Yay, new day, I can see!

Yesterday's eye work went a treat. Different anesthesiologist, a woman, listened, noted previous aftereffects, made a plan which she explained. It worked so well. Little to no fentanyl, and anti emetic added in. 

I freely admit to preferring women on my medical team. They face many  more  obstacles in training and hiring so the ones who come through it all are superior.  At this point almost all my practitioners are women and I'm in good hands.

However, credit where due, my male surgeon did a flawless job, and here I am reading, writing, posting on a tiny screen, no glasses. Wheeee! 

I really appreciate the friendship you and other people have shown. I think the real test of friendship is not so much helping when friends are struggling, good as that is, because that puts us into a power position. 

I think a better indicator is when friends are happy when things go gloriously right, even when they wish they'd been as blessed. That's generous 

Yesterday got better and better. Gary stopped over a couple of times to check after Handsome Son left, and we were pottering about outside, got  into the subject of making string. I've shown his grandkids various art forms over the years. The older one is more interested in sports now, but the six year old loves crafts.

So I said fine, next time she's over I'll show her string making, from picking leaves to making her own string supply. Gary loves all the arts and was very happy. I said after she learns, she can show her friends, too. So that will happen. 

While we were in the house rummaging through my string stash, which intrigued him greatly,  I remembered something I've been meaning to do for ages. 

He loves this charcoal drawing, often he wanders around the house enjoying the art and now this one's his, a present. 

He's very excited and is planning a place for it. It's still here for the moment, but I'll deliver it if, and when, as expected, he forgets! 

This one has an origin story. Years ago I noticed the shrubs at a local nursery, burlapped and tied for winter protection, and noticed how human they looked. 

I did a few drawings, in charcoal, of them, on various papers,  some showing the support stakes. When exhibited, people insisted they were people, refugees, look, that lady's pregnant, where did you see them? I pointed out the stakes, but the illusion persisted. People even got a bit annoyed over it because obviously they were people!

This is the best drawing, I think, and I eliminated the stakes! The photo is a bit distorted here, but the framing isn't, in real life.

I just went further into the illusion, guided by my audience.

Here's the original old film photo, now attached to the back as part of the story.

So that was a really vintage day. Everything's so bright now I'm wearing sunglasses in the sunny living room even. Who is that mystery lady in the wraparound dark glasses! Just back from Mar a Lago?? 

Happy day everyone, hope we can all see better through the fog of fascism and fight back. I'm hoping Jared goes down next..

Good eye witness report , Textiles and Tea, fiber plans

All's well with Eye One, now ready for Eye Two tomorrow . Very good reports up to now. And the optho promised a word with the anaesthesiologist to dial down the fentanyl in the mix, to avoid the aftereffects. So  all's good.

Handsome Son and I had a rapid lunch, card presentation and cake, before he had to dash into work, taking half the remaining cake home with him, birthday custom. It went well. It's pretty good, worth the dratted pitting.

Then I fell into a deep sleep, partly the cake, partly the effects of being out in feels like 100+ temps. 

I woke with the alert telling me Textiles and Tea was up.

She's very young but already established, famous textile artists such as Rebecca mezoff messaged in as she talked, to greet her.

She works in tapestry, very small, here about six by nine inches, and overshot, very large, here seen as bedspreads. And she embroiders in cross stitch. Next she fancies willow basket making! Such energy and talent, fun to watch, and so happy in her life.

Later I caught Sally Pointer on YouTube organizing her fibers and seeing that wonderful array of threads it occurred to me that I might mix roving into my natural string.

I remarked recently that cord making us really spinning and plying, and it dawned that I could try drafting roving into the process of cord making, for a mixed wool and plant thread for making the rest of this basket or whatever it is.

Or maybe plying some spun yarn with string, we'll see.

 When my shoulder agrees, that is. Those few inches of cord I made a couple of days ago cost me. 

And socks will always be happening, just not as incessantly as before. Sister M knows the situation and is fine with it.

This morning, less hot today, nice rain for the plants, and the self seeded tomato has taken over, hopeful of a good crop, since we have plenty of growing year left. 

And, in the other corner, the sage has never grown like this, taking over chairs, other plants, all it surveys. 

The little Italian basil I started indoors in water, here meeting its future home

And here, established as a kitchen plant

My neighbor who grew up on a farm, swears by a pot of basil in the kitchen to deter insects. 

Soon the Thai basil will come in, too, to use in cooking. 

And the political scene appears more cheerful than for years, two new NATO members now in solidarity, right wingers in disarray with Scott's phone under scrutiny. 

