06/14/06
While I did still have two coughing bouts last night, I did actually get close to a full
night's sleep. I found that I could either position myself to avoid most of the coughing
or I could position myself to make my hips comfortable. In the interest of actually sleeping,
I opted for the sore hips because I'm better at sleeping through pain than I am sleeping
through coughing.
The position to avoid coughing without putting Harriet's weight on my vena cava is to
keep my hips pointing to one side and my torso pointing as close to straight up as possible
so that the back of my head is on my pillow. It's basically the classic deep nap cat position
where the front and back legs are pointing in opposite directions.
Unfortunately I'm not
a cat so around three in the morning I woke up with the unpleasant sensation of my pelvis
having fallen asleep along with my right leg. So I hobbled out of bed for a bathroom break
and another dose of Robitussin and nose blow before stumbling back to bed. I chose the same
position but facing the other direction. This morning when the alarm went off I was stiff
but at least my pelvis wasn't tingling again.
The good news is that I did actually sleep. I got maybe five hours of sleep (up from the
two or three I have been getting). I know I dreamt but I don't remember about what. I still
have a little more cough but I think one more good night's sleep with take care of the remaining
dregs of this cold.
Everything
But Mars:
Before Sean took his bath last night, he and Ian went out front to look for planets in our
new telescope. They managed to see the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and Mercury
before the clouds rolled back in from across the bay. They had hoped to see Mars but just
couldn't manage it with the cloud cover. Sean was thrilled to see what he had seen but was
disappointed at missing the "red planet."
The night before I had a quick look at Jupiter but I was mostly just waiting outside for
Ian to find it and get used to using the telescope. As we have such a short tripod and there
was nothing to hold onto, I really couldn't squat in a stable enough fashion to keep my eye
close enough or steady enough to the eye piece to see more than a wiggling big dot and a
very fuzzy and wiggling little dot, thus comprising Jupiter and Europa. Ian apparently saw
a second of the many moons of Juipter. Oh well. For the moment I will let the boys enjoy
their star gazing by themselves.
Steps: 7000 
