150 Saturday Oct 30

Saturday Oct 30 Day 150

This is a major rest day because when I got up this morning I was unable to walk a straight line and I felt disorientated. Today is a cloudy day bordering on being cold. Just the day to bundle up and read a book or play solitaire which is what I am doing. For most of the last week I have had gastronomical problems. Today for the first time I could not stand the smell of cooking food. I have had a reduced appetite but now the thought of eating is uninviting. Today is bath and shaving day. After ones takes a shower the floor has to be cleared of standing water. I usually do this after putting on my shoes, socks and pants so I can go in and shave without freezing my feet in the standing cold water. As I was putting on my shirt I undid my belt to tuck the shirt in and the pants promptly dropped to the floor. Not eating very much lately has reduced my weight noticeably. My waist is at least 2 to 3 inches smaller than in the States, so my belt is now much too long. I force myself to eat something so I will not get too weak to climb around the hillside.

There was no sunset yesterday and it looks doubtful for this evening. This does not mean the sun will not go down, I shall not be able to record the decent which is obscured by the clouds. I am going in (at 3 pm) to put on my pajamas on under my clothes so I will be warm to read and play on the computer. I have completed the chore and it is wonderful. I leave my underwear on under my pajamas for the extra layer of clothing. When I put my pajamas on I have to take off my shirt (long sleeved) and pants. I put on the long sleeved T-shirt and long johns (these are damp and cold) climb back into my shirt, pants and sweater. Then the final and most important part is tucking the ends of my long johns into the tops of my socks. This keeps my ankles warmer.

149 Friday Oct 29

Friday Oct 29 Day 149

Last night my hands were very cold even with my gloves. I happen to put them to my face and the hands warmed up quickly. I realized I had a fever. I took a couple of Aleve tablets and bundled myself up for bed. During the course of the evening I suffered greatly from farts, stomach rumblings and burping. At 2:30 am I woke up suffering from heat stroke. The fever had broken and taking off my socks was just what I needed. I was unable to get back to sleep but my stomach rumblings, which had been going on for weeks, stopped. It is now mid afternoon and there are no stomach rumblings, burps or excessive farts in evidence. My appetite is still very poor but I have 3 days before the next project starts, the taping of the residences. Hopefully I get back up to speed by then.

I found that I was quite weak this morning but I went down to the school and taped the last of the classrooms. I said goodbye to that last of my classmates, Alan Robinson, walked to Mullingar, 3/4 of a mile, and took a taxi to the top of the hill. I have been in bed the rest of the day mostly reading.

There is a retired couple who come to Woodstock to work in the alumni office a couple of times a year. They have been here off and one for the past several years. The husband said that the snows were the clearest he has ever seen. I guess I am lucky to be here right now.

148 Thursday Oct 28

Thursday Oct 28 Day 148

Well I lied to you yesterday (but it was fun). Evidently my “spell” is a little more serious. I woke up this morning nauseous and slightly dizzy. For the first time my breakfast tasted light recycled cardboard. I could not finish my omelet and I left one of my pieces of toast. The term “toast” is interesting. Since our latest electricity outage (it lasted almost 2 days) the voltage in the morning is so low that coils in the toaster barely glow red. Needless to say the toast ends up as white bread that has been waved over a fire. Usually my toast is burned on the edges and is as hard as a brick. Now it is pale white and limp but you can tell it had been in the toaster.

The weather is turning colder. When I go to bed and put on my pajamas (a pair of long johns and a long sleeved T-shirt) they are damp and cold. This evening I shall put my long johns and t-shirt after supper and put my clothes over them. This way they (pajamas) will be warm and dried out. I shall let you know tomorrow if my experiment is successful. The extra layer will keep me warmer durning my computer time in the evenings (when I play solitaire, I’m addicted).

The snows are out in all their glory. I have been here a total of 5 months and this is the best they have looked. I walked down to Childers and got some great shots. This is the single clearest day we have had. This evening I tape the sunset against the Snows. They were still clear and NO clouds. The first day for that to happen.

I taped the classrooms and all the facilities of the Gym this afternoon. I have discovered why the Glidecam is not stable when climbing the covered passage. The torso of my body is too short for the Glidecam vest. When stepping up the ramp my legs hit the bottom of the vest and cause the camera to swing. When I go down the ramp the Glidecam is steady. SO! I shall have to use the downhill shots of the covered passage.

My stomach is upset and when I am not burping the last meal I am farting out the last meal. I must very entertaining to those who follow me. Subsequently I have not felt like eating my usual sized meals. I still had the energy for this afternoon’s shooting but it took me 40 minutes to get up the hill again. Supper is coming up within the next hour and I am NOT thrilled at the prospect.

