The birds keep coming

 Nothing good at the oasis, but Alpine has had really good birds lately. The Clark's Nutcracker is still here and delighting many seekers of it. Today it flew into a pecan tree, knocked a pecan to the ground, dropped down to retrieve it, and consumed it back in the tree.

There are other good birds around town too, plus I just learned there's a Ruddy Ground-Dove at the Davis Mountains State Park. I need a photo of one and need it for my Jeff Davis County list, so I may chase it in the morning. It's just so miserably cold outdoors that it's hard to think of going out.

As if the Arctic front isn't enough to contend with, we have rampant covid and record drought. I'm beginning to hate that dark red color. It's starting to look like dried blood mixed with the sweat and tears.

And speaking of covid, if you look at my blog posts for last December, you'll see I was sick for three weeks with what I've believed was covid ever since I learned there was such a thing. Now the CDC has discovered that many blood samples from last December have covid antibodies in them. The record number of flu deaths last winter were probably mostly from covid. Like my daughter was very sick in early November, went to the doctor, who told her it was not the flu, but was some kind of virus, he didn't know what kind. I've heard similar stories from many, many people.

So, I'm hoping I'm immune. I had forgotten a lot about my illness until I looked back at my blog. And I never get colds or flu, which makes it even more strange. I remember two instances during that illness that I was unable to breathe and thought I might die. Being an asthmatic, I had little tricks and steroidal inhalers for such situations, that probably saved my life. In my memory the painful throat stood out the most. Maybe, because I still have my tonsils, they fought the battle. I'm not sure, but I don't think most people have working tonsils, if they still have them at all.

The incidences happened because I had a constant dry cough. It wouldn't let up long enough for me to eat. So when I tried to eat I'd cough, then aspirate and choke. I ate very little for fear of that happening. I had forgotten all about that cough until I checked my blog for December. And I did lose my sense of taste, but that was a minor issue compared to breathing. That's why journaling is so important. My memory is too unreliable.