Ow My Head Hurts

I'm enjoying one of those All-Day headaches. Started out this morning with a bit of a dried-out, stuffed-up head, and proceeded apace. Got to the point of near-nausea right before lunch, but a bit of food kept it at bay for at least another hour or so, just in time for an important meeting.

Naturally, it was back with a vengeance afterward.

Thought it might've been due to dehydration, so spent a great deal of time hanging about the water fountain, but didn't notice any particularly beneficial effects from that. Tried not to over-medicate; a couple of migraine tablets was the only break in that fast. They kept things down to a dull roar. Mostly.

The rains came in and washed away the snow from all the yards in the neighborhood, and the streets are black with rain and rain-clouds. Might as well be Spring, for all that. The air is warm and wet and perfect for breathing, just like Seattle weather should be - except this is Michigan. And in a few day's time, the temperature will drop again and the snow will begin to fall, and we'll be back to the regular business of Winter.

I'll have to turn on my humidifier again then. The humidity drops down to twenty or twenty-five percent when the air is too cold to hold the moisture anymore; it falls to the ground and just sits there, helpless, while my sinuses ache from the dryness of it all. So my little humidifier sits under my desk at work and patiently pumps out wafts of misty air to try and keep me comfortable, and every so often I lean my head down and take a thick, deep breath to try and re-establish the equilibrium within.

Perhaps if I were to use a face-mask instead, it would be more efficient. It doesn't seem to work very well, with all the precious moisture billowing out from beneath my desk and disappearing into the ether. But it's better than nothing.

Feeling in a somber mood. I was just surfing a while ago and ran into a cute little video called "Best Friends", with a little girl and a pug (James wants a pug of his own), and they were using Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and it just wrecked me. He had such an amazing voice. I can't believe he's gone -- and I never heard of him until after he had gone.



The pug video is cute. James enjoyed it immensely. And I've sat here listening to that music over and over again for the last half-hour. (I didn't keep watching the same video, though. There's plenty of other videos on YouTube with Israel's song, some tributes, some gorgeous rainbow pictures.) Something about that voice, those dynamics ...

That's the kind of music that transcends time and space. It transports me to someplace I can't even begin to describe. It's the same thing that happened on Sunday during worship service. There was just something about the song we were singing, the dynamics of the room, the overwhelming sense of worship that was going on - and, to steal a line from Eric Liddel (in Chariots of Fire), "And when I sang, I felt his pleasure."

Good songs fill me up inside, make me want to sing loud and strong and forever. Except when other people are looking at me. Then I clam right up, struck dead by stage fright.

Well, so long as no one is looking at me, I'm going to sit here and sing along with Israel.

Cheerio!