In a "High"

When I woke up yesterday morning, the car of the billets was not in the driveway. I was terribly nervous as I opened the first guest room door, but I did and no one was there. Turns out, they’d gone onstage earlier than expected Sunday night so they went home to Victoria that night. So holiday Monday began really well; I was thrilled to not have billets to host.

I went on the dog walk and then happily applied myself to filling the remaining cracks in the pathway. I was so happy to have the day with no only Fred, Sheba and Ethel—and my fabulous Mulligatawny soup. Yum!

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Science is my religion.

First I read about finding a cure for Ebola. That was mere weeks ago. Then I read about the discovery of a Kelp plant that stops cattle from producing methane gas when mixed into their food (in very modest quantities). These news items boosted my hope for our future. 

Yesterday morning, I read this:

According to UNICEF, over a million people die from Malaria each year and more so in areas which are more prone to the disease. But researchers have found that a new molecule called TCMDC-135051 that has the ability to target the lifecycle of Plasmodium falciparum—the Mosquito species that causes malaria.

The results of a study, published this August 30th in Science, pave the way for the development of a new drug against the disease that has 200,000 new cases and kills nearly half a million people worldwide annually. One of the obstacles to eradicating malaria today is that the parasite has acquired resistance to existing drugs.

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Why did I do so well and have so much fun at Di's party Sunday night? Why didn't I stutter at all?

It’s because, I reckon, that I felt great. I’d been to Di’s before and I knew several people. But more than that is my sense that everyone there being old, like me, made for a marvelous evening of brotherhood amongst a bunch of seniors who can hear the clock ticking. None of us are trying to impress any more, and there’s no flirting and such either. 

I’m in a great space right now. I have months-long ‘highs’ and ‘lows;’ ‘highs’ being times when speech comes easily and seizures are rare and ‘lows’ being the opposite. And I’m a couple of weeks into a ‘high’ after a summer-long ‘low’ brought on, I reckon, by my excitement and anticipation of Steve’s visit and all the other socializing of the summer.

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I cleaned the last of the lumber yesterday so today’s project will be staining of the last of the lumber if there’s more wood preservative in the local store. Otherwise, I’ll likely lie the tarpaulin down and order the soil I need for the seeding. I can clear the weeds that have grown where I cleared the land, and start spreading soil. I’ll leave the seeding until the rain arrives.