1. As I write this entry this morning, on November 9th, today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day when the bacterial meningitis I contracted began to aggressively assert itself. I ran a skyrocketing fever, had an unbearable sore throat, walked around the house disoriented, and was starting to be jaundiced. Debbie correctly determined earlier that morning that I was too sick to leave alone at home and she canceled her day of work. Late in the morning, at Eugene's Sacred Heart hospital, medical pros treated me first in the Emergency Room at Sacred Heart and then, for three nights (I think) in Intensive Care.
They saved my life.
I think I was hospitalized for another 7-10 days, but I don't remember precisely.
One aspect of that illness and my recovery connects closely to the victims of the Tokyo subway system sarin gas attack whom Haruk Murakami interviewed in his book Underground.
Work ethic.
Like so many of the victims in Tokyo, I felt compelled to return to work as soon as possible.
I returned to the classroom, working a full teaching schedule, when the winter quarter commenced early in January.
I taught classes both during the day and at night.
I ignored, or worked in spite of, headaches, depression, and fatigue.
The first two weeks of the quarter, I came home on Friday and slept the entire weekend, waking up only to eat, and then returned to work on Monday.
At the time, I thought this titanic effort I made to push myself to act as if I were recovered and things were normal was admirable, but I now think doing this was harmful and set back my recovery. It was another year or so before the headaches and fatigue subsided and the depression continued for many years.
2. Today I opened the bedroom curtains for some natural light and took a handful of pictures of Copper. Unlike so many cats whose pictures I see daily, Copper is not a humorous cat, nor is Copper an interfering cat. Therefore, as a subject for my pictures, Copper is either lying down or sitting up, almost always on my bed. He strikes poses, but he's not into what's commonly called "cuteness overload".
Copper is handsome. He's serious. I don't know if cats can be said to have a lot on their minds, but Copper often looks like he has a lot on his mind.
Every since I learned from the transplant team that I didn't need to stay away from Copper, ever since we resumed spending a lot of time together in the room where we sleep, and ever since the gate went up between the living room and the short hallway connecting our house's two ground floor bedrooms and the bedroom doors are always open, as long as a human is in the house, Copper has been the most contented he's ever been since moving into our house nearly three years ago.
As contented as he is, Copper doesn't plant himself on my chest, climb into my lap, or initiate much contact with me at all. If I lie on my back under the bed covers, he will press himself against my lower legs, but that's it.
He does, however, welcome it and purrs mightily when I pet him, rest my hand on his back or underside, or if I scratch him under the chin or behind his ears.
He likes me to initiate physical contact, but rarely initiates it himself.
I'll put a few of the pictures I took today at the end of this post.
3. I bought a package of small tri tip steaks a while back and thawed two of the steaks today. Suddenly, I had an idea! Debbie and I enjoy a ginger beef entree at Wah Hing, so I thought I'd try to cook up a similar dish -- not replicate Wah Hing's effort, but approximate it.
So, it was time for some no recipe cooking with the wok.
I sliced a white onion, chopped up some cauliflower, sliced half a red pepper, and cut the two small, narrow steaks into small chunks.
After heating up oil in the walk, I got the vegetables cooking first, pushed them up the inside wall of the wok, and then cooked the beef. I'd covered the steak chunks with red pepper flakes to give the dish heat and I put a generous squeeze of minced ginger out of a bottle on the meat. Once the meat was nearly cooked through, I added a handful or so of sliced mushrooms, combined all the ingredient together in the wok's well, and, once the basmati rice I'd started cooking earlier was done, mixed the rice into the ginger beef and vegetables.
I liked the ginger beef dish I made a lot and so did Debbie. It was fun knowing it wasn't
as great as Wah Hing's dish, but, at the same time, really delicious.
Here are three of the pictures of the handsome, apparently deep thinking, Copper:
