Coping

I have been laid low with a persistent migraine for a week now. It responds to medication for a few hours and then slings itself back into force day after day, night after night.

I have not been able to be online, to take pictures, nor even to read, much of this time. I listen to a little soft music in a dark room. When the med kicks in, I get up, try to function, and the throbbing begins again. There is always nausea and a kind of wavery, puke-green glow around everything. That's why when this painter, working his way down from the top of my building, lowered his scaffolding to my fourth-floor window, I thought I might be hallucinating. His T-shirt is exactly the color of this migraine. But I am now convinced he is real.

About six months ago, Sue and I planned to leave early on the morning of August 31st for ten days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I've never been to either place, and I'm looking forward to this trip with joyous anticipation. We'll be staying in a cabin in Yellowstone, where there is no wifi; and we're in a hostel in the Grand Tetons where wifi is only sporadically available. So I will probably back-blip our vacation. I am hoping to make a full recovery from the migraine before we go, to take strange and wonderful pictures of whatever is NOT already on Flickr, and to keep notes.

When I am able, I've been reading blogs and Trip Advisor comments on Yellowstone and the Tetons, and one of the funniest I found was written by an old curmudgeon who was complaining about the rip-off "wake up to wildlife" bus tours of Yellowstone. He writes that the tour is a waste of good money and concludes, “If you can tell the differance (sic) between a bison and a great blue herring you already know everything you need to know.” I"m taking that to heart.