Training Log Archive: PG

A short outing to test the various sore places. Definitely better. Hopefully will be OK tomorrow for something similar. Need to get back to doing something other than eating.

These are my instructions. Major cause of worry was it took about 4 hours for bleeding to stop, finally using a tea bag seemed to be the answer.

Then a good bit of pain during the night, despite stronger medicine (hydrocodone). But then tried plain old ibuprofen this morning, worked like a charm. :-)

And very glad we are not traveling today. Just have to make a couple of pies (where my role is limited to the heavy lifting).

C • Teabag 3

Well, things are moving quickly, so I guess that's a good thing. Regular dentist took a look and an x-ray, said the odds are very low the tooth can be saved. He got me an appointment with an oral surgeon this afternoon, so very likely #31 is down to its last hours.

I have always been terrified going to the dentist, ditto for today in spades, but I guess best to get it done as it's not going to heal itself.

C • Encouragement 19

Well, 31 is gone. Just another interesting life experience, I guess.

As has been commented, the fear is much worse than the procedure. It took the doc just one look to determine the tooth was shot. We had a discussion about what was to come. I asked that he not scrimp on the painkillers. And then it was time to go.

Out came this srynge, looked the size to use on a horse, and he poked me in about three places. I didn't mind that, the more the better. Then he left for 10 minutes to let it work.

Then back with two nurses and a tray of implements that looked suitable for a variety of torture. But first a few more shots of painkiller. This doc was OK.

And then he went to work. He'd said the tooth might come out in a bunch of pieces, especially since it had had a root canal and was more brittle. And so it did. After a bunch of pushing and pulling and a frontal assault by some drill-like gismo, and some more pushing and pulling, and the sound of what I assume was tooth snapping, he announced with satisfaction that one root was cleanly out.

Root #2 seemed a bit more of a challenge but eventually it too succombed. And the new gap was stuffed with gauze, and I was told to keep biting down on it hard.

So far so good, really. Talking with one's teeth clenched is not easy either to do or to understand, but it can be done. Got my instructions for the next few days and then was off.

Off to the pharmacy, that is, which also doubles as a supermarket. The place was mobbed, snow coming tomorrow and everyone panics. Got in line, after a while it was my turn, nice old lady assistant figured out what I was saying, and then said, "It will be ready in two hours, we're swamped."

I'd already told her about my tooth. Two hours really?

Call in an hour, she said, who knows.

So I went off to buy some liquid foods. Did that. I was feeling so relieved that the extraction was over, and of course the painkillers were still doing their thing, that I didn't even object when the woman ahead of me in the express line produced about 40 items instead of the supposed maximum of 12.

And now what to do? Home was 20 minutes away. Better just to wait. I went back to the pharmacy to plunk myself down on the bench. The old lady saw me, waved me over. I put a rush on it, she said. :-)

I paid the bill, 40 cents. Thanked her as profusely as I could manage with clenched teeth. I have written before about customer service and how some get it, some don't. She did.

I walked out of the store. There was a Salvation Army guy and his kettle. I never give. Today there wasn't a moment of hesitation, a few dollars in the kettle and a smile on my face. Sometimes good behavior leads to more good behavior.

Home now, several hours later. I think I have finally got the bleeding to stop. Things hurt a good bit now that the painkillers have worn off. So far at least, as others suggested, the anticipation has been the worst thing. I can put up with a little pain.

Definitely falling apart, now a broken tooth to add to about five other body parts that are complaining. What's next? Some sort of match with Phil to see who is the most dysfunctional? :-)

C • Phil 19

A bit of a trail run before heading east. Seems like everything hurts.

C • e-mail 6

Relaxed hike with Gail along a section of the Mountains to the Sea trail. Lovely afternoon.

And earlier in the day a round at a fine old Donald Ross course in Asheville. Very enjoyable.

And then dinner at a funky little spot, Cecelia's Kitchen, just wonderful. Continuing my usual late fall bulking up….

C • Yeah 3

Feels like winter.

Still feeling battered. Various cuts and bruises, plus the fall on Saturday gave me a partial rib job. Not terrible, but I don't really want to sneeze or cough, or roll over in bed, or run….

Map from the night-O --

In Aiken, SC, a short run just before dark. Feeling very tired and slow, no big surprise, though there is always hope.

Forgot to say that it was another really fine job by QOC today. Fine course by Nadim.

