Le Sigh...
*pokes at shoulders gingerly*
You know, I think I do this once every summer: I forget the sunscreen on one seemingly inoccuous occassion and come back crispy-to-well-done. And each time it involves either a long-ish walk during midday when the sun is at its hottest, or a casual cruise with the top down as I run errands.
This year? I managed to nail both, minus the walking.
Yes. I went somewhere with the top down at midday. And it wasn't the shortest of jaunts, either. *headdesk*
See, it all started with a phone call, just shortly after I was settling in for some laptop time after doing my requisite reading as per my laptopditch project. It was from Shawn, who - as many of you probably know - is the general purveyor of all of my indulgent woes. This time, however, he can only claim responsibility for taking proactive steps in matters that I am not exactly well-versed in. (Read: Something went down at the store between several employees, and things needed to be delivered to the DL ASAP.)
But yes. Phone call. "I may need you to make a run out to Brampton," says he. "Swing by and I'll have a definite answer for you."
So, I gear up, not exactly thinking straight, outside of "Holy crap, Brampton? How the hell am I gonna do that without hitting a highway? Well, I have the 'Stang, so I'm gonna have to go top-down because frakkin hell, I ain't driving in this heat with it up!"
Yes, I totally missed the "Perhaps I should put sunscreen on on the off-chance that I do need to make this trip..." thought.
So, I go to the store and Shawn fills me in: the Brampton Regional Office has no fax machines. They're down. The store that we were asked to fax to instead, had no toner for their fax machine. I need to drive all the way out there and drop off the documents.
*sighs*
So I call them, find out where the hell they are, and between Shawn and I, figure out the best route to go.
The entire trip, though incredibly long and in zones where the speed limit is 80 klicks on not-highway-roads, was pleasant enough. I had my Rush CDs playing and the sun was delightfuly warm. I over-shoot the store due to being in the wrong lane at the wrong time and unable to get over to make my turn, so I take the time to drive a little further down before turning around, just to see how far out in the sticks I really was (total time before I lost signs of civilization and hit farmlands: 5 minutes).
I marked all the streets I crossed with familiar names in my head so I could look at a map when I got home to see how they all meandered up that way. I was surprised at a few of them, not so surprised at others. A couple had me going "Oh, really? Huh. I wonder how far down the area I'm familiar with is...s'gotta be pretty dang far, all things considered..."
So, I make it to the store, I drop off my package and then I jump back in and head back. As I'm driving, I get to the first of those streets that fell into that final category ("how far does this one go, holy crap!") and I see a sign. A sign that has me blinking and making two abrupt lane changes so I can turn down the street and verify its words: 'International Center: 1000m"
1000m?! Are you kidding me with that??? There was no possible way that was true, because that particular location is actually not very far from my house, and thus, my store.
Sure enough, as I drive down this new street, I see another sign: "International Center: 2.5 Km" And sure enough, several seconds later (I was doing 80 in a 60, sue me), there it was. The first interesection I recognized as a familiar, old friend from my youth, when we used to go to the Hobby Show at the International Center.
Well fuck me. The route that I had originallytaken to get to the Brampton store was the long way. The. Long. Way.
It was at this particular intersection that I began to notice that the delightful warmth of the sun was no longer delightful nor warm, but stingy and burny. It took me another six intersections to hit the beginning of a red light so I could put the top down (once more setting my own personal record for changing roof-modes, I'm sure).
All in all, my totaly travel time to the Brampton store was about 45 minutes. My total travel time to my home store was about 25.
Remarkably, my shoulders didn't hurt, and I didn't have any issues sleeping last night, as I like to lay on my side, all scrunched up. There's a couple of places on my skin which I suspect are itty bitty heat blisters, but as I can't recall if they're new to my shoulders or not, I can't be certain, and they don't hurt or bug me or anything.
I only had a bit of stinging today, after shrugging my shoulders for whatever reason, but so long as I don't do too much to make the skin bunch up, I'm actually quite comfortable. And my skin is warm to the touch, not burning, and it's gettng a little cooler with each passing hour.
But yes. I do this at least once every summer, but once is enough. You can bet I won't be forgetting the sunscreen again this year, that's for damn sure.
And yes, this is further proof that I don't tan. I burn. Crispy.
