I'm officially old

After going to the Eye Clinic nearly 2 weeks ago and being guinea pig to an intern for 4 hours, I finally got my new pair of graduated bifocals yesterday. Woohoo! That and my senior citizen discount card will get me 10 lousy percent off at stores that I never go to anyway.

I am enjoying my new glasses though. It's really helped at the computer. I think it's because of my weird condition of having one eye near-sighted and one eye far-sighted that I can't focus very well at a distance of about 1.5 ft from my face. When I look at far away things, my right eye essentially shuts off and lets my left eye do the work, and vice versa when I look at things close-up.

Unfortunately, poor ds#1 took after me this way.

But, it's really hard trying to adjust to using both eyes again. I had a pair of glasses previously and it always gave me a headache, so I pretty much never wore it. I am having a little bit of that right now, but not as bad as it used to be. I don't think I'll attempt driving with them yet. I'll have a couple of weeks in Vancouver (NOT driving) to adjust.

A couple of things that might be helping with this new pair of glasses are 1) it's frameless so it's more light-weight than most, and 2) it has flexible, uh, whatever that part that goes from the lenses to your ears is called, so it doesn't touch my temples. Both those things normally give me a headache, which is why it's usually so hard to find a pair of sunglasses that I like too.

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Animals...can't live with them, can't avoid spending a fortune on them

(here's the cat wishing she could go out, and the dog wishing she could come in...the proverbial grass is always greener...)

Gali's been barfing and having diarrhea on and off for the past few weeks. She didn't do it every day, so we waited to take her to the vet. But since she's not been getting better, I finally took her yesterday. Spent over an hour there, first of all. And to add insult to infernal waiting, she pooped on my shoe and got blood on my pants (from when they took blood from her to test).

Turns out, she had several different bacteria (and I'm assuming they are not the good types) in her poop (nothing like carrying a bag of runny poop around with you to the vet's; accessorizes very well with my purse). So, she's on 2 different medications for the diarrhea to begin with. Then, they asked if I wanted her to be tested for heartworms. What the hey, they may as well run a battery of tests while I'm having such fun hanging out in the waiting room picking ticks off the dog.

The bloodwork results came back - only took 10 minutes, what's another 10 minutes when you've been there an hour already - and apparently, she's got 3 other different things going on, 2 of which are heartworms and Lyme Disease. So, now, she has 2 other medications to take (and I have to wait until after the diarrhea medicine to give the other ones to her). All this on top of her Frontline Plus, which apparently isn't completely effective for keeping ticks off of her.

For the privilege of spending all that time at the vet's, plus having poop and blood on me, we get to pay a $150+ bill. Oh boy!

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

What do chairs of academic departments do?

Dunno, but this one builds outhouses!

After dh becomes chair, we will likely need to host department parties, and the idea of having all those people in my house makes me hyperventilate. So, hopefully, with the outhouse in place on our hilltop, we can host parties there and people need never step foot inside our house. Heh heh. There's 10 acres to roam, not counting the state forest that adjoins our property, nor the 5 acres of the original property down the hill, so that should keep people busy and spread apart. (Guess I didn't post my Blogthings' "Are You an Introvert?" survey here yet. I'll post it below. It explains why I'd prefer, well, not to host parties period, but also why I don't want to be confined around others...not to mention the clean floor obsession-thing, but we won't go there today.)

You Are 10% Extrovert, 90% Introvert

You avoid people at all costs You aren't one for social interaction And you limit your interaction to a select few Thank goodness for self checkout!

Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist." I'm glad I got the score I did. :)

You Are 90% Non Conformist

You're incredibly strange. And a weirdness like yours takes skill to cultivate! No one really understands you. And you're cool with that. You just hope you never have to understand them!

Are You a Nonconformist?

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

So old, yet so young

We're all contradictory to some extent. Sometimes the contrast is very interesting. Case in point is ds#1 (who is 11 years old).

In the car a few days ago, he was noting that Science News, unlike, say, Scientific American, rarely has articles written by the person who did the actual research. He said that he likes Scientific American better because the articles are more in-depth, not just summaries as in Science News, and are authored by the primary researcher or research team. I'll bet less than 10% of the 11 year old population in the United States can tell you these facts, bothers to think about them, or even knows either of the magazines.

Then that night when I went through his bedroom, I noticed, on the floor, the current book that this same kid is reading. It was The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter.

I find it very cute that the same child who completed a bird biology course from Cornell University before the age of 11 still likes to read about Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny.

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Ok, I'm addicted...