Earlier I was logging the school tape I took the last several days. It took me a full hour to log 11 minutes of tape. At this rate it will take me 5 plus hours for each full tape.

147 Wednesday Oct 27

Wednesday Oct 27 Day 147

I must have had one of my periodic “spells” and it lasted 24 hours as all the rest of them. I feel fine today and by tomorrow I shall have the strength and energy to continue with my taping at the school.

I spent the morning in bed and went to the internet cafe this afternoon. While there I helped 3 young ladies from the language school book a taxi for Friday afternoon to go to Delhi for a long weekend. One cannot decide on the spur of the moment to go anywhere in India. The main means of transport is the train but you need to book weeks in advance. They could get a seat on a train but it would take 12 hours and it was not an overnight trip but a very long day trip. The most comfortable way is by taxi and I happen to know someone who could arrange the trip. I have done my good deed for the day and it makes me feel great.

The weather has been beautiful lately with sun almost all day long. The only problem is there are no beautiful sunsets as you need clouds to reflect the setting sun to get interesting colors. I have 4 more full weeks to get some good ones.

It is getting cooler at night and my room is a steady 54 degrees day and night.

146 Tuesday Oct 26

Tuesday Oct 26 Day 146

This morning I went down to school and taped the Junior School classrooms and hallways. The Glidecam shots on Monday were not a stable as I wanted. During my early morning thinking session I realized the I needed to bend my knees more, shorten my step and move more slowly. It worked. The hallway shots were much improved and I shall have to redo all the shots I took on Monday. While I was working this morning I felt a bit nauseous and my head began to hurt. I went up to Kilmarnock at 11:30 and I had to stop 4 or 5 times to rest before I could continue on. It usually takes 25 minutes to climb the hill. It took a little over 30 minutes. I returned down the hill to tape the classrooms in the Senior School. When I got to the High School office it was closed and all the classrooms were locked. I had been assured that the rooms would be open every day. How typically India. I promptly went back up the hill and it took over 40 minutes to climb the hill. I must have stopped 7 or 8 times to rest. I went to bed for the rest of the day. It took 3 full hours for my clothes to get dry. My headache is still active and I feel like a little pile of feces.

145 Monday Oct 25

Monday Oct 25 Day 145

This morning I went down the hill to school and taped the outside of the various school buildings under the morning sunlight. I also used my tripod to take some of the interiors hallways and verandahs of the buildings in the Junior School. There has been a new organization of the school with grades 1 thru 6 in the lower buildings and grades 7 thru 12 in the Senior School in the upper buildings near Parker Hall. This description will only make sense to the old Woodstockites.

This afternoon I went back down the hill again and tapes the Covered Passage with the Glidecam. Amazingly I was able to get the camera balanced and I was also able to handle the physical demands of carrying the equipment up and down the ramp. I was also able to carry it into the buildings and the new Gym. I am very pleased that I am in physical shape to do this major part of my project. This evening I am logging the tape taken during the day to see how it looks. My shoulders and back only hurt a little bit from the effort.

The snows were out at noon today and my main camera was down at the school. I got some good shots with my backup camera and I will have time to review the shots on Wednesday. This is the first day the snows have been clear at mid day.

144 Sunday Oct 24

Sunday Oct 24 Day 144

Yesterday afternoon I visited the site of the tree collapse which caused our power to be off all day. It turns out that the power lines are what kept the tree from plunging through the roof of the wealthiest man on the hillside. This gentleman has donated 30 million rupees (670,000 US dollars) for the new gym and renovating the high school boys residence. We did get a little bit of electricity last evening but the voltage is so low that I cannot use this laptop plugged into the wall.

I have been unable to use my computer to play solitaire and I find myself totally bored. The days are so long when you cannot break them up by playing a few games. I read a book most of yesterday sitting next to the window in a uncomfortable chair.

Last evening all my classmates and I were invited to the principal’s home for “Worldwide Woodstock Day”. The food was delicious and I helped myself to a good sized glop of mashed potatoes (anything but rice). The meat was in a very tasty red sauce. I had had meat for lunch and dinner 5 times so far and it has been wonderful. I will now return to my rice, lentils and vegetables for lunch and my bowl of oatmeal for supper.

I have just returned from a walk where I was escorted by the ghengis who lives here at Kilmarnock. He frequently gets out and is gone for days. As I left the house there he was right beside me. When I met some people I knew from the hillside he sat on the ground beside me and accompanied me home including getting chained upon his return.