I am feeling quite battered, but that is certainly not their fault. :-)

UltraLong champs, M60, Green, 11.8 km, 445m.

Pretty good run. Excellent navigation, no mistakes, but got more and more tired, stumbling and falling a lot. I think I was second or third at about 3/4 of the couse, behind Spike and maybe a cadet, but then first Stefan Slutsky and Angelica went by, then not far from the end Tom Overbaugh, Pavlina, Izzy, and a cadet or two.

Nevertheless, very pleased. And that despite getting whacked by a branch, cuts to the bridge of my nose and just under my left eye, both administered by my glasses. I was losing blood for the rest of the course.

Didn't matter. What mattered was Kenny's answer when I ran by him at the food stop and I asked how I looked. "Hard core." :-)

A selfie was taken.... :-)

The question is whether I show it to my eye doctor at my next visit.

C • Kenny 1

C • Thanks 2

C • Hard Core 8

Maps from the UltraLong (Green course), part 1 --



and part 2 --



and part 3 --



and part 4 --

UltraLong Championships - Green - Splits

QOC middle, M60, GreenX, 3.7 km, 170 meters.

Fine Quantico terrain, map, and course. All first class. Same can be said for the whole operation.

I had a good run. Only time lost was about a minute, maybe a little more, from falling down 6 or 8 times. The last was really hard and I wasn't even running, just stepping over a log and about to punch #8. Something happened and down I went, took the brunt of the impact on my chest, rattled me for a moment. But then get up and move on, what else are you supposed to do?

Navigation seem easy plus bags easy to see. New eyes? But legs were wobbly.

The map and my route (click on map for larger image) --

Awards ceremony this afternoon for the night-O champs. Medal had my name and time on the back. As I said, very much a first-class operation by QOC.

C • Medals 3

Middle - Green X - Splits

Event: QOC Long Day's Night
 

Night-O champs, M70, Brown, 4.2 km, 170m.

Decent run for me. Very open woods. Cold evening. But very enjoyable and the time went by really quickly.

Thanks QOC.

Middle tomorrow, M60.

Night Championships - Brown - Splits

Early run with Dave around town. Less energy again, but good conversation helped get through it.

On the way back from Hanover, the plan was to stop at some trails in Brattleboro, but a little math showed that if I didn't want to run in the dark, I'd best do sooner. So got off 91 at Rt. 103, found a parking place and headed up Rt. 5.

Turned out better than you might think. Very little traffic, nice scenery following the river north. And for the first time in a few weeks I had some energy. :-)

A couple miles north, turn around, a couple miles back, getting quite dark by the time I got back to the car, and it was only 4:50 pm. And getting a little chilly too. But very glad I'd done it.

--------------

And Hanover? Met up with Peter and Ed for some scouting of logistics (arenas, parking, etc.) for the middle and long, then a meeting with Brian from the college and Carl also there. Then more scouting of logistics for sprint and sprint relay. Felt like lots of progress.

Favorite phrase from Brian -- No problem closing roads, we do that all the time.

C • Springfield rail trail 2

It's not tax season, but this is not really about taxes anyway….

I got a call from the office yesterday, a guy had gotten a letter saying he owed $400 or so, had left the letter at the office, had no idea what it was about. This happens often enough. Computer generated, something doesn't match up between the tax return that was filed and various data the tax folks receive from other sources.

And you never know, sometimes the tax folks are right, and sometimes they are wrong. The one thing you are pretty sure of is that it will be a pain in the butt to take care of.

This one is from Massachusetts, and they are sometimes better to deal with than the IRS, sometimes worse. But there is at least the possibility of resolving it on the phone. It does happen.

The letter is mostly cryptic, full of paragraphs about the process if you want to appeal and the shit you are in if you don't pay, and maybe it's best if you just pay first and then think about appealing later. And it's only in the fine print that I find out the problem, namely, that MA wants to be paid the tax on 7K of unemployment that was received in 2011. Yup, we're still dealing with 2011.

So I pull out the client's file, wondering why we didn't report the 7K on the MA return, and it doesn't take long before the bell starts ringing, oh yeah, this guy got unemployment from the railroad, and there are special rules for that, like it's not taxable at the state level. Excellent.

But before I call, I'd like to be able to cite chapter and verse of the law that says this, but I can't find anything on the state website. But I do find other statements on the web that this is the case, just no references to the actual law.

And I do have a note in the file from 2011 that I had talked to a guy at MA tax place about this.