I had tried out some Blogthings surveys before, but had forgotten about them for a time. Rosie posted one today, however, and now I'm back to being addicted...darn you, Rosie! ;D

"What's Your Thinking Style?"

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Modifying

Super logical and rational, you consider every fact available to you. You don't make rash decisions and are rarely moved by emotion. You prefer what's known and proven - to the new and untested. You tend to ground those around you and add stability.

What's Your Thinking Style?

"Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?"

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

And for the last one, my sister will have to tell me if they got it close to being right. ;)
"What Makes You a Good Friend?"

You Are a Good Friend Because You're Supportive

You are almost like a life coach for your best friends. You give them help when they need it... but you also know when to give them a push. People tend to rely on you for moral support and advice. You've probably always been mature for your age, so this is a role that's you're comfortable with. A friend like you is one of the rarest kinds. You are both a good mentor and companion. Your friends need you most when: They are confused or worried You really can't be friends with: Someone who only wants to complain Your friendship quote: "The only way to have a friend is to be one."

What Makes You a Good Friend?

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Having a bad Hairball day

Hairball is our friends' cat. She is actually a very good cat, but her name makes for good word-play. ;)

Not that I don't have my gripe about her: she is needy. Now, that might be why some people like pets - so they will feel needed and loved. But, for those of us who get enough love from our spouses, families, and friends, I invoke David Duchovny's comment about not liking to work with maggots (on the X-Files set) because they're so needy. It's bad enough that kids are needy, but when I have pets that are too, it makes me a bit crazy (or crazier, as dh would remind me).

Chickens have to be the perfect pets. They are not needy, but can be personable, and they give you food! I think dh and I have decided that after the dog dies, we'll stick with just chickens from then on.

(photo is of Hairball and Gali at Hairball's home)

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

It's kind of funny, really

My dear sister recently had a bit of a fall-out with a long time friend because of something she wrote about him in her blog (luckily they seemed to have kissed and made up...or at least made up...). I told dh about it, and he reiterated what he's always said about cautioning me not to put my blog URLs on the sig line of my e-mail in case people read one of my whiny posts.

Well, the truth of the matter is, nobody actually reads my blogs even though the URLs are on my e-mail. All right, not "nobody;" a handful of people do...and you know who you are...but really pretty much nobody else does. In fact, dh asked me just a couple of days ago why my URL wouldn't work when he tried to bring it up at his office. Couldn't figure it out at first, but finally (I'm a bit slow), I realized instead of ".blospot", I had typed in ".blogger" for my URLs. I think I must have done that at one point when I changed my sig line.

Anyway, my point is not one person told me that I had it wrong from seeing it in my e-mail for the past umpteenth months. Therefore, nobody must have tried to click on the URLs, and it proves that nobody reads my blog, and dh is worried for nothing. I like it when I prove dh wrong. Heh heh.

I suppose if I dissed one of my friends online, that'd probably guarantee that that particular friend will read my blog. But, I'm trying to be more "compassionate" (see Janet Luhr's latest issue of Simple Living newsletter), so I'll try not to diss anyone.

Besides, this blog (both my blogs) is just another journal venue because I'm not always good about the pen-paper one (I save my delicious vents for that one...haha), so if nobody read it, it really doesn't matter.

File this under Brain Farts.

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Dry as British wit

...but not nearly as funny or satisfying...that's how the soil has been. And from the Unisys forecast, it doesn't look like there's any rain in sight.

We still have asparagus stragglers; dh used some in the vegetarian pasta we had last night. Yummy!

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Savoring being back home...

...if only for a month before heading off again.

Gaia hatched a total of 5 chicks, 2 of which died. Our poor friends/neighbors had to deal with one of the dead chicks. I hope they got plenty of fresh eggs and veggies from our garden to compensate for putting up with the smell and ickiness. We asked for that sort of smelly farm life, but they didn't, but they sure are good sports about helping us out whenever we're out of town, which is often. I hope they won't move to Germany; we'll miss them a bunch.

I think we're pretty much caught up with the weeding now, at least for a little while. Dh is still planting regularly. The bleep-bleep voles keep eating our corn seeds. Dh says he may resort to starting seedlings and transplanting. I don't know if he's joking or not because I don't know if corn is amenable to that process.

While in Delaware, I saw a program on C-Span which featured a talk by Barbara Kingsolver. She was reading some excerpts, with accompanying slides, from her new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. As with all her books, it sounds highly readable and intelligent. I'll have to check it out. Our library is ordering copies, but there are already 49 holds on it. It's a sure sign of living in a progressive small town. Ah, I noticed the large print edition only has 3 holds. I'll go for that. My aging eyes will thank me for it.

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)