Psychomotor epilepsy

Writing from both a scientific and personal perspective, I’ve posted on my personal blog an essay about my mother’s struggle with psychomotor (temporal lobe) epilepsy:

Psychomotor Epilepsy: When the Lights Are On But No One Is Home

When life gives you snow, make snow candles

Son Julian and I just now built a prototype snow candle from an idea mentioned in a cute book called “101 Secrets a Good Dad Knows” (uh oh — I know about three) that Whitney gave me years ago:

Of cabbages and dandelions

Think Dand-e-lyon

by Masaki Ikeda (via Wikimedia)

As we walked to school this morning, my 9 y.o. Malcolm scolded me for scattering the seeds of the dandelions in our 3-acre Lyon Park. I tried to defend the beauty of the much-reviled little weed. He may not have been persuaded, but smiled and suggested, “Maybe we should call it Dandelion Park?” I loved his gentle play on words — very much his flavor of humor.

Fall color

Fall color—please click to enlarge

I love this picture. Taken in my backyard November 8th, 2008. The late afternoon sun and clouds set up a strong contrast between the bright tree and the murky buildings — so I went and found my camera. (It was fairly dim out and this was a long exposure, hence the breeze-driven blurriness of the leaves.)

I suppose there’s a science angle here about xanthophyll or something, but … who cares! I don’t have to spoil everything.

[posted 1 May 2009]