So time to call. I already have a bad feeling because the phone number the letter gives seems to be the general phone number for the tax folks, not one dealing with audits. Which it is.

Thirty minutes later a guy finally answers. We go through all the identification process before he'll talk to me, then I explain the issue and why we are right, and it's about then that he says, "Oh, you've got the wrong department. I'll transfer you to the audit division."

At the audit department things are looking up. A guy answers almost immediately. Do the ID stuff, he pulls up the file, I explain the issue, oops, sorry, you've got the wrong department.

Transferred again.

Again, a guy answers almost immediately, we do the ID stuff, he pulls up the file, I explain the issue, he asks if he can put me on hold. No, he sure can't, not before I give him my phone number in case we get cut off. But then I'm on hold, and listen to music for a few minutes.

And then he's back.

"You're right, I voided it."

Boom, just like that, no letter to be written, no documents to be faxed.

And he says, the return was actually filed correctly, just the way you're supposed to, report the unemployment on the first page, take it back off on another form, just right. Except the computer can't deal with it. So you got the notice.

I look in my file, the 2012 and 2013 returns will have the same issue. The guy says maybe the software will be fixed by then, maybe not. He'll put a note in the file. And he couldn't have been nicer or more on the ball.

So I spent an hour. I was pissed that it took an hour, and also pleased that I could make an easy call to my client. And the case was closed.

A mix of competency and incompetency. I think that just reflects the nature of humanity and institutions. The challenge is to find the competency, figure out how to make it so that systems work. But that can be very hard.

It is similar in organizing O' events. It is very hard. It is a matter of finding the competencies and matching them up with the jobs, and then pushing the learning curve as much as you can. And still keeping your fingers crossed.

But when that is done, when things work right, as they did this past weekend for all of Ed's technical stuff, then it is quite amazing and a pleasure to behold. Because these things are not easy.

Exploring trails in the Saw Mill hills with Phil.

Boy were we a sad lot today. Phil was having a big dose of A-fib, at least for the first 20 minutes or so. And I had another of those zero energy days, sweating a ton, feeling weak, though not actually running far enough or fast enough to merit any of that. Really just wanted to sit down.

But we wandered here and there, found a few bike trails, other still to be checked. And then came out on the roads at the end via a trailhead that we never ever would have found otherwise.

So more to do. And hopefully we will bring our A (or B or even C) games, and not the F games we had today.

C • F game 3

One trip up and down South Sugarloaf. Time was slow. Might have helped if I was warmed up, might not, but confirms how my legs were feeling this past weekend.

Fine view of a red fox on the way down, crossed in front of me and then posed just up the slope as I went by. It clearly wasn't scared.

Day 2, Green course, M60, 5.3 km.

Another day where the energy levels were not good. Seems to have been the case all week, don't know why. So although I did some decent orienteering, when push came to shove, I didn't have it.

Chase start, had Glen and Tim starting 10 seconds or so after me. I started dragging on the sidehill and slightly uphill slog to #3 and fell a little behind, maybe 30-40 meters. Made that up at #4 when they both went too high and didn't see me cutting down to it. But the margin was not enough of a gap to put me out of sight, and so things slowly closed back up and by about #7 or 8 we were all together again.

Slightly different routes to 9, but no difference, ditto to 11. I arrived there to find we had caught up to Ernst, several minutes. That was the classic good news and bad news. Good news that we had caught up. Bad news in that one more person made the odds of error even lower, and at the end, there was no doubt in my mind that I would clearly be last.

So I took a different route to 12, to the right, they all went left. It might have been OK, but my energy just wasn't there, moving way too slow. Got to the point and no sign of them, splits showed they had been a minute faster on an 8 minute leg. So that was that.

Polished things off with a miss at 13, and really dragging through the junk to 14, and by the time I came in they had already showered and changed. At least it seemed like that.

But still an acceptable run as far as the navigation goes. Helps that the eyesight is better, probably helps a lot. But somehow that just reinforces the feeling I've always had about orienteering -- I know where I am, I know where I'm going, I just can't get there.

But not really complaining. At this point after a run I often find myself thinking -- survived to run at least one more day. Someday that will not be true. But not yet.

--------------

And afterwards, a bunch of good conversations -- plans for the 2016 North Americans, junior development issues, team matters. There are good things going on, and good people doing them.

