Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

Saturday, January 22, 2011

What's New & Mysterious




Well, it's been quite a week. Thanks for all the concern and kind thoughts for my daughter. She is still coughing, still miserable, but otherwise healthy, except for bloating and mood swings from steroids. We are at a very mysterious and perplexing place with the diagnosis. After scoping her throat, the ENT doc determined the cough to be neurogenic, also known as laryngeal spasm and vocal cord dysfunction. Google mania also determined this to be post viral laryngeal neuropathy. In short, she is stuck. Doc said he's seeing more of this, particularly in young patients. More google-fu reveals it is most often seen in young, athletic, intelligent, previously asthmatic or allergic reaction, near onset of menses females. Bingo.

That's the good news. They know what it is. The not so good news is the treatment is anti-depressents usually given for neuropathy, and I'm not going there yet, or speech therapy for breathing control. We see the speech therapist on Tuesday, and by then, she will have coughed nonstop for 20 days. Usually, it is an intermittent thing, like recurring hiccups, but she has always been an overachiever.

She just woke up and I hear her coughing and I promised homemade, healthy waffles. Just wanted to share what I know and say thanks again, for the hints, the help and the kindness. Especially to Michelle, for offering her love and expertise and helping to guide me through this maze, and keep the panic at bay. Yes, the universe is abundant. And mysterious.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks, the world outside my door. My little camera is refusing to focus lately, and the batteries won't hold a charge, so like my brain, the images are a little fuzzy. But they tell a story anyway.
























Stay warm and well out there.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Very Sparkly....

Saturday morning I awoke to a sunny 22 degrees, which felt pleasant after the latest artic blast. A light breeze floated sparkling snowflakes to the ground through the morning sunshine.
Amazing. Enchanting. Magical. Joyful.


Click on any photo to enlarge and see the detail.

With the help of this Snowflake Chart I know that the temperature was about 15 degrees when the snow fell. I was eager to catch any of it with the camera, and ran around outside with the dog in my slippers and bathrobe. I don't even care who sees me anymore, honestly. Of course, the dog was oblivious to the magic snowflakes, he just wanted to play.



Sunday, January 17, 2010

Winter Magic

Saturday's frost was amazing:


Sunday's frost was even better:






The inadequacy of my camera to catch the magic of this frosty morning frustrates me to no end. I've never seen anything like it. I'm going back outside to marvel at it while it lasts. On days like this, I forget that I hate winter.

Friday, December 4, 2009

First Snow and Happy December



My Back Yard in Winter, 2008

December came on as quickly as the flu, little warning, then Bam! Winter, cold, wind and a dusting of perfect snowflakes. I have a midwesterner's love/hate relationship with snow. It is lovely, it protects my plants, but after a few months, it just gets depressing and annoying to negotiate. Muddy pawprints, muddy boots prints, yukky slush glomping off the car making salt puddles in the garage. Illinois winters are not the winters of my childhood. I grew up in Brigadoon, on a spit of land buffeted from both time and temperature by the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, marshy, sandy land filled with sassafras, cypress trees, mountain laurel and holly berries. I am a foreigner here, these winters and wind chills still shock me, though I came in the summer of 1984, when Mary Lou Retton scored her perfect 10's and won Olympic gold. My first 40 below wind chill was a rude awakening, and I've been complaining and commenting ever since. I am an old dog. And complaining is one of my best tricks.

But not today. It's 20 degrees blowing cold north air, flurries sparkle in the clear moonlight night, and winter is just getting started. It's going to slap us around a time or two, show us the meaning of snowfall, windchill and blizzard. Those who can't handle it are welcome to move south and those who stay, and seek diversion, need look no farther than the amazing snowflake. One of my favorite creations, outside of giant moths and lovely chickens and smiling babies. And flowers. And ice cream. But I digress.

Snowflakes. Up close, thanks to the scanning electron microscope and a few crazed scientists, especially Kenneth Libbrecht, from Caltech. Amazing doesn't begin to describe what the eye can see. Look:



This is not my first geeky post on the amazing snowflake. I could write for hours about Snowflake Bentley, the man who first trudged a camera into the cold to photograph snowflakes. He died from pneumonia after walking home in a winter storm, and never made a cent from his amazing photographs:


If you've the time and curiosity, I have a more in depth blog about this on my nerd page, my sanity saving 35 degree below Zero Diversions. If you have the time or the curiosity, enjoy the many links and videos, including vintage Suzy Snowflake! Happy December. Let the games begin!