I'm sorry. My old nemesis the dire D did me in. Yep, I can say the name: depression. It's a family trait and in many cases just a chemical imbalance in one's body and brain that has nothing to do with external matters at all. I think mine is a combination of that and the seasons and events and issues. Anyway, as the great Scots poet Burns put it, "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee." Mine surely did, way off into some distant and not-pleasant place.
I can't speak for the fall--well in a way I can. I went to a high school reunion and spent some time saying farewell to my old home area in Arizona's Verde Valley. I had a good visit with my grand daughter and her mom, my former daughter-in-law who has never ceased to be family to me despite the divorce from my eldest step son, now long ago. I had a super time and some fun things--maybe I'll share those and some photos in a bit.
Then leaving the Tucson area I headed home only to be hit in the rear by a distracted driver at a rest stop near the state line. That was pretty upsetting although I was not hurt and was able to rive my little Focus wagon home despite the damage. Once I got home my brother and roommate announced he thought we should move back to Arizona! I was more than willing but this endeavor has turned out to be much slower, more complicated and disruptive than I at first thought. We "ain't there yet" and I'm not sure when we will be. I think it will happen but God(de) knows when and s/he is not saying. So fall and early winter went with that.
Right after the first of January, we had to have our oldest dog put down. She was really my brother's but we share a home and she'd been part of my clan for quite awhile since I moved in with them on April 1, 2009! We think Beebee had some kind of internal cancer but she had been failing for awhile and attempted treatments were not doing much good. When she stopped eating and got 'that look' in her eyes, we knew it was time. The other four moped and missed her for a bit but soon closed ranks and moved on.
Our next issue was a really nasty case of the flu. Despite having had the shots--they finally admitted the vaccine was less than 40% effective!--we got sick, majorly sick. Never had to go to the hospital but took every home remedy in the book and drank lots of hot lemonade and rum toddies to dampen the awful croupy cough enough to sleep some. It hung around for a good month and left us feeling totally trashed. Then as a follow up, I got some kind of a digestive problem and ate little to nothing for about three weeks and did not dare get too far from the facilities. Peppermint oil finally calmed my innards and I've used it ever since as it also keeps my intermittent IBS at bay quite well.
So then it was March and I go for my belated annual eye exam. Yes, I am still battling the dry eye and allergy eye issues but I also learned that I was ripe for cataract surgery! My new doctor tried valiantly to ease the dry eyes as much as possible before the operation with a variety of ideas--as more time passed--but the surgeon finally decided to go ahead so I had my two eyes done on May 3 and May 17. That was an adventure also. My right eye did fine and is now 20-20 except for close up, the normal cataract removal 'cure' for myopia ,but the left one, worse on both myopia and astigmatism, was still not fully corrected. I find I have to have external correction there. Actually I do not mind--trying to keep track of "readers" and get used to no close vision was driving me nuts! I got my new glasses in mid June and then had a really bad allergic conjunctivitis spell before and after. Finally as the summer rainy season started with an increase in humidity, I can actually see clearly most of the time!
That being the case I have crawled out of my den like the groundhog and looked around, bemused and puzzled! What, it's summer? You mean 2018 is over half gone? Yikes! Anyway, despite my semi-absence, things keep moving along--in fits and starts..
One more installment in my "Perils of Pauline" year was the total crash of my computer about three weeks ago. With all the other issues I had failed to do good backups, even had not copied a lot of things to my flash drives, so I lost a lot. We're shopping around some of the data recovery firms to see if we can find one that I can afford and maybe send the old hard drive away and hope I can get a bunch of photos and writing projects back in a usable form but no guarantees.
Anyway, more than enough whines. Actually I am not whining as I know the old hippie saying is true. Yes, shit does happen! Sometimes it just comes in bunches like grapes and you have to deal with it, meanwhile hoping the current run of catastrophes has finally reached the end! Please join me in a fervent prayer to whatever Deities you trust and put faith in that this will prove true!
I will do my level best to get back to a regular schedule of posting, sharing more memoir type essays and tales and doing old photos which I have more or less kept up on my Facebook page as "Flashback Friday" posts. I thank the Powers that most of my old photos were saved on a flash drive and not lost. Odds and ends are lost to include all I took at college and most of my work years but I guess I can live without them if they are not salvageable.
Just for kicks, here is a selfie with my new glasses. Alas, they do not magically erase about the last ten somewhat difficult years and the traces they left but for the most part, I am okay with that. I earned every gray strand and line and wrinkle and wear them like badges of deeds accompished!
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