And the same could be said for the weekend -- very well organized by a bunch of good people. Ian seemed under control, Ed was getting a full night's sleep. What is the world coming too? :-)

Green - Splits

Event: NEOC: 2014 Troll Cup
 

Very nice day after the orienteering was done with…

-- Talked some with PG(oodwin) and Carl about things up in Hanover re the North Americans. We're planning a visit on Wednesday, meet up with Brian Kunz, Dartmouth person we're dealing with, who in fact has been orienteering a long time, was a member of NEOC many years ago.

I still haven't figured out what role, if any, I'm game for, but for now thinking maybe I can help a little getting things going. So why not.

-- And also talked some with Mac Bishop, a video and multimedia journalist for the NY Times. I don't know how the connection was made, but he spent some time out in Harriman with Thierry Gueorgiou in the week after the Sam/Ross wedding, and decided he was something special. So something is in the works. Mac was here doing more research, talking to a bunch of people.

-- And later, a very fine dinner at Bangkok Hill in Lunenburg, excellent place, not far from where Mr. JJ lives. Would go there more if it was closer to home.

C • restaurant 3

Running a little late, so jogged much of the way to the start.

Troll Cup at Townsend, day 1, Green, M60, 5.5 km.

Somehow rather unsatisfying, and perhaps for not the best of reasons. Meaning, judging your run by how others did and not by how you felt you did. And then feeling, damn, should have been a little better.

The orienteering was not easy, and the woods were certainly scruffy. Offsetting those two factors, the map (and the printing) seemed excellent, though perhaps for budget reasons using a little less green ink than the area warranted, and the controls were very visible.

I think my major difficulty was the scruffy woods. Had seemingly low energy for the first 10 minutes, but then that improved, but there was always the sense that movement through the woods was slow. Never once had the sense I was moving fast (as opposed to, say, 2 weeks ago at Mountain Lakes, where at least on the downhills I was really hustling).

Not sure what the reason was -- too cautious in the navigation, no fighting spirit, or just not strong enough for this kind of forest? I think some mixture of the three.

Which means for tomorrow that at least there is chance for improvement in two of them. :-)

C • Green ink 2

Green - Splits

Got a jury summons in the mail. I've been called a few times over the years, ended up serving on two juries, both civil cases, both interesting from the point of view of learning something about humanity, both also rather unsatisfying. The other times either the service has been cancelled the day before, or I got to show up at the courthouse and hang around for a few hours before being sent home.

Nothing at all like Gail's experience, she got on jury duty for a whole month…

But in reading the rules I discover that there are various reasons that you can be disqualified -- things you might expect, such as you don't speak English, you're not a citizen, you don't live here anymore, you were convicted of a felony sometime in the last seven years -- and then one I was surprised to see….

You are age 70 or older and choose not to serve.

So, how seriously do I take my civic responsibilities?

(And a separate question -- apparently felons get a lifetime pass from voting but only a seven-year pass on jury duty?)

C • felony convictions and voting 5

C • jury duty 8

Executive summary -- three strikes and you're out.

Went off the the Sawmill hills just west of Northampton to check out some rumored single-track mountain bike trails. Couldn't find any access point on the east side (close to Florence). There was a possibility off Avis Circle but it looked questionable. So I headed over to the west side, Sylvester Road, used to run along there at times on the old N'ton half-marathon course, also a familiar spot where we used to come out of the woods after doing the Jeepeater. But I was less happy parking there, all private, so went a little farther north.

Saw a small parking area and the start of a double-track trail. Headed off. Cold and light rain. Trail degenerated rapidly, first a bit of marsh, then down to one lane and then less, pretty sure no bikes had ever been there, then up a hill, then dead end in a laurel patch.

So much for that, back to the car to look for someplace else.

C • Sawmill Hills 6

Drove up the road just a bit and there was a good bit larger parking area. This must be it. Headed off. Trail looked like something that macho guys would use to bust their ATVs. Steep up, down a little through some mud, then steep up again, big slabs of rock all over the place.

Made it to the top of the hill, though only with the help of a couple of stops. Again, no sign of bike trails. And this thing I was on wasn't real appealing.

Back to the car and onward…

Time to explore the other side of the road. Definitely a trailhead there, for the Mineral Hills Conservation Area, and even a trail map posted.

Headed off, and once again up. Still cold, still raining. The trail, once again, no way you would have wanted a bike on it, lots of rocks, some mud. I climbed a bunch, saw a sign that offered the possibility of a quick return via Turkey Hill Road, and took it.

