colds, taking pictures, etc.

I've had a cold, and I'm a bad patient.  I'm a bad patient, not because I whine and complain much more than the next person, but because I have no patience for being sick.  I want to be able to go about my day as I normally would, and it infuriates me that some overactive mucus membranes are able to "ruin everything," like eating, sleeping, hearing soft voices, etc.  In my impatience with the common cold I've resorted to all sorts of home remedies over the past few days: tea with honey and lemon, apple cider

vinegar and honey in hot water (yuck), holding my head over a bowl of steamy water, gargling with salt water, gargling with peroxide (again: yuck) ... so far the most effective measure has been steaming my head.  I rely on the home remedies not because I've had a visitation from Mary Baker Eddy, but because unfortunately over-the-counter stuff really knocks me out - even the "day" versions.  Oh, well.

Today, I decided to actually get outside for a little while in an effort to drain my head.  My head didn't drain, but I'm still glad I went.  No snow ... no sleet... no hail... and above freezing!  In 2011, that seems extraordinary.

I took a few pictures while I was out (above)... which made me think about how much of taking nice pictures is just having a camera with you all the time.  Was it Woody Allen who said, "90 percent of life is just showing up?"  So I would say that "90 percent of taking pictures is just showing up with a camera."  Of course after that comes having your eyes open to interesting things to photograph, and then some people have a talent for knowing how to frame a shot, and after that you get into technical things, like how good your camera is, how well you know how to use the camera that you're using, and whether you know how to "develop" your pictures, whether its digitally or in a dark room.  Of course, being a master of these technical things (which I am most definitely not) must open a whole new world of creative possibilities - exposure, sharpness, color saturation, etc. etc.  But I love how photography is so democratic - an ordinary person with a cell phone camera, at the right place at the right time, can sometimes manage a really extraordinary photograph, even if by accident.

Comments

[bridget]

add a bit of cayenne to the apple cider vinegar gargle.
and/ or
http://www.neilmed.com/usa/sinusrinse.php
i do the neil med sinus rinse every day to keep my chords happy.