From about 1am onward I was up every hour coughing and rolling over, but finally drifted off. At 9am I got up and felt a little woozy again, so I checked temperature out of curiosity. I didn't feel warm but my mouth seemed hot.
102.2. Well, crap.
A plane was scheduled to leave, with me on it, at 2:40pm. Under 6 hours. I'd purchased flight protection and started initiating a claim.
At 10am I called the clinic again and a nurse scheduled an 11am appointment. Driving to the clinic I already felt better outside in the sun... it was my first time outside in several days. The nurse, Carmen, was friendly and efficient, and the Dr (Lundgren), was sweet. Since the fever came later, he deduced that it was a bacterial infection. With an antibiotic prescription in hand, I was ok to fly as long as I felt up to it. Great!
It was noon. I dashed to the pharmacy and was told it would take 20 minutes.
Down to the wire.
I'd not planned to go to the doctor in the morning or be exhausted all week, so all the packing time had drifted away while I slept and coughed, but I zipped home, packed and stopped back at the pharmacy on the way to the airport.
I could not find my tripod... an essential for aurora shooting. Oh well.
It looked like I was an hour early when we pulled up to curbside check-in, but by the time I made it to the security line a lot of time had passed and it was somehow magically 2pm... 40 minutes to take off and I still needed get through that line. Oy.
I was not the last person on the plane, but it was close. They were calling final boarding.
Thus began 10 hours of travel... with bronchitis.
Three or so hours later I was in Seattle, with a three hour layover ahead. The flight was fairly comfortable, though my ears didn't pop on the way down. Miraculously, they quietly diffused after landing. It wasn't painful, just mildly uncomfortable.
Here's a view from within the Seattle-Tacoma airport, where I spent 3 hours:
The final leg of the trip was tough. Three and a half hours felt long. A lot of people were sniffling, so I didn't feel so bad about being one of them. The fellow next to me had been flying all day--came from Boston--and had four beers. I might've joined him but all my energy was focused on my current condition and the anticipated arrival.
We landed at local time 9:35pm, ten minutes ahead of schedule... 12:35am my time. Tired and not feeling well, but, happy to be in Alaska with Bobb. My left ear didn't cooperate with the second landing, though, and was still at 30,000 feet until Saturday morning.
Gear: Nikon D90, Nikkor AFD 50mm f/1.4
Resource Development Analysis. Zero-Based Budget. Variance. Financial Management. Estimating Expenditure Growth versus revenue loss. Blah.
A blurred vision of the letter, full of love and well wishes
The absence and presence of light may have equalized today, but, aside from a nice belated family birthday dinner for my dad, I spent most of the light and dark hours going through new assignments (a new class begins Monday, which resulted in a slew of readings assigned via email... yesterday) and updating a few other personal housekeeping items. But, I was longing to:
Sunday the 14th was a long day of traveling, so, since I was often in pursuit of good soup during vacation, this image rounds out the week. We ate out a lot, but made this cream of celery soup on Saturday night. The image in the cookbook looks greener, but we used some dang good sherry. Mmmm.
Su Su was aloof on the first day, but cuddled up quickly.
Molly is a sweetie but also quite possibly the neediest dog I've ever met.
Bobb's self-portrait. Well done, Bobb.
We spent seven hours playing cards and other games on Friday night. On the way home I spotted a soft green aurora tint low in the northeastern sky. It wasn't as spectacular as what he or I have seen before, but a double band was visible and the northern lights are always fascinating to observe. When we got back, Bobb pulled out his new camera and tripod to try a few shots from in front of the house.
We ate and drank our way through town (although I was really more interested in the food). This image was taken at Silver Gulch brewery, where they serve great onion rings. Wolf Run was my favorite restaurant; eight dollars will buy you a cup of homemade soup and a beautiful salad or sandwich. Bobb was all about the reuben.
Often, I don't mind when an image is a bit soft. In this case, it works with the color and subject, which was a curious little heart charm tacked over the exterior of his kitchen window.
I believe this is fireweed.
The bathroom. I did use it a few times that week, and it wasn't as bad as one might believe an outhouse to be at 0 degrees, Fahrenheit.
Jet lag had me up a few hours earlier than normal, so just after sunrise I took out my camera, along with Molly, the black lab we were watching.
This is the first image I took in Fairbanks, shot through the living room window where we were house sitting. The temps were hovering around zero, which was a bit warmer than the downtown area since we were up in the hills. The trees were particularly dense and curiously bent.