Enough is enough.

Dried off, changed clothes, headed off in the rain and fog for my weekly trip to Litchfield. And that was OK. Went right by the airport but no flat tires this week, and very glad I wasn't on a plane. Mom was cranky, but Lina was doing fine. We chatted for a while about mom, also about wacko sister and brother-in-law, laughed a bunch. I paid the bills. A good visit.

And then on the way home, still rain and fog and now also dark, with my new eyes the driving is certainly easier. That's not to say it's fun, but you take what you can get.

Twice around the upper loop at Earl's Trails, pretty mellow, not much in the way of hills. Though it still feels like harder work than it should. Maybe by this weekend I'll get my legs back.

Had just finished and a couple of mountain bikers popped out of the woods, recognized one, Dylan, friend of Phil's son Adam. We chatted a bunch, mainly about where they go mountain biking. Seems like I should check out the hills west of Northampton/Florence, as there is now some single-track there in addition to the little bit of old woods roads that I've run on a few times, mostly 20-30 years ago. Always on the lookout for new places…. :-)

Back to the Amherst College track. Even if the legs are struggling a bit, need to run faster a little or I will forget how to do so.

First, a short tour of the Amherst campus to warm up.

And then some 400s with 200s in between. Didn't quite get it right. Plan was 8 of each with the 400s about 1:45 and the 200s sufficiently slow to allow me to keep going. I think the 200s were just a little quicker than needed, so after 5 cycles I was definitely working too hard. So finished up with a 200, which rounded the distance off nicely at 2 miles.

1:45.3, 1:10.7
1:43.9, 1:10.9
1:44.4, 1:11.4
1:44.1, 1:08.8
1:43.6, 1:07.5
47.5

And then off to another eye appointment to adjust the medicine. So far so good.

So at what point, if ever, does one (or should one) sign up to help organize the 2016 North Americans? And in what role? A particularly pertinent question for me because (1) there is certainly not the excuse of being an elite runner and having participating (and representing the USA) be more important; (2) while Hanover is an hour and 45 minutes up I-91 from here, in the big picture of available people, I am relatively local; (3) I have time.

The question is the desire, and the willingness to spend two years on the project.

I remember back in 1988 when the Board voted to move forward with the bid for WOC-93. I think I voted for it, though I'm not really sure. But I sure didn't raise my hand to start organizing it. Mainly, I didn't want to spend 5 years on a project where you don't know until the final day is over whether you have done OK or not. And the standard for OK is batting pretty close to 100%.

So I sat on my hands for 4 years. And then a year before the event, jumped in (both Gail and I) all the way. And I never regretted either decision, either the sitting on the sidelines for the first 4 years, or the huge amount of work in the final year. Of course it matters that, from my perspective, we did OK.

So back to the North Americans. There is no local club. UNO and GMOC are the closest, but they are not close. And neither is a big club. So there will have to be a good bit of help from other clubs, or other individuals, to make it work.

This has happened before. I remember the US Champs in 1979 near Richmond, VA. Course setter was Hans Bengtsson of NEOC. Yours truly was in charge of registration and results. Back then those were the two main roles. And things worked just fine.

And other events, like the WMOC in Minnesota, and many events in Wyoming, have had a lot of help from outside the local area. So I assume it can work again.

The problem, as with any such organizational task, is to not just get enough volunteers, but to get the right volunteers. Meaning, ones that are good at whatever role they end up playing. Because the worst thing is for some one to stick up their hand and then, when everyone thinks things are taken care of, just drop the ball.

So it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It would be nice to see lots of people express their intention of going by adding their names to this list. And it would also be nice to start seeing offers to help on the organizational side.

Which means, in my case, offering to do what?

C • Sign up to help organize the 2016 North Americans? 8

Trails near Eaglebrook, beautiful day, but I had no energy at all, don't know if blood sugar was off, or just one of those days. But still better to be out doing something.

Seemed like the arch had had enough time to mend and so time to see if I remembered how to run. It was very windy, out of the north, so I went to the south part of the Norwattuck map to run the Bachelor Street bike trails, figuring that there would be less wind, and less chance of a tree falling on me, on the south side of the range. And so it was.

Felt a bit like I hadn't run in a long time, legs rather achy, but banged the arch a couple of times and I think it survived OK. Lots of roots and rocks, and leaves covering things, and hard to follow the trails at times. But good to get out, now just have to get back to making it a daily routine.

