Seeing Reality

 

Ran outside both yesterday and this morning.  It is nice to be running outside again, and there is just enough light in the very early morning that I do feel I am behaving safely so I can (hopefully) see enough to avoid tripping and crashing/falling.  

Anvilcloud mentioned in a recent comment the idea (that he had mentioned before) of me getting a headlight that I could run with.  They do make these devices, and when Anvilcloud had mentioned it previously, I actually explored around and purchased one.  It is a "headband" sort of device that had a battery operated light on it and can be worn alone or over the top of a hat.  I did try it out a handful of times, but unfortunately for me, although it would light my path, because the light would move up and down with each stride while running, after a few minutes, it would start to induce in me a feeling of motion sickness.  Motion sickness does tend to run on my side of the family, and although I have figured out ways to minimize it when I am a passenger in a vehicle, it does occur in a few situations for me that I have not yet figured out how to navigate successfully.  One of them is unfortunately the headlight for running.  The other is in the use of eye glasses with "progressive" (but not called "transition"lenses, which change in color)” lenses.  When I first started needing two lenses in my glasses a number of years ago, I decided to try the progressive lenses since they were popular and many folks liked them.  Unfortunately, the progressive lenses have never worked well for me because varying focal point gradations inherent in them perpetually make me queasy (motion sickness symptom) even after trying to diligently wear them for quite some time.  I actually tried two different forms of  progressive lenses, and I could not get comfortable with either style.  I much prefer to use the more "old-school" lined bifocals with two distinctly different lenses, or two separate pairs of single vision glasses...  one for distance and one for reading.  

I am going to be lecturing on the developmental process by which an embryo begins to form its limbs in utero today.  As part of the lecture, I will also be discussing how perturbations in the uterine environment can shape limb development.  I will use the tragic, yet classic example of this alteration of the uterine environment through thalidomide exposure.  This compound was a medication that was administered to a variety of pregnant women during the late 1950s and early 1960s in the ill-conceived notion that it would help in maintenance of pregnancy.  Unfortunately, if administered at certain critical periods of early embryological development, it could induce catastrophic aberrations in growth of the limbs.  

I am carrying around with me in my jacket pocket today, my beautiful, full-bent Peterson pipe.  It has a deep, walnut colored bowl, and a traditional, "fish-tail" stem.  I feel akin to a toddler with a pacifier as I do this.  But, it does give me a sense of comfort.  I can recall many, many beautiful bowlfuls of pipe tobacco that I enjoyed through this lovely beast over the decades.  

PipeTobacco