Inessentials

Here’s some news.

My eye has been doing considerably better, as judged in the most practical way: I’ve been able to read for about two weeks, as long as it’s in relatively short stretches and not at certain times of the day. Other than a little soreness, it’s not been painful. Somehow, after I take the eye drops, I get the most foul, sour taste in my mouth. My eye is still sensitive to light, so I wear my sunglass pretty much everywhere I go. When I’m at home or teaching class, I close all the shades and keep the lights low, so I can be sunglasses free. I’ve got another eye appointment this morning and a meeting with a specialist later this week to see if we can find an underlying cause.

Having lost my time to prepare for my class has meant I’m not that much ahead of the students. I have in my mind where the class is going, but filling in the details is time consuming. Add in doctor’s appointments and taking care of the puppy means I don’t have much time to slack off while Nicole is away at work.

Panther has been doing really well recently. She’s smart enough to do as she’s told, and smart enough to try and fake you out when she’s going to do something bad. Her latest trick occurs when we take her outside to go to the bathroom without her leash. She walks the boundary of where she knows she is allowed to be, holding her head up in the air like everything is nonchalant. She goes a couple paces beyond where you would think she would run, but then she doubles back and takes off running. She’s reaching the point where she can outrun me for the first 15 yards, which is a bit dangerous with all the cars in our condo complex. But she always gets distracted by something (like a leaf) or forgets you are following here, so she slows down and gets caught. This week we begin our formal training with her on commands.

The weather here has been extremely hot and humid the last couple days. Yesterday it broke for an hour with some thunderstorms, but the weather didn’t clear up. It’s just as hazy and hot today.

It’s time to get ready for class today. Panther is happily playing with a cardboard tube, remnant of a toilet paper roll. My eye drops are in. I’m caught up on the news. No excuses left.

UPDATE: My eye appointment went well. My vision is pretty poor, but the inflammation is finally way down. I can stop taking the dilating drops, and only have to take the steroid drops every two hours. I’ve never had to do something every waking hour for a month until now. I won’t miss it.