DEC-B-2
THE LAST DAYS AT HOME OF 2003
FOLLOWING THE BMC PITTSFIELD TRIP AND
PRECEDING THE CHRISTMAS ROAD TRIP,
WITH THE SCHEDULED MEETINGS AS PLANNED
December 14—17, 2003
I am
bouncing around in the air, being thrown around by the
storm beneath us which I have just escaped—at least as far as it is in upstate New
York and western Massachusetts—for
now. I am overflying Washington
DC to take any form of flight that would
get me out of Albany earlier as it
appears that the heavy storm is predicted to continue until Monday night. I am not sure that the US Air flight that is
a smaller commuter plane coming up at the scheduled time of 4:45 PM can actually take off from DCA or land
at Albany, so I am getting a flight
to Charlotte, and then connecting
with one going north to DCA. We will see
if this latter connection is flying, but at least this one I am on is
flying—for now—through and over the storm.
We had a thorough shower of a greenish color fluid which is the de-icer
being sprayed all over the plane, and then took off. This is certainly an “All Weather” aircraft,
since the conditions we flew out in are those of a total white out. I will see later if I can make the further plans
to get into DCA, but I hope to be started off well by flying up, through, and
at some point I hope, over the storm.
It was an
eventful long weekend in Pittsfield,
with one episode that I am recalling now that may have residua. I am producing high volumes of thick
secretions from my sinuses which has been helped no doubt by the lesser
pressurization of the aircraft as we have climbed. I have not had such a thick sinusitis in a
long time. But it may have come from my
Saturday morning exercise, which I had tried despite the full knowledge of the
temperature outside. It dawned a clear
and bright day, but never got above 18* so that the snow and ice on the ground
remained hard frozen. Still, I had run
at previous visits in the Berkshires around Lake
Anota, and I had brought both the
warm-up suit as what I thought might be appropriate gear, and had light gloves
and a stocking cap in my down coat. So,
I packed up and tried to get out to run on Saturday before I would see Parvis
and Kay Sadighi who were going to take me around the TNC’s (The nature
Conservancy, for which she works part-time) projects in preservation of an
ecosystem here in the Berkshires, taking out a few dams and allowing animal
crossings by unbarriering some access.
I went to the buffet breakfast in the Crowne
Plaza and took off in the somewhat
light gear I had with me as a way to run down the roads around central Pittsfield
unimaginatively named North and West Streets.
I had got
started and had a searing pain in my lungs from the abrupt exposure to the
cold, but kept going. I actually did
warm up except for every appendage I had facing forward in the windchill. I
could not move my hands, and I could hardly feel anything in the anterior
thighs. I passed Gene Curletis’s house
on North, and kept going with the idea of running around the Lake
Anota, a route I had discovered on
one occasion before one of my International Night talks in preparation for the
Boston Marathon—a first run of the at-that-time Spring
before the spring marathon season. I
could not make it this time since I had such exposure to such biting cold that
I was losing sensation, and wanted to turn out of the oncoming wind. I made it back to the Crowner
Plaza, and stood in a warm shower
for a long time before the reversal of this freezing runner’s injuries. So, I got cooked up to the point that I could
go out with Parvis and Kay an hour later and see the ruins of old mills and the
places where they have stocked salmon fry in the Westfield Creek which goes to
the Connecticut River. It was
dangerously cold I believe the
secondary sinusitis I have now may be due to the fact that I had this exposure
on a recovering normal URI cold. I had
had a flu shot for the first time this year, with a later appreciation that
everyone is now having a run on the short supplies of this vaccine. I do not
have symptoms of the flu, and can actually talk as I have been all weekend as
visiting professor, with only a touch of laryngitis. But, it seems that repeated exposures after
the original exposure in the cold treestands of Maryland’s
hunting season had given a secondary perhaps bacterial overlay to the URI, so
that I have now got for the first time since I was in Lingshed eighteen months
ago, a purulent mucositis of the kind that gives thick discharges from the
sinuses. This is the kind of condition
for which I would (and have) prescribed antibiotics to others, but will hold
out myself on such an extra treatment to keep the resistance problem
minimized. Two people for whom I had
prescribed Ztihromax or Biaxin have had an immediate response to it, so I will
keep some of that with me as a backup if this should not resolve, or get worse
as I make my return up to the northern tier of New York, Chicago, and Michigan
in the road trip later this coming week,
THE NEXT BOUNCE:
CHARLOTTE TO DCA, FOR ARRIVAL IN SNOW AND FREEZING
RAIN
I am
reminded of last Christmas-time’s movie I had seen entitled “Frida” the artist
wife of Diego Rivera the Mexican muralist, since the Attaché magazine in the
USAir’s flights has a feature on her this month. I am watching the weather, which has replaced
Saddam Hussein as the lead story all along the way, since the early departure
of my flight jumping from Albany
probably prevented my being stranded there several more days. I am told on hits flight that it is just at
freezing in the capital so that the snow alternates with freezing rain. It is only a couple of days before I get back
into northern New York state again, so that I remain interested in the travel
conditions up there even though I just squeaked out this time, I will be back
by Bronco in which the “driving is up to me.”
It will be the start of Christmas
season of holidays when I pass through the midweek this week, since I have
several meetings before then that include an all-afternoon interview session at
the ELDP program in which they can decide whether I am in the doctoral
candidate groups and I can decide if that long effort is good for me as a
fit—it would entail at least another five years of doctoral level work and a
thesis, again, and I have more degrees than anyone should ever need for any
purpose—like getting a job. I am also
hosting a meeting with the Saudi Embassy and a good friend of mine there to
introduce them to the new Security advisor to the Provost on the Bioterrorism
issues and arrange some training and program support from READI, the GW program
of training for preparedness in the office of Homeland Security, particularly
on bioterrorism.
But, I have
no special urgency to get anything finished as I will have in February when
both the house should be approaching re-settling, and the Book on Healing and
Surgery in the Developing World arrives in galley proof. At that time I am also alleged to be heading
to Mindanao, which is probably not where I should be
when these other deadlines that will require my presence. There has also been an email sent to Edgar
Rodas regarding the possibility of the Ecuador
postponed mobile surgical clinics and I have not fielded any responses yet to
that. But, with my year-end letter in
the mail last week, and the plans mostly made for the holiday time travels and
rendezvous, much of the activity for the next week would relate to the start up
on the next year’s already dense schedule and its integration with the more
domestic plans that I should know more about in terms of house and householders..
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