergy Test Results
📌Ladyjupiter.com/Podcast

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I will talk to you when I can record next - bye for now!