Friday, February 1, 2013

1 February 2013 The winter was so hard and cold; froze ten feet ‘neath the ground



Cassi Creek:  Awake at 0600.  The dim pre-dawn light and the muffled quiet of the outside world tell me that the NWS forecast for snow was on target.  I like the suppressed sound levels that result from snow are somehow peaceful.  
          We have no place we have to be today.  The deck and steps have a layer of frozen sleet beneath the half-inch snow layer.  This is not the greased glass frozen rain from last snow, but the evidence of a slower transition from one form of frozen precipitation to another.  I scraped off what I could and put down de-icer.  Lesson learned, as long as the de-icer lasts.  
          While I was out with Loki to get the paper, it was still spitting snow.  When I took her out later she had fun running and sniffing, but the snow had stopped.  After I coaxed her back to the deck, I brought in a load of firewood.  The fire from last night died out about 0600.  I had hoped it would have lasted another hour of so but no such luck.  The wood we bought for this winter is oak.  Burns hot but hard to get it started. 
          We’re doing laundry today.  The current temperature is 22 °F and that represents a 20 °F drop from the day’s high, which was recorded at 0138.  This is the sort of day that demonstrates the real benefits of modern laundry appliances.  I’ve hung clothing in freezing weather.  Not often, and not happily, but once is all it takes to learn that lesson, too. 
          I’m still waiting on VA to decide that I officially have Parkinson’s disease.  My chart says “atypical Parkinsonism” but my medication says “for Parkinsonism.”  The medication seems to be working at some level.  The tremors decrease in frequency, intensity, and amplitude as I ingest the day’s multiple doses of Levo & Carba Dopa.  By morning, my hands shake so intensely that I find it hard to count out meds.  As the day’s intake is metabolized and utilized, I notice a return to the random twitching that manifests in random jerking motions of my legs.  It makes it hard to sleep.  I would very much like to have that problem solved. 
          Still, the sun is shining, the wind is abating slowly, and I have sufficient happiness in my life to make the day a good day.  Although it is Friday, it feels very much like Saturday.  The Dire Wolf is occupied elsewhere; Fenario, perhaps.
Shabbat Shalom!

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