Bugs and Blue Flashes

I was up at 4:15 this morning, reading the New York Times, cooking lentils and white bean soup. This time of year, when skies are overcast and hinting at rain, there's a fleeting moment before dawn when the whole world outside turns an intense lapis blue, and I was trying to capture it with my camera. You could call it the Blue Flash, it changes so quickly. I spied it through the window, grabbed the camera, and by the time I got outside the blue had faded into gray. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow morning.

Giardia lamblia under the microscope, at Wikipedia

The soup is for a friend who has been sick for weeks. Yesterday her lab tests came back positive for giardia, so I was Googling for information. I already knew it was a waterborne parasite, but wanted to know more, for her sake and my own. Giardia is a tough little bug, able to survive in cold water or hot spas and even after it's been treated, usually with metrodanyzol (flagyl), gut discomfort can go on for a long time. Dogs also get giardia, and I'm thinking of having us all tested.

We're not the only ones contemplating menacing bugs. The NY Times reports there's a huge infestation of bedbugs in Manhattan that is causing a social schism between those who have them and those who want to avoid them. A Times Square movie theater had to shut down while their seats were treated, and a Victoria's Secret store was shunned by customers scared of shedding their clothes in suspect dressing rooms. Bedbugs are by no means limited to New York, but are chomping on humans "almost everywhere" according to the CDC.

It's enough to give you insomnia. On the other hand, if you're in the business of selling new mattress sets, you're probably having a record quarter.