I Can See!

I have my new glasses! Again. The opticians were kind enough to mail them to me this time, since I live so far out of the city, and since the frames had already been adjusted for me. And the prescription is now correct. Hallelujah! It's amazing how much difference that makes. I don't know how I ever thought for a second that the previous ones could have been right.

They are going to take a little adjusting to. This is pretty close to my last prescription, but just enough different that I have to fine-tune my head-tilting impulses all over again. It does seem to be a change for the better, though, as I'm already noticing that it's easier to read fine print. The fact that I kept finding myself taking my glasses off to do that is what made me realize it was time for new ones in the first place. More annoyingly, I am getting a bit of queasiness, especially when I turn my head too fast. I think I had some of that with my first pair of progressives, too, though. Hopefully it should go away pretty quickly.

Otherwise... Well, I am second-guessing my choice of frames already, but too late! They are a part of me now, and this is my face for at least the next couple of years.

Anyway. I'm glad to finally have that taken care of, finally. Now on to all the other stupid things...

Adventures In Modern Dentistry

I just got back from my endodontist appointment. They took these really cool 3D x-rays that let the doctor zip around and zoom in on and rotate my teeth on his computer. Very 21st-century!

Anyway, even though the infection is pretty big, he says it is confined to the area around one root, which makes me "a good candidate" for the apicoectomy procedure. Which still gives me maybe a 50-50 chance of saving the tooth, but I'll take it. Also, it costs less than I was expecting; with the insurance it looks like I'll maybe be paying less than $100. And they were able to schedule me for it on a day when I actually shouldn't have to work, despite my current stupider than usual work schedule. Plus, he confirmed that with a local anesthetic, I can drive myself home. Admittedly, I generally prefer to be unconscious any time someone is doing something invasively medical to my body, but it seems like it shouldn't be too bad, and he says it might only take maybe ten minutes to do. I figure even I can suck up my weeniness that long.

So, all in all, pretty good news! My only complaint is that my appointment is at three in the afternoon, and I don't particularly want to go from having oral surgery to driving through the city at the onset of rush hour, especially as the office is practically in Rio Rancho. So hopefully I really will get out of there pretty quickly.

Doctor Who?

WE HAVE A 13TH DOCTOR! REPEAT, WE HAVE A 13TH DOCTOR!!!!



I've seen one or two people saying they'd maybe rather not know who it is until they turn up on the show if they can help it, which... Well, good luck with that. But just in case, I'll be vague here for anyone who doesn't want to watch the video. (But if you want to get spoilery in the comments feel free, and we'll call that read at your own risk.)

Anyway. Wow. I suspect I would be surprised by any choice, but I'm really surprised by this one. I know this actor from precisely one thing -- it's probably not hard to guess what -- and based on that I'm not 100% sure how I feel, as that was very much not a Doctor-ish sort of role. But I am cautiously excited. I think this is going to be interesting.

Various Things

A few random things, numbered even though there is no actual order to them:

1. I am now 46. It doesn't feel any different from 45. In fact, I had to stare at the date for a while re-checking how old I actually am, because apparently I'd already been thinking of myself as 46 for a while in anticipation.

2. I was doing really well with my one-book-in/two-books-out method of TBR control, but my birthday trip to Barnes & Noble set me back a bit. And today there is a library sale here in town. I am trying to be strong, but I fear I might succumb. Does "it's my birthday" still work as an excuse a day later?

3. Today's excitement: a wildlife encounter in the middle of my dining room! Well, OK, don't get too excited. It was just a frog. (We get spontaneously generated frogs here every time it rains hard enough in the summer to leave puddles. Or at least, they sure seem spontaneously generated. Apparently they dig down into the mud and go dormant underground between rains.) It was perfectly still, didn't even move when I gently poked at it with a rolled up bit of napkin, so I figured it was dead. I tried to scoop it up on a piece of cardboard, because I didn't want to touch it, at which point it suddenly hopped at me. I am embarrassed to report that I emitted a high-pitched yelp at this point. Zombie frogs are startling! Anyway, it has now been relocated outside, but I'm trying to figure out how the heck it got in. I know I have cracks in my house big enough to admit bugs (hence my regular employment of an exterminator), but frogs? Did it maybe just hop in the door with me when I came home, and I somehow didn't notice? I mean, WTF, frog?

July Currentlies

A bit late in the month for this, but the time really has been slipping by me lately. Anyway:

Current clothes: Gray shorts, a t-shirt that says "Please Go Away, I'm Reading," white socks.

Current mood: Aargh. Today is supposed to be a day to decompress, do some reading and catch up on some housework, between finishing a 56-hour work week and making yet another trip up to Albuquerque for yet another appointment. And yet, my brain does not seem to want to let me relax and enjoy it. Instead, it seems to want to get irritated over every single stupid little thing, and if it can't find something to be irritated about, it makes something up. Chill out, brain! Yeesh.

Current music: David Bowie's Blackstar, which I just got for my birthday.

Current annoyance: Seriously, everything and nothing. At this point, my own annoyance is annoying me. I hope I will be able to get my brain to snap out of it soon.

Current thing: Just muddling along, really. Which is much better than not muddling along, so, hey.

Current desktop picture: Stil Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. I want to keep him for ever and ever and ever.

Current book: Mastodonia by Clifford Simak, a pleasant-enough SF novel from the 1970s.

Current song in head: Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl," courtesy of this week's episode of Preacher.

Current refreshment: Nothing just this moment, but I'm going to go have some leftover pizza for lunch soon.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, disk 2 of season 3 of Sons of Anarchy. I'm making my way through this series pretty quickly.

Current happy thing: Well, not having to work today is a good thing! And I've gotten some cards and gifts for my upcoming birthday, which is nice (and very sweet coming from some folks who really didn't need to get me anything at all).

Current thought: You've got nothing to be pissy about, brain! Eat some pizza, watch some good TV, go accomplish a few useful things, and get over yourself.

OK, I'm Done Wallowing.

After all the whining I've been doing lately, I figured I should pop in to say I'm feeling much better now. Not that lots of things aren't still irritating, because they are. But I'm approaching them with more equanimity. The Doctor Who season finale really did cheer me up immensely, because it was amazing. Also, this may be 100% the power of suggestion, but I think it's possible that tooth infection just had me feeling a very subtle, low-level kind of crappy for a long time, a kind of not-feeling-top-notch feeling I tend to just blame on my sleep schedule. But whether it's pure placebo effect or something else, after a week's worth of antibiotics, I actually feel a much greater sense of well-being. Even if I am still tired.

And hopefully someone will be here to fix my swamp cooler soon. Not living in a sweltering house will surely also help improve my mood.

Oh, and I also just saw what I think is the little cat that was locked in my shed! I'm not entirely positive it was the same animal, but I think it was. So it's probably still alive. Yay!

In Which I Just Give Up And Wallow In Self-Pity

Aaaaand, now my swamp cooler's stopped working. I got up in the middle of my sleep period to pee, and discovered it blowing warm air into my house, because the pump wasn't pumping. The same pump I just had replaced a few weeks ago. Well. Looks like I'm in for a very hot 4th of July. And, of course, I was so pissed off after that that I couldn't get back to sleep, so now I need to work a 12-hour night shift on maybe four and a half hours of sleep. Sigh.

Well, at least it means I have time to watch Doctor Who before I have to go to work. But first, I need coffee. SO MUCH COFFEE.