Suffer for thy art

Today it snowed.  I took some video and still photos.  I had hoped to use my proper camera, but my batteries wouldn't charge.  I had to make do with my phone instead.





The still album is here: https://plus.google.com/photos/113675634811454381657/albums/5847474568604331889

The videos are on my YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Trizmat?feature=mhee

I suited up something fierce to go out in it, including enclosing my right foot in a plastic bag.  Why?  My boot sole is split from left to right at the ball of the foot, which causes moisture to leak through from the bottom up.

By the time I made it to the corner of the property, I was breathing heavily.  The only sound I could hear was my rattling breaths and the sizzle of snow falling on snow.  The roads were a mix of plowed over ruts and fresh snowfall.  I picked my way across, managing to dodge the ONLY car still moving.


Into the safety of the forest, where I stopped to catch my breath and take a few photos.  My breathing slowed a bit, and I headed off along the path below a canopy of trees and snow.  About 15 steps in, I came to the conclusion that I may not survive if I proceeded on.  I had just posted a photo of me all bundled up, and I had tempted fate by using the caption "I may be some time" -- a reference to British explorer Lawrence Oates, who famously uttered those words to the rest of his dying Arctic expedition.  He left the tent and was never found, an act of self-sacrifice by someone already ill to conserve limited resources for the others.

I did not want to die an ironic death!

So I trudged back up the hill (how could I forget the return journey would be uphill?) and my breathing became ever more labored.  By the time I made it back to my door, I was gasping and wheezing, genuinely concerned for how I sounded.  Safely back in the warmth, I dully stripped of my jacket, hat, scarf, sweatshirt, jeans, and socks.  I grabbed dry socks on the way to the comfort of my bed (fortunately, I was not so out of my wits to settle for mismatched socks, as I turned back around and grabbed two that matched).

Snuggled into bed, I gasped as my breath made a raw wind tunnel of my throat and mouth.  I felt my feet, which were warm and properly colored, tested the feeling of my fingers, and ascertained as much as I could before a headache drove me to close my eyes.

Quickly, my breathing returned to normal and I started to move around the house, now clad in pajama pants and a dry sweat shirt.  As consolation, a video I had uploaded early in the morning had been noticed by a producer for NBC Nightly News and they had left a message asking if they could use it.

So I could have stayed inside, after all!  Ha!  I did get another two videos and several more shots in the galleries above, and I'm glad (from the warmth of my chair) that I did it.  But I shan't go out again today, I shouldn't think.