Looking, not so much seeing

One of the things that the stroke took was my pleasure in reading. I
used to never be without a book on the train, one of the major
benefits of commuting by rail: no need to keep an eye on the road.

It's more difficult now: I'm less able to maintain concentration
across a full line of text (which always was difficult due to my weak
close vision in the right eye). Martina's sensible suggestion of
looking into correction, which I sort of dismissed earlier (I very
clearly remember the sick headaches from poorly cleaned glasses in my
childhood and abhor the 'thing in my eye' aspect of contact lenses,
regardless of construction), is looking more and more sensible as I
consider it. One thing at a time, bariatric surgery thing first, see
about glasses or worse second. (The other way around I'd be first
treated to a better view of what I don't really want to contemplate.)

I've run a Kindle emulator on my desktop system at home, and a real
one is an intriguing idea, but I'm no more a fan of current major
releases in the literary world than in the cinematic one. I'll be
needing to walk a lot in the coming months/years and doing that with
eyes fixed on a screen isn't a healthy option. Earbuds jammed in
place is probably second-rate too, but that's more likely that reading
while walking.

Zombie apocalypse postponed

Texas the site of monkey apocalypse Waller, Grimes counties overrun! Connection to wildfires unproven!

Next it'll be 'musings', I knew it'd come to this some day!

Well, I see again I've fallen out of the habit, and hardly have the inclination to start again, but let's try personal anecdotes, see if that helps:

Two or three years ago I had a problem after a small aneurysm in the
fovea of one eye which did no lasting harm, but was scary. It might
not have been noticed except in such an important part of the retina,
the very spot where the sharpest vision occurs. It produced a visual
effect that looked like an uneven blob-shaped flashbulb after-image
that didn't fade for months, and introduced me to the confusing world
of eye-docs. They specialize like nobody else!

My primary care doctor referred me to an eye-doc generalist who
examined my vision and referred me to a retina specialist because only
that specialist could refer me to the retina super-specialist, part of
a group practice where each doc every week works a day in each of four
different offices, so the whole state gets coverage. Fancy goldfish
tank; help-yourself bagels and coffee and sandwiches since so many of
the patients are diabetic. Very workman-like, sit in the waiting room,
get called to read an eye chart and have the results recorded, back to
wait a while, get called by the eye-dilation tech, back to wait a bit
for the eyes to dilate, be called to have retinas photographed (that'd
be an interesting series of photos if presented in time-lapse: the
clot left by the aneurysm smaller at each visit, always the shape of
the "after-image" it produced) , quite a production, eventually see
the doctor. When he's done with each visit, there are one-shot
sunglasses for anyone who forgot to bring better ones. He offered
laser surgery to remove the clot but advised watchful waiting instead
(if anything goes wrong in the surgery, it goes wrong for life), so he
essentially did nothing, but expertly. Took a couple of months, but
the clot was absorbed over that time by just waiting, so I don't
complain, just remark.

Goodbye, Timbo!

A 49-year-old female gorilla failed to awake from anesthesia after dental and eye surgery at Dallas Zoo Tuesday.