This morning I had a trip back to St. Louis Lambert International, this time in the 340. I didn't hear my alarm, for reasons I'll explain at the end, where I sound like a nut. This time I woke up a little bit but not enough to want to pick up my phone and see what time it was, until eventually I figured I must be close to my alarm going off, so I looked. I was supposed to get up at 7 am and leave the house at 7:45 am. When I pulled up my phone and looked at the time, it was 7:37 am. I leaped out of that bed like I was on fire. I didn't have time for a shower, so fortunately I hadn't done anything yesterday that left me grungy. My biggest problem was my hair looking like I slept on it, which of course I had. lol I left the house at 7:50 and drove like a demon, making it exactly on time, ten minutes faster than you should be able to arrive there. ;)
The trip was fine and easy. Strong winds so I stayed low on the way there, IFR, shot an ILS approach in, and that was only interesting because they told me to keep my speed up to 180 kts then 170 knots until advised otherwise. Except they didn't tell me I could slow down, and my gear down speed is 137 knots. I had to start going down on the ILS gear up, flaps up, faster than shit. No speed brakes on this 340, and no beta like the turboprops, so going down and slowing down at the same time are a problem. Also not supposed to just pull the engines closed on a turbocharged engine, but I had no choice that time. I made it, and all the way on short final I kept thinking "Gear gear gear gear gear gear gear" because I couldn't put it down until fairly short final and stuff out of the ordinary like that (I ALWAYS put the gear down at the FAF and follow the glideslope down there) is how people do gear up landings, especially at busy airfields with lots of distractions and talking and stuff. But that was it, the rest of the flight and day was uneventful.
My guys were only gone an hour and a half. I topped off with fuel to waive their $250 landing fee, and barely had time to catch up on a few things before the guys were back. An easy hour flight home, an hour drive back to Kokomo, stopped at Panera to pick up their poppyseed chicken salad that I like, and home by 2 pm! Get paid for the day, and it's an easy one, that makes it a win/win.
So here's where I sound like a coo-coo. I have been having some health things that had been bothering me. Aside from my annoying waking up too early sleep thing, I've been fatigued almost all the time. Napping in the morning or the afternoon if I have trips instead of going somewhere. Wiped out by mid-afternoon. My headaches have increased by a lot, went from maybe 1-2 days a month to 5 or 6. I'm stiff and sore a lot. My legs were weak, a lot of times I would need to use my arms to push off on the desk to stand up. I don't jump up or down off the T-6 because it hurts. Getting down on the floor and back up was a problem. My mind felt a little foggy a lot, I wasn't concentrating as well, just fuzzy. I just felt tired and murky and low energy most of the time. Like I suddenly just got old or something. I had done research on inflammation, took some supplements to help with that, but it didn't seem to. I figured I'd better do something about it soon, because I have been healthy from a blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. standpoint, but I felt like I was a disorder waiting to happen, something wasn't right.
Okay. Back to the nuts thing. I saw an article about EMF exposure. I read it, had heard of it before, didn't really pay much attention to it. A few nights later, I got to thinking about it. I wear the Apple watch 23 out of 24 hours in a day. I wear it all night, it wakes me up in the morning, I charge it when I shower, I wear it all day. It puts out as much signal as a regular cellphone, which studies have shown over the years that you should not stick up against your head for long periods of time, or tuck into your bra if you're a woman who carries it there, etc. I sit with my laptop on my lap almost every evening, for hours. I have a cellphone on me all the time. I have my iPad on me a lot. But that Apple watch, it has wireless and 5G as well, and it is tight, right on the skin of your wrist, constantly. I thought...nah. I did some more research. There is actually a lot of data out there on this stuff. Even the conservative medical folks who don't think there's much merit to it admit that there are negative effects to too much exposure.
Symptoms of prolonged EMF exposure: fatigue, headache, mood swings, cardiac issues, asthma, digestive issues, impaired memory, insomnia, infertility, sleep disturbances, depression and depressive symptoms, lack of concentration, changes in memory, dizziness, irritability, restlessness and anxiety, nausea. Long term, it's a Class 2B carcinogen. I have many of those things. Of course most of those things can also be caused by a bunch of other things. Sleep depravation, hormone changes now that I'm 52, years of a bad diet, maybe a little bit of all the above. So here's the rub. I did a test. For two days I didn't wear the Apple Watch. I put my cellphone on airplane mode while I was sleeping with it next to my head, and I used the desktop rather than sit with the laptop on me. This morning I didn't wake up at 5 am. I didn't wake up feeling foggy and draggy. It's 8:30 pm and I've been awake and alert all day, haven't even had the slightest desire to rest or nap. My mind is clear. I could get up and down out of the desktop chair without having to use my arms. I even jumped up and down in my living room, and got down on my knees, and I could do it without pain. Is it in my head? I kind of doubt it, I did not expect anything so I didn't really even pay attention until today when I looked back on it. But it's possible enough to make me feel like an idiot conspiracy theorist. But seriously. I feel so much better today than I did two days ago. I'm going to continue the experiment a bit. See what happens over a week or two, see if the stiffness or fatigue or whatever comes back, if it's just a cyclical coincidence, or what. I'm not going to wear a tin foil hat or avoid all wifi, but I can lower the exposure some, not wear the watch all night for example, keep the computers off my lap for hours at a time, etc. See if it helps, what it does. I'll let you know. Is it old age? Or did that really have a cumulative negative effect over at least a year or two straight of maximum exposure like that? I hope it's as easy as that.
St. Louis International
The only prop on the field, I think. lol
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