I really wonder if there's an increase in stress-related medical events in the right wing. They're certainly seeing chickens coming home to roost big-time. I don't wish them ill, just clearer thinking. Which might be the impossible dteam.

Happy day everyone, play on! Enjoy what you can, you're worth it!

Let justice roll down..

 It looks as if Garland was doing his job quietly all along critics notwithstanding.

In fact they were carrying out a search warrant. This means a judge not only agreed that incriminating evidence was there right then, but is likely to result in charges. That's the only way to get this kind of warrant.

And note that it could also spike TFGs plans to run for office. And possibly reveal the goods he has on the senators he's been blackmailing  .Many birds, one stone.

Meanwhile, back at the townhouse, massive rainstorm yesterday briefly cooled us off,  but now we're baking again. Sun breaking through wet glass this morning

Later this morning Handsome Son drives us to my final right eye check and the go ahead for Thursday's left eye work. After this week I'll have a good idea how functional my vision will be before maybe getting reading glasses. 

Then maybe he'll have time for a quick bite including birthday cake before he has to go to work.

So things are, over all, okay at the ranch. 

And here's a celebratory artwork to leave you with

Happy day everyone, keep cool! If that applies.

Good morning, good news

First, the early morning doctor visit,  medical bulletin: the leak has healed, so the leak healing drops can be discontinued, yay. no more eye events till August, yay again. 

And a final medical bulletin, so engrossing, after a lot of trouble with the shoulder, pain aggravated by the tables and beds in surgery and recovery, not designed fot my dodgy neck and the skin so tender to the touch even clothes hurt, I realized that, as I ran out of aloe gel, not a problem. 

Enter the trusty kitchen aloe plant

Which I use all the time for minor burns from cooking. I can trust it to be effective on sore skin. And a pain reliever. Certainly Advil and Tylenol have done nothing, heat and ice helped, aloe gel better but I was running out of supplies.

So last night and this morning I bust open a stem and smoothed the gel on. I think I'm going with this. It's helping. Fresh is better than the jar.

Meanwhile back on the patio, finally buds. Actual marigolds appearing

And Gary's butterfly bush started, weeks late, and two monarchs appeared immediately. I wonder if there's a butterfly newsletter or something.

The volunteer tomato is flowering

Aditha tells me it's from her cherry tomato plant. It's growing in a very unpromising spot, lousy soil, shade, but seems unconcerned.

And in case you wondered, after my recent Pollan reading on the effect of various substances on the brain, we're not alone

I wonder if they enjoyed the change of pace.

Yesterday's movie was a rerun of

Which I've seen a couple of times, and will again. I never fail to sob along in the iconic scene where Eleanor finds Edward is not married after all,  despite the fake news. 

Alan Rickman, of blessed memory, as Colonel Brandon, Hugh Grant as Edward, Emma Thompson as Eleanor and scriptwriter, Oscar level, Gemma Jones, oh, everyone's excellent. Hugh Laurie as Charlotte's long suffering husband, everyone's a star in their own right, and I guess they would jump at the chance of an Ang Lee production.

Anyway if you've seen it you know all this , if not, it's you have a treat to come. 

Meanwhile I'm about to embark on

It was her teview of The Buddha in the Attic, that got me to tead it so I thought I'd read her own current work. When I get into it, I'll let you know how it goes.

This is after

Comfort rereading, despite being set in the London blitz (!)

And the evening audiobook, when I'm too too tired to read

Yesterday a couple of granddogs visited next door, Chase the golden retriever and Joey the Heinz terrier mix. So the book went along with the theme. 

Happy day everyone. Find something to enjoy. Brits, your heatwave will pass, it will.

The day after, yay.

Thanks for all the goodwill coming at me!

Yesterday was a bit more eventful than I'd hoped. The lens took a long time to get installed, so it was more like 45 minutes thsn the expected 20. He had cautioned me that this could happen. Anyway he succeeded, and that part went well. Squeamish Readers, Skip The Next Bit. 

However I had a reaction  maybe to the anaesthesia, maybe the fasting, maybe dehydration, which went on a while. 

After they were pretty sure I wasn't going to throw up any more, they let me leave. Except I had to decorate the sidewalk right after I got in the car.. then waves all afternoon gradually decreasingly till by evening I was okay. But I did get relief for a while from the shoulder pain, a drastic remedy if you ask me.

Gary dropped by to check, and promptly dashed home to find me a nausea remedy he uses! Mike was administering sips of iced tea and tiny bits of the sandwich he'd provided for my lunch , following the recovery nurse's instructions. Between them I had great tlc.

