Another Grey Morning...

 

Yesterday wasn't fun.  It was grey, wet & chilly.  I felt like crap a lot of the day.  The sudden dip into the 40s after being the 80s just days before was too much for me.   I was achy & a little queasy.

I slept with an afghan over my bedspread.  I need to finish all the Winter prepping.   Mostly it's dealing with windows & getting blankets ready. 

My computer still won't deal with the last Windows update.  This update seems to be have caused a lot of people grief.  Way to go Microsoft, make 2020 even worse.  Were you jealous Apple was getting all the hate after hoarding away Charlie Brown?

I wish I had better things to post or at least an articles to discuss.  I don't have either of those this morning.  I think I'll end this for now & just watch the redbirds outside my window.

Cya...

Grey Morning WIth Pops Of Red...

This morning was a drizzlefest of  grey skies & damp air.  I was fortunate enough to see a display of several bursts of scarlet flitting from branches to fence posts to the ground.  A local set of cardinals  must of had a brood with a lot males.  

They're bright red, but not the big, so they're still young.  They're playing king of the mountain & not seriously fighting, maybe they're familiar with each other.  Redbirds can get very territorial. For now, the fussing is comradery.  Right now, they also need the buddy system to find enough food & not wind up food themselves.

I know there are realistic reasons for this stunning display, but I don't want to hear them right now.  I just want to think for a moment these little guys get to be social, maybe even happy.   I know it won't last, but for now, it's really pretty great.  It's like having little, vermilion swashbucklers in my yard, charging & parrying.  

I think I'll just watch the show.

Cya....

Hello February...

Hello February, I hope you're less stressful than January.   I'm really beginning to wonder if that's possible.  It seems like every month has decided to match or surpass the prior month on agita.  All this constant irritation & stress has left me with the realization, this is probably all there is or will be.    Still I hope this month might be a little better.  

The warm weather is turning back to seasonal chilliness.  We'll have a least a few more nights below freezing.  Unless another weather pattern warms them up as well.  I didn't get the dead grass I wanted or the dead bugs.   I saw the little purple flowery tops of clover in the backyard today.  Normally, I think it's pretty, but it's the 1st day of February.  Die already.   At least there's a cardinal playing in the crepe myrtle.

I found this article   It's about LASER-ART or long-acting slow effective release antiretroviral therapy.  It's not about changing the HIV meds, but how they're introduced into the body.  This is the method they're hoping to use for long lasting injections.  Instead of having meds ingested daily or more often, they'd be administered every few weeks or even larger intervals, perhaps months.  This could be a serious game changer for regimen adherence.  I'll keep a look out on this topic.

Take care & try to find some happy thoughts.

Cya...

1st Of The Season...

There are things I look for throughout the year.  Like, the tiny, blue flowers our yard gets in early Spring.  They always seem happy & make me smile.  Cardinals are another 1 of those things.  I know they're around all year long, but I really associate them with the coming of Winter.  We're on the down hill run of Autumn, only a month more & then it's gone for the year.  

I saw my 1st redbird of the season today right outside my window sitting on a naked, crepe myrtle branch.   Not counting today, there are only 5 more Thursdays in 2013.   There's a week until Thanksgiving, a few weeks until the end of the Fall Semester, 33 days until Christmas & 40 days left in the year.  This is what the little bird told me.

We've readied ourselves for Winter.  The doors & windows are closed.  The blankets were brought down from the shelves.  The heater's were cleaned.  This little red fellow just told  me, we were right on time.

I'll trade in the allergies for dry air, the swelter for shivers & leaves for naked branches.  Winter may have it's downsides, but there's a lot of good in it as well.  Besides the holidays, there's the bug & grass die-off.  I really appreciate that part.  I have to do my best to look at the good things here.  It's too easy too focus on the bad stuff & that would just stress me out.  I really don't need that.

Here's looking forward to the next little redbird.

Cya...

He's back...

Outside our window is a gathering of bare tree limbs, standing stark against the winter sky.  All is muted, miserable & grey except for one small blip of red.  My roommate & I call him the Schindler's List Bird.  He's a quite a little blaze of color during this time of the year.  Through the year we have many birds that visit; tit-mice, finch, jays, hummingbirds & those horrible mockingbirds, but none are as prominent in the sky as the little cardinal.

Some legends say he used to be a little brown bird that got his color for helping wolf.  Others believe him a sign of renewal or piece.  When I see his scarlet body shoot across the grey sky diving between leaf-bare branches everything feels a little better, a little less dreary.  If the drab sky is some sort of grim canvas, then the redbird is a vigorous exclamation of , " I am here!"

People often look to God(s), the heavens or countless other harbingers for a sign.  Signs are around us all the time, if you just open your eyes.  Mr. Red here is a sign, a portent that things will be better, that spring is near & for now we have his beauty with which to be dazzled.

Get out there & watch him as his as they race through the winter skies.  Be joyful, grateful & maybe think about tossing out some bird feed (Consider it the cover charge for a great show).  Let the little red guys move your heart & who knows what will come out of it.  Maybe something like this...

or this...