orchid daze!

 i didn't get around to posting anything from atl bot gdn's orchid daze yesterday, but it was one of their best --- none of the 55 gal trash cans of orchids, or awful art associations ---

leap day: keeping us on time

always fine to see cousin patti, even if it requires a drive across town since i see parts of the city i don't see otherwise

and i think i can safely declare that the shingles experience is past --- about 3 weeks from start to finish --- ugh

midtown saturday

passed out drunk at 9 am --- sad way to start the day

but a 3+ mile loop with guinness, to ponce market and back by the  belt line this afternoon and thai food with robert salvaged the day nicely

another one scraped away, at 7th street and glendale terrace

the concrete frame and the city-champion dog wood out front are all that's left of grace methodist's sunday school building

10th and piedmont --- the automobile wins again

phalaenopsis!

they should be easy for me to grow, but for some reason they are not --- i get a few purty blossoms anyway, so i shan't complain too much

all i want is a good placebo

still feeling shingly, but the gabapentin (!) seems to be helping although makes me a little dizzy --- whatever, there was a good storm this morning and i got a lot done today toward plugging a hole in the tomitronics old-buildings page, including finishing as-built front and rear elevations and floor plans of the house on Sinclair that i started in the 1990s ---

and the helleborus is blooming ----

just deal with it

stupid shingle pain won't leave, but i started a new med yesterday that may do some good, if i can deal with the dizziness --- i sincerely hope that pain management is not going to be a permanent feature in my life ---

pain has an element of blank;
it cannot recollect
when it began, or if there were
a day when it was not.
  
it has no future but itself,
its infinite realms contain
its past, enlightened to perceive
new periods of pain.
                                     emily dickinson

the wilds of fayetteville

for the first time in a while i did a dog and pony show on peachtree road, this time for the fayette county historical society --- a crowd of people, but considering that i had written the date down in march and didn't discover the error until thursday, i think it was a good talk --- they seemed to like it anyway, which is kinda the point, and the damn shingles gave me a little break today

i wound it up with this view from my balcony, which encapsulates much of the history of midtown: a segment of the original peachtree road, one of the city's earliest landscaped street medians, two of the city's earlies apartment buildings, and one of the first a&p grocery stores, not to mention a fine 1958 branch of old fulton federal

another wonder of modern medicine

went to an optometrist for a second look at the recalcitrant eye --- he actually took the time to explain (and photograph) what the surgeon had done, since it would have fkn killed the surgeon if he had to stop and answer a question --- anyway, the eye is not perfect, but what is?

i had seen something of the lens just looking in the mirror, but i hadn't seen the little wire-like hooks on each side which hold the lens in place ---

as a friend just pointed out, in olden times, people would just have had to go blind

almost like spring

met cousin angela for an excellent morning on arabia mountain --- i mostly can fergit the shingles when i'm out and about ---  another walk with cousin susan at tanyard creek --- we got in our steps today, but i let the fitbit battery run down so i can't prove it

hmph

the doctor confirmed that i've got shingles, and that it may get worse before it gets better --- the pain is a drag but i guess the meds are helping --- the antiviral is supposed to reduce the duration of the thing ---

an outbreak is usually kicked off by some kind of stress --- the only stress i could think of was too much socializing week before last, which is purty funny if you think about it ---

oh, i also read that shingles doubles the risk of a stroke and heart attack

escapism

 i think i've got shingles --- hope to consult with my m.d. tomorrow --- in the meantime, i can almost forget the itching and pain after walking for awhile --- so we went to east palisades and devils racecourse shoals --- not a great trail in some places but a fantastic bamboo grove and spectacular rock along the way as the river breaks through the northeast-southwest trending upthrust of great slabs of rock, all leaning to the northwest ---

the oncidium alliance rules!

it just bloomed in the fall, now at it again --- long-lasting, too --- with its twin, i'll have these blossoms til summer

we are doomed

an anniversary

snow flurries and showers all day, but too windy to accumulate ---

and as i wrote a check today, i remembered that gary was killed 48 years ago --- i still think it was a waste --- it snowed big right after his funeral

intergalactic bead show!

like a flower show