Sunday’s was the latest in a string of frigid nights. Sometime during the night, fog rolled over the area. Fog-enshrouded trees and shrubs, standing in below-zero Fahrenheit air, emerged in the morning’s light bearing beautiful white coats. I was happy I had a camera tucked away in my coat pocket when out on an errand. It was beauty not to be missed, and a pleasure to share.
Returning to work today at least one coworker was certain I had the flu >>the Swine Flu, no less<< and not a severe cold as I've been saying. So I Googled –symptoms cold vs. flu– and got very helpful results. I wanted to reinforce my knowledge, not refute the coworker who no doubt by now has burned the chair I was sitting on in her office. I'll list only two of those excellent, succinct sources:
Work, itself? I've been chasing down weird computer issues all morning. Could they have the same thing I had? At least they all have been inoculated with a strong anti-virus!
As the day progressed today (Thursday) I've begun to feel more like my healthier self. I'm still taking a cough suppressant/decongestant to relieve some cold symptoms: except for a little sniffle and the occasional clear cough, my outward symptoms are gone. No fever, no chills, and energy levels are coming back up. I'm feeling stronger and have more stamina. I'll be going in to work tomorrow.
After watching a 2005 Biography Channel program about the Dalai Lama today, I've also been reminded I've been increasingly off-center in my life recently, mainly thanks to work. Sometimes we lose track of how we should live even when we think we're trying to do the right thing. Enough said, here.
I received word this evening that my first of two ordered copies of the Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade has been shipped to me via Amazon. I was actually hoping to have received it today –release day– so that I could mess with upgrading my notebook computer over the weekend. I doubt I'll get it before Monday and I'll be too busy next week to install. Oh well, sometimes the anticipation is more enjoyable than the activity… er, yes, in more things than this!
Oh yes, it's good to feel well again… or to be headed in that direction!
Above: Another photo from my Tuesday evening shoot along the West Branch of Rocky River… the Frostville Village Church.
Yesterday (Wednesday) I stayed home from work. My cold had interrupted my sleep and drained my energy to the point where I couldn't do anything at all constructive even around the house. I just sat and napped all day. Sounds nice and restful but, well, it was a cold and I was fairly miserable. Oh, and it was one of those gorgeous fall days, too, wasted on me.
Stayed home today, too. Though much improved over yesterday, I still felt a little weak in the knees and had occasional coughs. If I feel up to it I may work on some photos later today or tonight but I can't count on that.
Today's a cloudy but golden autumn day. The wind is kicking up and swirling the leaves around. From the couch I can hear the weather changing.
I feel like such a wuss being decked by a little thing like a cold but there you are. Now, for lunch and another dose of aspirin!
It was a cold but beautiful day. As I left the house a little after dawn, the temperature was -1.7 degrees (F). The sky was an amazing shade of blue with the horizon showing pink all around. The fresh, fluffy snow sparkled. It was quiet. I packed my commuter items in the car but before leaving, brought out the camera I carry daily: my trusty Fuji FinePix S7000. In the cold, still air I did my best to capture some of the unusual color and dawning beauty of the day. The trees here all had tufts of snowy fluff on their branches.
The slightest movement or breath of wind caused the snow to collapse into a cloud and drift to the ground — I knew the scene would not last for long.
She Who Must Be Obeyed had suggested I shoot a couple more images of the piles of snow and ice that surround our house. One photo includes my car and shows it right next to a plow-piled mountain of snow easily larger than the Honda.
Up in the bare branches of the tree in our front yard may be seen dark dots –one of them red– which are birds assembling for their turn at the feeder. It is usual for us to see sparrows, blue jays, cardinals (the red dot), black-capped chickadees, gold finches, house finches, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers… they were all represented today.
The sky stayed mostly clear all day and it was refreshing to see the sun and not worry about how much more snow we would face in our travels.
This evening I stood on the indoor landing between our first and second floors admiring a beautiful sunset through the window. A jet trail illuminated against the dark sky inspired me to grab the camera again. I captured the trail and the sunset sky. Then I turned the camera to the southwest, still through the window. Any time, in recent weeks, when we have been blessed by clear evening skies, the planet Venus has shown like a brilliant diamond high above the horizon. There it was tonight.
