View From the Bushes

I think I may have sunburned my eyes... "You can't sunburn your eyes!" you might be saying, but as a matter of fact, you can. Since it was my first time on the bike, I forgot some things; the big thing I forgot was my sunglasses. My normal glasses had UV protection at some point, but I think that it wore away long ago. Yesterday my eyes itched like crazy. I was constantly trying to stop rubbing them or close them and get some tear action going. It seemed to get worse throughout the day, or when I was exposed to really bright light. I finally went to bed early because it was bothering me so much.

I actually was pretty surprised because it doesn't even look like I got that much sun anywhere else. You would expect that in order for your eyes to get sunburned you would have to get really badly sunburned elsewhere. Of course, all of the reminds me of the worst sunburn I ever received. It was the summer after my first year in college, and I went water-skiing. I was sick of being a pasty-faced geek and so I decided to spend the entire day "tanning," with the exception of some baby oil I don't think I had anything even remotely resembling sunscreen. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I can only point to years of abuse at the hands of bronzed, muscled jocks for my foolishness. Needless to say, I was a lobster. I couldn't sleep for three days because of the pain. The first night I spent throwing up because I had caused so much damage to my body. My guess is that if I ever get skin cancer it will be in part due to that one fateful day.

My plan is to bike in tomorrow. One thing I will definitely not forget are my sunglasses. I'm still a little sore, but I'm hoping that I'll notice some kind improvement in the time it takes me to get here. I think I'll feel better if I do a better job of warming up and cooling down, though both are difficult. The first because I start out on a flat and I want to get a good head of speed right off the bat and the second because my work is right at the top of a hill so it's difficult to keep the intensity low... In any case, I'm sure you'll hear how it went tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross