Advent, flying by...

Ho hum. I likely have sinusitis. And will  be flying to Sweden in a few days. I got sick exactly a week ago with some cold-flu and it never disappears. But I really don't have a cause to complain. And I don't, really, I just wish I felt better (be gone, fever!) so I could work better. And so I could have my since long planned, and now majorly postponed (until Friday? until Thirteenth day's eve?) Swedish Christmas/Lucia/Advent celebration. If nothing else so we can eat all the acquired food before it goes bad. So yeah, nothing majorly problematic here I guess.

How amazingly awesome it is to have Pinda and Wokkels around when home sick though! And David of course, but right now he's away on a 3-day pairing. Which makes the birdies' company even more wonderful.

I acquired a Christmas gift to myself last week, a wonderful new camera. So I expect magical photos to be the result. But meanwhile however, I'd like to finish off all the photos from my old camera! And I certainly have a few! I need a new system for backing up though! Ideas?

I'll start from the end: Part II of the Italy trip!

Italia

In other news… I got offered another year for my postdoc! This is excellent news, which means I don't have to start applying for a new one until next year, and we get to stay in Brockville until September 2014! This gives me time to stay around for all the science that will come out of the project, not just to do the reductions…

It's November

...And it is a very nice November! I'm still not used to that. Novembers should be dark, dreary, wet and depressive. This one is bright, sunny, above zero, no rain, beautiful mornings, and the lack of leaves on the trees gives us an amazing view of the St Lawrence. Incredible!!

Life is being enjoyed reducing data, getting acquainted with galaxies, playing with birdies (who are currently fighting my fingers for space on this keyboard) and trying to upload the multitude of photos I've accumulated over the year. Here is a sample, the trip we made in October to Italy and eastern mediterranean. The first exploration vacation I've made in quite a while (I don't count trips to the homeland). Except for Florida last year perhaps.

And here are the photos. All 272 of them. But if you're interested in the resting place of Santa, amazing ruins, or just me and my family being silly, it might be fun to take a look. Perhaps. Let's see if this html works first...

Venezia and cruise, part 1

After a week with my parents

I just came home after having dropped my cute parents off at YUL (Montreal). Saying good bye to them is one of the hardest things… But I was blessed (?!) with a horrendous lumbago (ryggskott) which hit me like a shot in the back this morning as I was moving a little light Lack Ikea table around. Not so expected. So painful that I thought I'd throw up or faint. I wonder if it was a disk this time, I totally could feel something moving in my spine. So, anyways, that pain took overhand this afternoon, and I could leave my parents and stiffbackedly hobble back to Ringo (my beetle), none too gracefully squeeze into the driver's seat again and drive home in the 32 degrees heat (so happy that I have a roof window, esp now that the fan, as well as the AC (never worked), is broken) without shedding too many tears.

What an awesome week! They arrived last Friday, stayed for 9 days, and did a lot if fun. I had Monday off (flex time), but managed to work the rest of the week, 2 days in Kingston, and 2 days from home. I think my parents like Brockville as much as we do. They got to see a lot of it too, since we went house-looking together. And to Kingston, to Ottawa, out on the St Lawrence, into the St Lawrence, etc. A very nice area to explore, this is.

Driving home, I could see the moon getting brighter and brighter, opposite the sunset. It made me think of Neil Armstrong (who died yesterday) and the amazing inspiration brought by his life.

And, as I came home, crookedly walked to the stairs, my parent presence was so strong! So very strong. In a good way, making me happy :) We just walked down those stairs. We just went on a walk in the same warm temperature last night. We sat on the balcony every morning and night, enjoying each other and life. I always wonder if I enjoyed it as much as I think I should when looking back. Yes. I think so.

Hm. But now I'm sitting here with my birds (who are very happy to have me back), and my back, waiting for D to come home from work, watching the plane on flightaware.com fly further and further away. That part is the hardest. As soon as they are online again, it's all good again.

Unexpected TSA question, and a bitter sweet moment

I'll start in reverse… Currently sitting in the waiting area in Chicago Midway (MDW), waiting for my Southwest flight to Albuquerque, after two Porter flights, YOW to YTZ, YTZ to MDW. The plane I arrived with was the plane David was to fly back to Toronto (and currently is), and I had hoped to catch him for a quick good bye before he took off. But, after customs, bag pickup and checking in again, I came too late to the gate, and he was already hard at work preparing. I had hoped to wave through the window, but of course the windows there are completely dimmed, so you can't see a thing. So I sat there, knowing he was just a few meters away, feeling happy about that, but sad that I wouldn't see him before my last New Mexico sejour (he was unexpectedly called away on a 3 day pairing yesterday). Then I could see the plane from the other end of the building as David was taxiing out to the runway, and a few moments later as he was ascending into the sky. Beautiful plane, the Dash-8 Q400. Toronto was btw extra beautiful this morning, with a low mist surrounding the islands in nice shapes. Sadly my camera was tucked away in the overhead bin, a mistake I rarely make, but when I do, I need it the most. 

After a completely wonderful month in our new home, in the awesomest apartment ever by the St Laurents river in Brockville (strategic position for our respective jobs in Kingston and Ottawa), I now have to return back to Socorro. Only for two weeks, so it's nice. I have mixed feelings about returning, but it will be nice to see all good friends and have a real good bye before leaving for good. The weather will make up for a lot. And the telescopes. And wonderful Winnipeg friends visiting, and the solar eclipse. I hope that these new memories will somewhat remove the taint of the old ones. 

Pinda and Wokkels are two new little creatures in mine and David's custody, and the fresh memory of Pinda's happy little chirp as I kissed her feathery chest early this morning will hopefully help as well (but I still miss Merry and Pippin terribly). 

As for the TSA question (or US immigration/customs not sure if they are the same?), this is the conversation I had when I went through US customs a few hours ago: 

After a few of the normal general questions, I got a few new ones:

TSA: "What kind of research do you do in New Mexico?"

Me: "Astrophysics observations with a large telescope located there"

TSA: "What kind of observations?"

Me: "I work on a project where we observe the gas surrounding galaxies"

TSA: "What do you want to observe on these galaxies?"

Me: "Well.." (wondering in how much detail I should go and embarking on a brief explanation that there are divers goals with the observations)

TSA, glaring suspiciously at me: "Is it dangerous?"

Me: "!?!  …no… these galaxies are very far away…" 

TSA: "What happens if you observe anything dangerous?"

Me, trying to come up with what could possibly be seen as dangerous in my work: "well…"

TSA: "What happens if you observe something dangerous, like UFOs, do you report it, or is kept secret?" 

Me, finally seeing where this is heading: "Ah, that would be an awesome observation! And no, I would definitely not keep it secret…" 

Not that I'd be able to see any UFO's in my continuum observations… But still. Heehee… :) The idea of dangerous galaxies will keep me smiling for a while. 

Hm. The nice free wifi at MDW is gone… I guess I'll post this a bit later. 

Beware of bifenthrin

Friday March 16th, after 3 days of sickness which seemed to affect her nervous system, my wonderful budgie Pippin died on the way to the vet in Albuquerque (she had already visited the vet twice before, the last time when I noticed her new symptoms). She was a fighter, and even that morning had forced herself up on a perch even though she had terrible balance. The night before had been hard, with much pain, so I called the vet to get another appointment, and headed up there in the middle of the day. My wonderful birdsitter Peggy decided to come along as well, and I am so grateful for that - Pippin had a number of seizures on the way, screamed and had a very hard time, so if I had been alone, I would probably have ended up in an accident. When we were half way, suddenly a tangible calm filled the car, and there was peace, and I immediately realised that that was it. She had died. My perfect little bird, not even 6 years old. 

I had already searched the online literature for potential causes and cures to her sickness, and with this new information of symptoms, I continued to search. Two perfectly healthy birds dead in less than 1.5 months, it just did not seem normal. Pippin's neurological symptoms - twisted body, erratic head movements, seizures - seemed to point towards poisoning of sorts. But by what?

A few days later, I ran into the cleaning lady at the guesthouse where I have been staying for 6 months, and I got the thought to ask her if the guesthouse apartments had ever been treated indoors with pesticides at some point. Imagine my astonishment, when she told me that they spray indoors with pesticides every month! She knew I had birds (and she has had birds herself), and yet, she let a company come and treat the apartment once a month, without letting me know? I was devestated, and went to my work place to talk with the people in charge and ask why I had never been notified or asked whether this was ok (NO! Birds and pesticides don't mix at all. People and pesticides don't mix well either.!). 

Apparently I was supposed to be notified, but that had not taken place for years. I also asked to know the name of the substance, and the dates when they had sprayed. 

The substance is called bifenthrin, and in my research, I found a lot of disturbing information about it. Here is a list of some of the things I found: 

• -Excessive exposure to Bifenthrin (poisoning) can cause headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive salivation, fatigue (of which I've experienced all except excessive salivation)
• Bifenthrin is suspected to be an endocrine disruptor (i.e interferes with the systems that produce hormones in the body)
• It is classified as a class C carcinogen, i.e. it has shown to be carcinogenic on mice, and thus is possibly a carcinogenic substance towards humans.
• Because of this, Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemikalieinspektionen) withdrew Bifenthrin already in 1992 in Sweden. The European Union banned it in 2009, and it has since then been withdrawn from all pesticides used in the EU countries.
• It has been shown in tests to be cytotoxic (affecting cells)

I think it is quite clear what killed the birds - with this information, all their strange symptoms suddenly make sense. I don't think I can prove that my symptoms are caused by the pesticide, but it lies close at hand, especially after 6 months of exposure, of a substance that stays active up to 8 months, with monthly exposure boosts... 

This was the report… I have a lot of feelings and opinions about this… Which I aim to express in a future post. So, stay tuned...

Merry, the happy budgie

Merry, my happy little bird

Merry was an amazingly happy little bird, who enriched my life so much. Today, totally out of the blue, something happened (my guess is he choked on something) and I found him on the floor of the cage when I came home. It is amazing how attached you can grow to a little bird... Especially since he should've had so many more years to be happy. I had him 5.5 years, together with Pippin, since the summer day I bought them in Winnipeg, after 2 years of birdlessness (not fun). It was an awesome day, which I remember very well. And every day since then it has been a joy to come home.

During the last year, Merry adopted a few cute habits - such as flying to my head, walking up to the front of my head and bending down saying CHIRP! Then he would slide down the side of my head, hanging onto my hair, and stick his head out in front of my eye (mainly the left side) and start chirping his heart away. Sometimes he was so persistent doing this when I was eating dinner, that I had to put on a hat to be able to get some food into me. He adored playing with my thumb, and if he came with me into the office room, it would be a challenge to type.

During the trip over to New Mexico, I had the birds in a tiny cage inside a bag with star shaped breathing walls. Whenever I opened the side of the bag, two budgies would come and start playing with my fingers, while chirping happily. A most wonderful trip. They did not enjoy being stuck in Albuquerque due to a "snow storm" though. Having to stay in a hotel in that tiny cage made them loudly tell me how annoyed they were... They managed the trip very well though, and were very happy to arrive in their new home in Socorro the next day. A few weeks later, I got to borrow a palace of a cage from my birdsitter friends, which made the sejour even better. The first few weeks, flying was a challenge (due to the thin air), but Merry soon got better at it, and flew as well as ever during his last week. (The photo caption has a link to some Merry photos.)

Speaking of budgie personalities btw, check out this story!