Time for an update on the eyes --

I was delighted with the progress of the first one done, the left one, where on the close-up test I could read the next-to-smallest line of print, and for distance they could correct me to about 20-30, both a good improvement. Still need to get new glasses, so the far-off vision is still a little shaky. But the close-up, well, I could read the map last weekend a whole lot better than I could have a month ago.

The only concern was that the pressure in the eye rose a little after the operation (10-20 is normal, I'm usually about 19-20), to 23, but then a week later was 40. The doc didn't like that. So he stopped the steroid eye drops I was taking (still taking an anti-inflammatory and an anti-biotic), and added another one to reduce the pressure. Next time I went in to check things the pressure was down to 14. This stuff works.

So the second one, the right eye. Had the surgery Thursday. The surgery itself was similar, low stress, but afterwards, the eye was really irritated, or maybe the correct word is irritating. Plus a bad headache. Still felt terrible when I went to see him yesterday morning, plus worried something was wrong.

But he looked at the eye, gave his verdict, perfect. But also checked the pressure in it, and it was 50. Hmm, not good. Gave that eye a squirt and said come see him this morning.

Sometime yesterday evening, after a pretty miserable day, the dilation of the pupil seemed to have finally worn off, and I tested my up-close vision on the new eye. And damn if it wasn't better than the left one. Seemed just about perfect. Well, that was quite the surprise. And very good for morale as you might imagine.

Off to the doc this morning. Going up 91 I could read the mileage markers lots better than before. At the office, where I think I was his only appointment, felt like my own private doc, he checked the pressure on the new eye, back down to 20, excellent. Checked the close-up chart, can read the very bottom line, excellent.

And he had time to chat, so we chat a little. I tell him about the, by my count, 5 times I have very nearly done serious damage to my right eye:

-- A golf shot a long time ago, thought it would clear the bit of rock outcrop just in front of my ball, it didn't, ricochet hit me right in the right eye, shattered my glasses. Fortunately I blinked at the right moment, so was just picking the pieces of glass out of my eyelashes.

-- Ski racing, downhill training, probably going about 60 down an icy trail up at Sugarbush, following close behind our coach, came around a bend and there was a sno-cat coming up. Coach did a bit of a turn or two to slow down a little. I wasn't in full control and let them run. We both were heading for the gap to the left of the sno-cat. And I just nailed him as he cut across in front of me.

I was wearing a helmut, but I caught him with my right shoulder and right part of my head, and the right lens of my glasses once again exploded. I blinked this time too, but there was still blood all over the place, I had a ring of cuts all around my eye, but none to the eye.

And certainly quick first aid service -- the guy in the sno-cat pulled out his kit, wrapped my head in gauze, and drove both of us down to the bottom. Many stitches later, plus a week to get rid of the double vision, and I was good to go.

-- And then the time I got speared orienteering up in Canada, I was sure there was something in my eye. A close look showed a little brown speck in the inside corner. The EMT pulled out a pair of tweezers, grabbed the speck, and by the time he was done he'd pulled out about a 3/4" long piece of twig.

-- And then orienteering in OCIN-land, getting raked by a strand of multi-flora rose diagonally across the eye, gash on the upper eye lid and cheek. Healed up fine, only about 2 weeks later did I extract the large curved thorn still buried in the eyelid.

-- And, of course, the Cyclops incident, 40 stitches to repair that one.

So he understands that he is not dealing with his usual geriatric…. :-)

And we talk about what he's been doing to my eyes, and his concern from day 1 was that I wouldn't be happy doing the cataracts because there would still be the retina issues. And he says the left retina is the worse one, which is why vision in that eye won't be as good, but he was still very pleased with how it has turned out. And I'm thinking, now that the right seems even better, that this is just wonderful….

Still drops to do for another month, still more office visits, still new glasses to get, but so far the verdict is fantastic. And the doc, well, it's another case of the best possible customer service. The guy is a pro.

=======

And then one more test. Left the office, headed over to the nearby golf course. Cold (40F), stiff wind out of the north. Took a cart because rain was coming soon and the faster I got around the better.

The course was almost empty. I hit my drive off the first, looked up, watched it, watched it some more, watched it land and bounce. Wow.

An hour and 45 minutes later I was done. I could see the ball again. Whether for that reason, or just pure chance, my game was good, 78 despite bad putting. Freezing cold, but the pleasure was immense.

Life is good.

C • this is awesome news 12