...Ow.
You know, I think I do this once every summer: I forget the sunscreen on one seemingly inoccuous occassion and come back crispy-to-well-done. And each time it involves either a long-ish walk during midday when the sun is at its hottest, or a casual cruise with the top down as I run errands.
This year? I managed to nail both, minus the walking.
Yes. I went somewhere with the top down at midday. And it wasn't the shortest of jaunts, either. *headdesk*
See, it all started with a phone call, just shortly after I was settling in for some laptop time after doing my requisite reading as per my laptopditch project. It was from Shawn, who - as many of you probably know - is the general purveyor of all of my indulgent woes. This time, however, he can only claim responsibility for taking proactive steps in matters that I am not exactly well-versed in. (Read: Something went down at the store between several employees, and things needed to be delivered to the DL ASAP.)
But yes. Phone call. "I may need you to make a run out to Brampton," says he. "Swing by and I'll have a definite answer for you."
So, I gear up, not exactly thinking straight, outside of "Holy crap, Brampton? How the hell am I gonna do that without hitting a highway? Well, I have the 'Stang, so I'm gonna have to go top-down because frakkin hell, I ain't driving in this heat with it up!"
Yes, I totally missed the "Perhaps I should put sunscreen on on the off-chance that I do need to make this trip..." thought.
So, I go to the store and Shawn fills me in: the Brampton Regional Office has no fax machines. They're down. The store that we were asked to fax to instead, had no toner for their fax machine. I need to drive all the way out there and drop off the documents.
*sighs*
So I call them, find out where the hell they are, and between Shawn and I, figure out the best route to go.
The entire trip, though incredibly long and in zones where the speed limit is 80 klicks on not-highway-roads, was pleasant enough. I had my Rush CDs playing and the sun was delightfuly warm. I over-shoot the store due to being in the wrong lane at the wrong time and unable to get over to make my turn, so I take the time to drive a little further down before turning around, just to see how far out in the sticks I really was (total time before I lost signs of civilization and hit farmlands: 5 minutes).
I marked all the streets I crossed with familiar names in my head so I could look at a map when I got home to see how they all meandered up that way. I was surprised at a few of them, not so surprised at others. A couple had me going "Oh, really? Huh. I wonder how far down the area I'm familiar with is...s'gotta be pretty dang far, all things considered..."
So, I make it to the store, I drop off my package and then I jump back in and head back. As I'm driving, I get to the first of those streets that fell into that final category ("how far does this one go, holy crap!") and I see a sign. A sign that has me blinking and making two abrupt lane changes so I can turn down the street and verify its words: 'International Center: 1000m"
1000m?! Are you kidding me with that??? There was no possible way that was true, because that particular location is actually not very far from my house, and thus, my store.
Sure enough, as I drive down this new street, I see another sign: "International Center: 2.5 Km" And sure enough, several seconds later (I was doing 80 in a 60, sue me), there it was. The first interesection I recognized as a familiar, old friend from my youth, when we used to go to the Hobby Show at the International Center.
Well fuck me. The route that I had originallytaken to get to the Brampton store was the long way. The. Long. Way.
It was at this particular intersection that I began to notice that the delightful warmth of the sun was no longer delightful nor warm, but stingy and burny. It took me another six intersections to hit the beginning of a red light so I could put the top down (once more setting my own personal record for changing roof-modes, I'm sure).
All in all, my totaly travel time to the Brampton store was about 45 minutes. My total travel time to my home store was about 25.
Remarkably, my shoulders didn't hurt, and I didn't have any issues sleeping last night, as I like to lay on my side, all scrunched up. There's a couple of places on my skin which I suspect are itty bitty heat blisters, but as I can't recall if they're new to my shoulders or not, I can't be certain, and they don't hurt or bug me or anything.
I only had a bit of stinging today, after shrugging my shoulders for whatever reason, but so long as I don't do too much to make the skin bunch up, I'm actually quite comfortable. And my skin is warm to the touch, not burning, and it's gettng a little cooler with each passing hour.
But yes. I do this at least once every summer, but once is enough. You can bet I won't be forgetting the sunscreen again this year, that's for damn sure.
And yes, this is further proof that I don't tan. I burn. Crispy.
...Ow.