Thursday, October 23, 2008

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Tomorrow is Cousins Day and it's my turn to bring the drinks I have been completely uninspired, I have to admit so I decided that the thing to do would be to just go to the store and check out the flavored vodkas and see what recipes I could find on them.

Only problem is that they now put vodka in clear bottles with white printing in about 2 point type that is impossible for me to read. The only bottle I found that had a hint of offering something directed me to its web site for recipes. Well, thanks a lot. It would be nice if I had a Blackberry or iPhone, but I didn't even have my cell phone with me at all.

Ultimately, I found a bottle of "Pomegranate martini," which apparently is the whole kit and kaboodle all mixed together for you. You just chill, pour, and serve with a slice of lemon.

That's about the kind of drink I'm up for this month.

Walt was gone most of the day today, first to work and then to a meeting for Citizens Who Care, on whose board he serves.

I am feeling much better, thanks to Sudafed, and could have gone to the store while he was gone, but in all honesty, I didn't want to drive during the daytime.

There is an advantage of being a semi-hermit. Sitting here in the house, doing my normal routine, I am hardly aware of the eye problem (which gets checked on Monday! Yay!) The only time I really notice it is when I have to work for an extended period of time with WordPerfect.

I have managed to darken most of the other screens I spend a lot of time on, but I can't find a way to darken the Word Perfect screen. (There probably is a way, but I can't find it in the help menu, and I'm using such an old version of WP that if you go to their help desk, they just laugh at you!)

I was working on the translation of a new Morning Story and had to take a break every 15 minutes or so because the glare was getting to me. And I've taken myself out of the transcription pool until this gets resolved. Or not--but let's not go there!

So I decided to wait until after dinner to go the supermarket to check for the booze for tomorrow. It was absolutely delightful getting in the car. With no sun in the sky and only blackness around me, I wasn't even aware that I was having a problem at all. Unless I passed a car with exceptionally bright headlights, but since it's a 4 lane road from here to the store, even that wasn't a problem.

I find it encouraging that darkness is so comfortable for me, because I would think that if this is something other than cataracts, the problem would persist no matter what the light. If that's not the case, don't tell me. I want to keep my fantasy going for the next few days, please.

* * *

There is also reason to be cautiously optimistic about Nicki too. Oh, there is still something wrong with her, but I notice that she seems to be getting the idea of going outside to pee (at least some of the time. We've gone from mopping up several puddles a day to only one or two).

And after her trauma at the Farmers Market the other day, she is starting to not only enjoy, but invite human affection. Today she slept in my arms, just like a normal puppy, for about half an hour.

Well, not exactly like a normal puppy. I'm starting to think that while the ophthalmologist says she sees just fine, that she sees, but not "just fine." Most of the time she was cuddled in my arms, she would lift her head up and look up and then around and back down again. Like she was trying to figure out where she was. I also notice that whenever she gets over under the kitchen table, she howls. Never does it any other time, but I think she gets "lost" there.

The ranch in Wyoming rejected her. The guy said that (a) they aren't taking new cases now, and (b) they aren't set up to take behavior cases that stem from neurological problems. But he did say that it sounded like my assessment of "doggie autism" might be right. I'm not completely sure about that any more, since she has started responding. But she doesn't smell cheese when you hold it up in front of her nose, she hears sound, but doesn't always know which direction it's coming from, and from the very beginning I wondered if she had vision problems, even though she obviously isn't blind.

So who knows. Let's hope Nicki and I will both get better soon...and if only one of us can get better, let's hope it's me!

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