January 14, 2006

• under the weather

  UPDATED (below)

  Did you know that, “under the weather,” meaning ill or indisposed,
  originates from the same subculture as the phrase, “cold enough to
  freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” among the seafaring men of the
  age of tall ships?  I was unable to verify this with online
  dictionaries, but have it on good authority that “under the weather,”
  means belowdecks, presumably too ill from seasickness or a hangover to
  hoist a mainsail or belay anything.

  That “brass monkey” phrase, in case you missed my previous blog on the
  subject, refers to a perforated brass plate that was bolted to the deck
  beside the cannons.  Cannonballs fit into its round holes,
  allowing them to be stacked up in pyramidal formation until the plate,
  the brass monkey, contracted from excess cold and popped the balls
  off.  Around here right now, the cannonballs are rolling freely
  all over the decks.  To continue the  metaphor, I think that
  one of our cannons is loose, too.

  I have been medically advised to stay indoors during cold
  weather.  I follow that advice when there’s no compelling reason
  to go out.  I don’t enjoy getting cold except when I’m taking a
  break from a sauna.  I willingly dart out for brief forays into
  the frigid air occasionally to capture some exceptional light, to
  snatch up the stupid kitten Bobo when he’s too cold to remember to come
  inside, to grab the steel bowl of ice to thaw it on the woodstove or to
  put the warmed water back out for the feral cats.  Other than
  that, it usually takes an emergency (or important prior commitment) to
  get me out of here at twenty below zero or colder.

  Greyfox was having a personal emergency yesterday.  He worked
  himself into a frenzy over the gun show he is doing this weekend. 
  Two weeks ago he ordered some new stock including blow guns he hoped to
  sell at this show.  Every day for a week or more, he has called to
  find out if there was a pick-up notice in the mail.  He used to
  phone the post office to ask them if he had any parcels in, but they
  now refuse to jump and fetch for him.  Doug and I don’t check our
  mail every day in such weather, except when Greyfox is expecting
  something.

  Doug had been going out each day as soon as he awoke.  His
  schedule now has him going down in the morning and getting up after
  dark.  He had checked Thursday’s mail, but Greyfox was desperate
  to know yesterday whether he could pick up his new merchandise before
  the post office closed for the day.  Doug was asleep, so I walked
  to the mailbox about three blocks away.  Koji was desperate (as
  usual) to check his pmail, so I took him with me.  I walked slowly
  by necessity.  I stopped about midway on the way out to catch my
  breath, took a break by the mailboxes (no pick-up notice) until my feet
  started to freeze and Koji started to whimper and pull toward
  home. 

  On the way back I needed two rest stops.  By the time I was back
  in the warmth here my legs were so rigid with muscle spasms that I
  couldn’t bend them enough to take off my mukluks for a couple of
  hours.  My diaphragm was sore from the effort of breathing and is
  still sore today.  Please understand, I’m not complaining, I’m
  just reporting.  I wouldn’t mention this crap at all except for
  the facts that this is reality, this is my journal, and there are
  others who read my blogs for whom these reports constitute a sort of
  support for their own challenges. 

  Someone recently naively suggested that I see if my doctor could give
  me something to “help” me sleep.  Allow me to forestall any
  similarly thoughtless advice by assuring you that I manage my pain and
  other aspects of my disability with as little “help” from drugs as
  feasible.  It’s a conscious choice I’ve made.  My medical
  providers frequently offer me symptomatic relief which could result in
  kidney failure or addiction, and I decline.  I’ve learned a few
  things in my lifetime.  One of them is a preference for small
  trouble now rather than big trouble later.

  Anyhow, to wrap up the story of Greyfox’s self-induced tizzy, he phoned
  last evening to vent, scream, bitch and moan about everything from the
  weather and this respiratory crud we all have to the cluttered
  condition of his cabin and his having to wear, “ugly, mismatched,”
  clothes this weekend because he hadn’t done his laundry.   I
  try, at such times, to convince him to calm down.  I remind him
  that stress isn’t what happens to us, but is our response to what
  happens.  I don’t want him to let that NPD tendency to exaggerate
  every ailment, failure or frustration escalate into a stroke, heart
  attack or destructive rage.  I suppose, if that is what he wants
  then I’ll just have to accept it.

  Meanwhile,
  I need to stay focused on feeding the fire frequently.  It’s a
  small stove and the high-tech thermostatically-controlled draft (a
  spring in there expands or contracts with the rise or fall of ambient
  temperature) makes it burn a lot of wood when it is this cold. 
  Just before Doug went to bed, he went out and split firewood, then came
  in and filled the woodbox (It’s that small rectangular thing at lower
  left.).  Then he went back out and brought in three more armloads
  of wood, saying, “There, that ought to last until I’m up again.”

  I took that picture then.  The stack isn’t that high any
  more.  I put some of it into the stove, and Koji and the cats have
  knocked some of it down so that it covers a lot more of the floor now.

  You may have heard about our volcano on national newscasts yesterday or
  today.  I  heard about it on All Things Considered last
  night.  The latest explosive eruption was just after midnight
  today.  NOAA and the National Weather Service have gotten into the
  act now, and there are more reports coming from them on the ash cloud
  than there are volcanic activity reports from AVO.  The winds are
  supposed to shift late Sunday, carrying the ash northward.  If
  that happens, we could be experiencing some ashfall.

  AVO takes about two days to get their latest pictures posted.  The first two below were taken on January 12.  The realtime webcams on Augustine Island and at Homer across Cook Inlet aren’t showing much now because of clouds/fog/ash.
  

  

  

  ADDENDUM:
  Is “forestall” too obscure a word?  Did I fail to make myself
  clear?  Have I not explained that I figure my body will go to
  sleep when it really needs to?

  After I saw what melatonin did to Greyfox, I knew that I’d made the
  right decision when I chose not to try it based simply on what I had
  read about it.  He has stopped using it, too.  The paragraph
  below uses the word, “include,” which means there are more.  I
  know of more, but these are quite enough for me.  Some of these
  things I have already as a result of my unbalanced biochemistry. 
  I don’t desire to make any of them any more severe, thank you very much.

  Adverse reactions associated with
  melatonin include stomach discomfort, morning grogginess, daytime
  “hangover,” feeling of a “heavy head,” depression, psychotic episodes
  (in combination with fluoxetine), headache, lethargy, fragmented
  disorientation, amnesia, inhibition of fertility, increased seizure
  activity, suppression of male sexual drive, hypothermia, retinal
  damage, gynecomastia and low sperm count. Typically, these reports are
  related to high doses. However, adverse effects have been reported and
  can occur with low doses as well.

  (Source:  PDRHealth.com )

  • 6:19 pm
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