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15_the_circle) wrote2006-11-26 09:43 am
coming up for air
[OT from cottage renovations]
after a lovely Thanksgiving and two warm days with good light there should have been something in this space.
but there wasn't.
here's what happened.
the ecumenical service the evening before Thanksgiving in the Grove church went off very well. there were images of the Grove provided by one of the congregation members and myself, hymns and musical performances, a reading of Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, a speaker on the Quaker tradition and a Cantor who sang with piercing loveliness in Hebrew and English. it was well attended despite cold windy rain and was a wonderfully reflective way in which to begin the observance of the holiday.
so by the time I got home and started the water for the chestnuts it was 10 pm. they don't actually need to boil very long to be ready for processing, but it can only be done by hand (a chestnut knife is small, looks rather like a scaled down linoleum knife, and is the sharpest blade in the house) and at high temperature. if the chestnuts aren't hot enough to scorch your fingers they're not hot enough to properly peel.
chestnut knife
so it was well after midnight by the time I got them done, but that was inevitable given the time at which the process kicked off.
the recipe calls for 2½ cups of them, which entails a lot of processing, and with that many there always some that need to be rejected due to parasites or mold
the next morning I got up, made both kinds of stuffing, prepared the turkey and got it into the preheated oven of the friends with whom I have been co-hosting Thanksgiving for several years now. so far, so good. with eleven expected at the table we had a large turkey, such that there wasn't room enough in its pan for all of the onions, mushrooms and potatoes that usually go with and which are important contributors to the gravy later on. so I came home, placed the overflow into a second pan which when taken over to the other kitchen sat in the the lowest rack, and then came back to clean up dishes and get going on the Indian Pudding. by then I was feeling a touch of asthma but there wasn't any particular reason to slow down.
so I showered and changed clothes, took the Indian Pudding out of the oven and carried it over to the other house for the next round of activity. it was a while until the bird was ready to come out of the oven, and once it did the next order of business was to prepare the gravy. I was concerned about quality of result as one of the guests was a Frenchwoman whose cooking skills I hold in very high regard and I was anxious to avoid disappointing her.
the gravy preparations produced a satisfactory result though by then I was having some difficulty mantaining normal breathing.
by then, though, we were sitting down to a wonderful meal, excellent contributions to which were made by many who attended.
but after the main course, with an interval before dessert, I needed to head for home as the need for meds had become acute.
taking bonchial dilator tablets I went back to rejoin the company, but they didn't help much and from that point onward I really wasn't capable of much of anything.
after bidding our convivial guests farewell the three of us visited for a while longer, reflecting on how well the day and event had gone.
it really had been most pleasant though I would rather have ended it with less weakness and more ability to breathe.
by the time I came home I couldn't walk any but the shortest distance or climb a half set of stairs without needing a few minutes to recover breath.
the damn meds just weren't working.
so I went to bed hoping for a better tomorrow.
the next day came but the hoped for improvement didn't, and despite the meds my walking range was on the order of 20 or 30 paces. I was able to spend the day quietly, though, and by evening gave up on the meds and decided to use a heater pad to apply warmth to my chest. by yesterday morning that had helped, I was doing somewhat better, but clearly things were not converging on the acceptable. external intervention was clearly called for.
next stop: the local ER. having presented, as the medical community says, with the symptoms of an acute asthma attack that was entering its third day, they took me though triage and in short order administered steriods and a nebuliser treatment. at this point I also learned that the OTC bronchial dilator tablets I had been taking were having an interaction effect with the meds I take as an antihypetensive. each was quite efficiently preventing the other from doing anything at all.
so I walked out of there with breath restored, lots of paper, new prescriptions and a stylish fashion accessory bracelet:
fashion accessory
nonetheless I took things pretty quietly (though by evening I was feeling well enough to walk across the Grove for dinner with good friends who I don't see as often as I would like)
and have no plans to be particularly active today.
but no matter: there's nothing like restoring the ability to breathe to enhance one's appreciation for a beautiful day (which it already is).
the one casualty of the day was that I didn't make it to the post office to get the calendars for out-of-towners mailed. they are stacked in the front room, in their padded mailers, labeled and ready to go, needing only postage and, for those destined out-of-country, customs declarations forms. that, alas, is all going to have to wait until Monday.
no subject
no subject
>
> Glad you're feeling better.
>
thank you.
>
> I don't suppose that the cats have, in any way, contributed to your
> asthmatic symptoms?
>
though it may seem odd, I don't think so. what I have noticed is that over time one gets desensitised to one's own cats, however the downside of this is that one becomes correspondingly more sensitive to other cats.
in thinking about this I have realised that over the years I have commonly noted an asthmatic attack on Thanksgiving. I'm suspecting an allergic reaction to the fumes of boiling chestnuts. at some point, after things have stabilised, I'll experiment with this under controlled conditions. if it were to turn out to be so that would be Unfortunate News Indeed as I consider Chestnut Stuffing and Indian Pudding to be two essential ingredients of Thanksgiving. although I enjoy cooking I hardly ever do so for myself as for me it's only meaningful when done for others, and with a diminished household population fewer opportunities are afforded. I have always looked forward to the cooking aspects of the holiday even through for me Thanksgiving isn't really about food, or turkeys, or sporting events or retail parades in New York. Lincoln's proclamation (link in the post to which these are replies) states my feeling about it better than I ever could in any of my own words.
Sending you a hug
(Anonymous) 2006-11-27 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)Loved the link to the Lincoln proclamation...We do have a lot to be thankful for!
Cousin B
re: Sending you a hug
thank you. hugs always welcome but no need for sympathy.
really, it was no big deal, just a couple of hours in the ER, most of which was spent waiting so they could (quite sensibly) direct their time and effort toward those with greater need. and despite the transitory inconvenience of having had to deal with the interaction effects of dueling medications, it really was a wonderful day.
and yes, your calendars do actually hit the postal stream today. they've been sitting in their padded mailer long enough, but the distractions kept me from getting them out in a timely fashion. sorry 'bout that. I do hope you'll find them worth the wait.
Re: sympathy
(Anonymous) 2006-12-03 03:42 am (UTC)(link)no subject
kind thoughts are always welcome but sympathy completely misplaced. in this case I wasn't being any sort of hero, more like being stupid. I was, however, monitoring the situation carefully and was quite prepared to call for an ambulance if need be.
am sending you a note offline about last Friday evening's music.