Monterey Trip Part II

Posted Tue Mar 2, 2010 in Travel

After struggling through the drive to Monterey, I was looking forward to making my presentation and meeting new folks interested in hydrologic and hydraulic modeling. Wife and I rose not-too-early and went to breakfast at a neat little place on Lighthouse Drive called “Toastie’s”. After breakfast we drove to Asilomar to check out the area. As I drove onto the site about 1145, I noticed my friend Pete standing in the lot talking to someone. I pulled along side and introduced him to Wife. He was preparing to meet someone for lunch, so I grabbed my kit (still needing to work just a little on my talk), kissed Wife, and gave her directions back to the hotel.

I went to lunch with a few folks I knew, after buying a lunch ticket. They fed us some kind of nasty chicken and mushroom thing with a scoop of really starchy rice. I picked at my food so I’d have something to work on, but it really was not very good. I don’t know if all their meals are like that, but I’ve had better at a schoolhouse cafeteria! I wasn’t feeling well, anyway.

They headed back and I stopped in the registration/social area to tweak my talk and make a PDF to use. That only took a couple of minutes, then I headed for the Farr Center. I listened to a few talks and worked in my head on my own. At the mid-afternoon break, I greeted my moderator and we got things set up. It didn’t take much. I really like PDFs better for presentations than anything else.

The next session started and went by pretty fast. My talk was OK — neither my best nor my worst. It was good enough. The presentation that followed mine was a glorified sales pitch for a proprietary hydraulic modeling software. I was astonished they let that happen. There was only a little technical content. Oh well…

I called Wife and asked her to pick me up. I was tired. I should have gone to supper with the group, but didn’t feel like it. Instead, we took Young Son to get some pizza then returned to the hotel. I crashed.

I woke Tuesday morning not feeling very well. But, I readied myself, took Wife to breakfast, and hit the facility. I listened to a couple of interesting presentations on modeling the delta and wished, once again, that I’d specialized in hydraulic modeling and wasn’t such a generalist. I really like working with hydraulic models and they are so much tidier than hydrologic models. After the talk, I returned to the hotel, not feeling well. I fell onto the bed and don’t remember much after that. I had a spiking fever — alternately roasting and chilling for the bunch of hours.

Finally, Wednesday morning Wife and I went to get a bite and I couldn’t each much. I needed to see a doctor because I knew I was getting a case of bronchitis. Most of the time, colds don’t stay in my head; they drop into my chest and that will keep me sick for weeks without help. But, finding a doctor on my insurance is damned-near impossible. Wife navigated the plethora of voice menus, becoming increasingly frustrated. I just felt sick and waited. Finally, we decided to hit one of the local clinics and just pay for the service. We’ll turn it in and at least get credit against our deductible.

Doctors on Duty turned out to be the place we picked. It is in downtown Pacific Grove. We arrived about 1145, got checked in, and I filled out the paperwork. I had to make a deposit to be seen. I guess that doesn’t really surprise me anymore. It was about 1315 when I was taken to a exam room and the technician took my history and vitals. My lung capacity was down about 30 percent. Doc Wilkens came in, listened to me, listened to my lungs, and looked in all the appropriate orifices. He was a medium-size man, very caucasian, with thinning gray hair and delicate hands.

“Are you allergic to penicillin?” he asked.

“Nope, not that I know of… I don’t do Biaxin though. I can’t stand the taste side effect.”

He grinned a wry grin and commented “Not tough enough?”

“Well, I thought I could fight my way through it. But, the longer I took the drug the worse the taste got. I finally decided it wasn’t worth it and gave up. Could I ask for an injection?”

“Yes. That will speed up the recovery process.” He finished working on his paperwork, gave me a prescription for amoxicillin to be taken orally with a heavy dose for the first three days and then a normal dose for the remainder of the treatment. “I’ll send in the porcupine.”

We hit the pharmacy (fortunately on our insurance plan) and returned to the hotel. I went back to bed. I just wanted to get better.