Monday, June 27, 2016

There's a gene for that

I keep several orchids around my bathtub, which is surrounded by windows on 3 sides. I did have them around my pond last year but insects attacked the leaves
Allie and Josh came over for dinner yesterday. Half of the ice cream cone made it into her mouth. Her sibling now is the size of a lime
sunrise in my backyard yesterday just as I was taking off for my 33 mile ride. Heat index 97 degree later but I had finished well before that
red yarrow
2 colors of delphiniums

My favorite disease: kabuki make-up syndrome. I am not sure if it means that one is born looking like one has kabuki make-up on or an intense desire to put it on. At anyrate, I don't have that gene. I do have genes for cluster headaches (which I had for a 3 year period), gout, social anxiety and various proclivities towards cancer. I really don't feel that I have social anxiety. I have no fears about speaking publicly or interacting with people. I do realize that I am sometimes awkward but I trudge through regardless.

I am not a taster of the bitter drug PTU, which was confirmed in my biology class as a 13 year old when we were learning about genetics. In today's biology classes, they no longer test kids as embarrassing paternity issues could arise. They didn't care about such stuff in my day.

One of my second cousins identified by gene testing has contacted me wondering what relative we have in common (read the chart!). A sixth cousin was identified meaning we have a great to the fifth power grandfather in common. Ancestry identified the person as a 4th cousin but as our ancestors came from a small county in Scotland where there was lots of commingling, we have more genes in common than just the one great (5x) father

In the city, the lindens have bloomed. Towards the end of my bike ride yesterday, I rode through the edge of Ann Arbor and could smell the intense orange-blossom aroma. Near my house, I smell sweet grass. In the past 8 days, I put on 104 miles on the bike. We had a 3 day hot spell with heat indices  near 100. The thunderstorm drizzled rain for only a few minutes. Other cells fizzled out as soon as they came near. We need rain!!!! Tomorrow it will be cool enough for a long run. Yay.

1 comment:

Elephant's Child said...

I hope you get the rain.
My father often said 'it is a wise child you knows his own father. His mother might know...' I don't think things have changed much in that area in our history.

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