The Nose
I can't imagine - don't want to imagine - how it feels to have big chunks of plastic shoved up your nose filling up the entire space so that you need to breathe through your mouth but your throat is in red, raw agony from the trach tube shoved down it a week ago and every breath you take hurts like hell...
...So when Tom's blowing and snorting and getting up and down wakes me every hour or so, all night long, I remember how miserable he must feel right now. I don't even think of complaining.
(Well, there was that one night when I went, sssshhhhhh....)
(But that was just one time, one night, and other than that, I've been really sympathetic. Really.)
Poor Tom.
The stents come out tomorrow - hallelujah!! We're both looking forward to getting some sleep this weekend.
The Lens
Tom bought some special glue a week or so ago, intending to glue that broken piece back onto my injured lens. He had stored the teensy, tiny black piece of plastic between the lens and the lens cap. Somehow, sometime between the breaking and the intended fixing, the piece disappeared.
I thought that was it - no hope of using that lens ever again. So I got creative with my zoom and discovered I could actually do a lot with it. I would just make do with it until (way, way off in the distant future) we could afford a new mid-range lens.
But guess what? It turns out you can order a whole new mounting piece - that's the part that chipped upon impact with the concrete floor. (If you don't know that heartbreaking, I mean, lensbreaking story, click HERE.)
Tom placed the order two days ago, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed the lens arrives before the weekend, when I'll be reconnecting with lots and lots of faces from my past. If it doesn't, I'll just make due with the zoom again.
One thing's for sure, ... either way, I'll be snapping lots of photos!
Early Morning
During the week, I head out to walk the dogs as soon as it's light enough to see my feet. That way, I time it just right to catch something like this...
And this is really how it looked one morning this week, too - no color saturation or playing with tones, light, shadows or anything.
It almost makes it worth getting up that early... almost.
(I posted several more "Fire in the Sky" shots on Confessions last night. If you want to see them, click HERE.)
When I have time to read...
I started reading a new book last week. Well, it's actually an old book, and I've read it two or three times already, but you know what I mean.
I'm not sure why I started it - I'm already in the middle of a handful of nonfiction and fiction books, including Cold Mountain, which I just can't seem to get into, despite loving the movie. I'm just plodding along through it, not eager at all to read the next page. And I have stacks - no, boxes - of books I've collected with the very real intention of reading them someday. Just a week or so ago, TG and I hit the book sale room at our local library and I left with 15 books ($1 a piece, and the funds go to Friends of the Library - how could I resist?)
Anyway, it was pure impulse that made me search my bookshelves for C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy - "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", "That Hideous Strength" - and dive head-first into volume one.
The first time I read them, I was dubious. I didn't think I cared for science fiction. (I have no idea why I thought that - I saw "Star Wars" 5 or 6 times the first week it was out in 1977! This was only a few years later!)
But Paula, a woman I worked with at the chemical plant, could not believe I'd never read them. She insisted I give them a chance, loaned me her copies, and assured me I would love them.
She was right.
I eventually found my own well-worn copies in a Goodwill or at a garage sale or somewhere, and even convinced one of my kids to read them, despite the cheesy '60's style paperback artwork. And he liked them, too. When he saw my nose in Out of the Silent Planet this weekend, he told me he wants to read them again when I'm finished.
But anyway, what I wanted to say is, I recommend these books ... even if you don't think you like science fiction or fantasy, I think these are worth reading. They're really very thought-provoking - the kind of book that sticks in your brain for years.
If you try them, let me know what you think.
Besides C.S. Lewis, I read some wonderful blog posts this week. Two stood out enough that I want to mention them here, even though they are by bloggers I wasn't familiar with until now. If you have a few minutes, I recommend reading these, too.
The first I came across on BlogHer - "The Red Underwear: Gifts and Giving". Every woman should read this one.
(I mean it. Do it. Now. You'll thank me.)
The second is one of the most beautiful posts I've ever read: The Gift, by Bossy Betty. I think both men and women will be touched by this one.
I was directed to it by Hilary at The Smitten Image. I don't know how she does it, but every week she scours the blog world for the best posts and photographs, and lists them for the rest of us on her Wednesday Posts of the Week feature. I still haven't even had time to read all that she listed this week. But thank you, Hilary!
A Good Quote
I came across this one today, and it took me by surprise, in that weird way like when you feel someone has read your mind, because I had been thinking of all the books I've read in my life, and how even the ones I didn't care for had affected me in some way, and gee, can't that apply to the places I've been and the people I've met as well?
Thomas Wolfe said it much better than I did just now, though:
I am a part of all that I have touched and all that has touched me.
And that includes you. Happy Thursday!
