Yippee! I'm Sprung!

Not that I don’t enjoy being with Amy and Barry; they have long been my favorite stopping place on my trips to New York and back and the welcome mat is always out! But I am anxious to get home and plant tulips and rake leaves and assess the damage the squirrels made to the re-seeded grass. There should be a few more days yet that I can sit on the deck and enjoy the colors and the sunshine.

Dr. Lass reported yesterday that the swelling in my eye had reduced - not all gone but - enough to his satisfaction that he returned the eye drop frequency to the normal post-op gradually diminishing regimen. I only have to put drops in 3x a day instead of six! That’s a treat.

Amy and I have decided that, In addition to being renowned for his work with Fuchs Distrophy, Dr. Lass has a great interest in the Arts. On past visits he has off-handedly mentioned Monet’s changing colors in his paintings and when he had laryngitis, he said he was glad he did not have to sing La Boheme that night. This week he told us that he is a member of the World Doctors Orchestra. They do fund-raising concerts around the world and he sounded excited that they would be going for the first time to Central America, in November, Santiago, Chile, in fact, and then to Patagonia. “Dressed in a tux and standing on a glacier”, he said, with a little smile. I asked him what instrument he played and he said cello. He is a tall man and I can just “see” him with his long legs wrapped around his cello. I’ll bet he plays First Chair. ☺

Tomorrow I am heading back to Covington. I will have to return to Cleveland in three weeks for my final checkup and I will not get my new glasses prescription until then but I can manage with my old glasses for now. It’s awkward taking the glasses off and putting them on frequently, and when I wear my solar shields outside, I look like a recluse hiding from the world. The people who speak to me on my walks must be really brave; some won’t even look at me, let alone respond to my hello. The solar shields are wonderful, though, because they never strain my eyes and I don’t have to worry about anything getting into my eyes; they are entirely enclosed.

Jon and Beth have only two more days of actual trekking. Then they will take a two-day bus ride back to Paro, Bhutan, a plane to Bangkok and a plane to Hawaii. Hawaii is their treat after the Trek, a time to soak up the sun. There may be sunshine where they are now but Jon wrote a day or so ago that at 16,000+ ft. there was ice on their tent in the morning. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Like the birds, I am heading south. Be seeing you...