Time Flies

Where does the time go? Well, the July 21st weekend was reserved for Harry Potter. I had pre-ordered a copy, so I didn't want to go anywhere until it arrived. Then I read until I finished, about 10 pm. Well, I took a few breaks, including one of about 2 hours around 6 pm, when I walked Nikki, had supper, and did a few other things to give my eyes a rest. When I picked it up again around 8, I knew I was going to keep going to the end. And I was very happy with the ending.

On July 27th, I had a followup appointment with my retinal opthamologist. The left eye has healed well from the surgery, although peripheral vision seems reduced. Then she did a laser treatment on the other retina. She explained that there were signs that it could be subject to tears or detachment as well. Normally, they don't do this laser treatment just for that, but when you've had tears or detachment in the other eye, they do recommend it. So I did it, and it wasn't fun. You know how when lots of light flashes go off, and your eye starts to water? Well, this was over 400 bursts of green lasers directly into the eye, and there was a gadget to force/keep the eyelids open. It wasn't painful, exactly, but very uncomfortable. Afterwards, I couldn't see anything but red for awhile, and my vision was pretty blurry the rest of the day. But the next day, it started getting back to normal, although it felt sunburned for a couple of days.

On August 1st, I reported for jury duty at the county courthouse. I was in the pool for the second jury called that day, and with a number excused before me, was put on the jury. Fortunately, it was a pretty simple case of possession of a stolen vehicle, and even with the various delays, we were done by Friday noon. I took the bus downtown each day. Most of the other riders were regular commuters, absorbed in their reading and/or iPods. But Friday, since I was going home at lunchtime, I was on a non-express bus, and in the free-ride zone of downtown you get some interesting characters. There were two guys in the row in front of me who looked a little worse for wear. The older one was trying to comfort the younger. He said, "You can't blame yourself, man. That guy shot up 3 times a day for years, and then he walked in front of 2 cars. He committed suicide. It's not your fault, even if you did sell him his last high." Okaaay, I don't hear things like that very often.