It's only a few pixels in the digital image but there that diamond is, set against a deep blue velvet sky, floating over a beautiful pink sunset. The day ended as it had begun. It was cold but beautiful.
It has been very cold here, of late. Not so bad as some parts of the country but when the weekend's nighttime low temperature is zero (F) and the wind is racing at >30 MPH, it's C-O-L-D. The electric heat pump can't keep up so we've had to resort to space heaters to keep the chill off. Running the oven for holiday baking also helped. At night Tasha has returned to sleeping on my pillow, next to or wrapped around my head; the arrangement is mutually beneficial to the feline and me. We did some running around by car on Sunday, chiefly because the clouds parted for the day and we wanted to be out and at least see the outside world, if not walk about in it very much.
When She Who Must Be Obeyed saw the "Ice Globe" photo in this blog (below) she said it should be our Christmas card this year. Hearing and obeying (most of the time) is my primary job. So, Sunday night I uploaded the high-resolution image file to Dodd Camera –an area photographic institution– and picked up the prints Monday evening on my way home from the office. Last night, as She toiled mightily at holiday preparations in the kitchen, I worked at assembling the cards:
On the way in to the job, I stopped at the Post Office and bought stamps, applied them in the lobby, and immediately mailed the cards. Andy in Japan: You're included. Despite all that, most will likely be received the day after Christmas. Still, I like to think of these cards as a sort of gift unto themselves and hate to skip a year. Late receipt is better than not at all.
My usual choice for digital picture printing was Cord Camera in North Olmsted. Not too far from my office, that store was also Cord's Cleveland area "super store." I discovered, to my dismay, that I couldn't upload for printing at North Olmsted because that store had been closed! Cord's Web site blamed the slow economy for the store's closure and, as I explored their site, I noted several other of their stores were also shuttered. Too bad they couldn't have held on at least though the holiday shopping season — the Dodd shopping center store was very busy when I visited to pick up my pix. I'll miss the Cord store in North Olmsted; it was well stocked with all kinds of gear and the photo printing service had some very nice features and good quality output. Dodd's upload system was quick but didn't offer online cropping. The folks at the store, however, were very helpful and, over the phone, honored my request for cropping on my card picture to fit best on a 4 X 6 format. I'm sure we'll see more changes due to the screwed-up economy but you just hate to see your favorite places and services disappear.
The Karmic Disease Vector — that's what I called it. I was poking fun at my sister's bemoaning of a severe cold she was suffering as she wrote words to the effect, "where did I go wrong, what did I do to deserve this suffering?" I allowed as to how it was, of course, her fault that she was sick. I also stated that, should anyone around her become ill, that would be on her back as well! (Of course it was all a round-about way of saying, "silly girl… it's not your fault and how could you think that?") Then, to help allay any concerns that I actually meant to be mean, I said I'd better show a little more compassion as my callous attitude would earn me suffering of my own through the "KDV" or Karmic Disease Vector. Guess what happened next. Though my sibling and I had no physical contact when she was sick –in fact, were separated by great distance– within about 48 hours I took ill with a severe head cold. It kept me couch-ridden one whole day and away from the office (and any other activity) for two full days! I think I'd better write a medical paper or a self-help book. And no, it can't be coincidence because, er, well KDV is just to keen a concept. Note: There may also exist KVD… but I don't want to even contemplate that!
I did manage to recover enough to greet the AT&T service guy Friday (March 28). Our TV service through U-verse was grinding to a halt, giving us images that would "stutter" then "freeze." Trouble was quickly traced to a bad "residential gateway" (the AT&T-provided site router) which they replaced. We're once again happily able to bathe our minds in great floods of video opiate. We never noticed any interruption in Internet access… probably successful and smooth video delivery required a lot more uninterrupted bandwidth than Web surfing and file uploads/downloads; the bad gateway just didn't have enough throughput to "git 'er done!"
PhotonStopper 