Mike finally got away late afternoon when we were sure all was fine. Later Gary came by to see if I had supper, but I was still working, as wait staff say, on lunch.

I may live alone but yesterday I had resident family care. It was great. And I had a great night's sleep after I sorted out pillows so I could be propped up.

So finally I got to try out my new eyesight. Blurry for a while, then much better. I think it's going to work. The only trick is that my glasses show total confusion out of one lens and moderate correction out of the other. I can function distance without them, but reading not so much. This will be interesting until the other eye is done. But it's what I was told to expect. So there's that.

This morning off to another eye doc in a different office for first followup. Then peace to enjoy my new confused view of the world. Everything looks brighter and cleaner from one eye, interesting.  And I'm following the juggling of eyedrops, tricky when reading's an issue. 

I wonder if I should get reading pince nez, hanging them around my neck, or have I been seeing too many old movies. Maybe a lorgnette, that would be fun.

Enough medical stuff for now, because I found a great old black and white movie, very funny, all the usual Brit comedy suspects, just silly fun. Hapless jewel thieves, hapless business owner and super capable secretary. 

The two principals were husband and wife in real life and regular acting partners too.

And look here, to see who got one line and a thirty second appearance

Yes, the divine Geraldine.

So that's us around here today. None of my cooking was sampled, in fact handsome Son seemed pretty uninterested in heating some for lunch today, when we get home. 

I'm betting he's already got his lunch arranged, probably on his way to the shore, the weather being lovely and he getting to the end of his week's vacation which has been severely interrupted by his aged Mom's needs.

Happy day everyone! All's well.

The Admirable Crichton, and prep

Thank you for all the good wishes, everyone who commented and emailed, so supportive. Writing early before Mike comes to pick me up. I have to be there at 8.15 for surgery at 9.15.   With luck, home by 11.

I'm prepped and up early, a bit hungry, but that has to wait till I get home again, hopefully with better vision to see what I'm eating, and a sense of relief that Eye One is done. I suspect my shoulder might feel better once the stress is relieved, too. I'm sure it's all connected.

Meanwhile, other prep yesterday

Chicken, roast fries, onions and spinach, bowl of biscuit dough, waiting to cook, then dished up, in the fridge and ready to reheat.

Also a little something to go with tea, walnut and golden raisins

Yesterday's movie was

Peculiar little movie about social caste and how you can't fight it. The desert island fantasy where people make chic clothes from palm leaves, magically create houses, furniture and cooking equipment, learn to hunt with homemade bows and arrows, that part is fun, though. A bit like Gilligan's Island meets Robinson Crusoe.

Happy day everyone, hoping for success for everyone today.

Victoria and Agatha

Current reading, between finishing the Winterson essays, the Alice B Toklas, and the Pollan book on LSD, is this biography

Which I may not finish. It tends to be full of the biographer's personal opinions, as much as the history of the person. She did thorough research into Christie's writings, voluminous as they are, quoting a lot from her Mary Westmacott novels, less well known than her Christie ones.  Like a lot of writers, the interesting parts are the books rather than the life, writing being a solitary pursuit.

Christie was a more complex personality than meets the eye, with an interest in the occult, and a wildly self-contradictory stand in women's lives. 

She had been brought up to believe marriage was the only possible life for a woman, yet she let nothing stand between her and her ambition to write. 

She did marry twice, to unfaithful men, though it's not certain whether she knew her second husband had a long time lover and continued to throughout their marriage. 

She largely financed the archaeological expeditions on which his archaeologist friend was also involved. It was common knowledge to everyone on the digs that he had the relationship, but maybe she chose not to know.

I haven't got far enough to see how this biographer handles that chapter, and may not, the book being a very slow, only modestly rewarding, read. 

Last night's movie was excellent, to my surprise. 

I checked it out because of the interiors and costume design and found it was very well done, acting excellent and I recommend it as a drama even if you're not interested in royalty. The power struggles are gripping.

And here's a montage of the general design

Good actors wear costumes like clothes, not like getups, and these actors do that. Screenplay by Julian Fellowes, nuff sed. It's good.

Then this morning, early sun with my breakfast of tea, biscuit and a ripe plum.

And last evening, a bit of painting

I've been looking at paintings by Dufy lately. You can probably tell.

Happy day everyone, trying to keep breathing this week. 

Tomorrow I call to arrange payment to the surgical center, just found out the doctor's office took only his fee, not both. And start the preparatory eye drops, for which I think I need a chart and alerts on my phone. 

I'm trying to look ahead to when I'll enjoy better vision. Bt the time of the second eye, I'll be an old hand at this. At least that's the plan.