Good goat times today. Thankfully the temperatures went up, almost to 10C/50F. A lot more bearable. Even though there was a strong wind, and rain on off. But I prefer that to the deep freeze.
A pretty quiet day. We had some nice visitors at the fence, and we managed to get the goats down to them and say hello, despite thet light rain. Kids excited to feed carrots to the goats. And Jeanette picked up Red Sonja so the kids could get to see a chicken up close. I think they went egg hunting in the chicken coop afterwards.
I brought my new filter glasses and gave them a try. Initial jdugment is that they help I can see more clearly with them. At least generally. I discovered that I had a harder time reading text close to me. Like the camera. So that’s a downside. But I think the improved clearness is worth it. Maybe at some point I’ll try getting.. what are they called, bifocals? With two strength. I probably wouldn’t get them paid for if I did that right now.
Also still remains to be seen if they help enough in sunlight, that’s the main purpose of filter glasses. No sun today. So I still ahve to check if the new ones are better than the old ones in those conditions. But so far, it is an upgrade.
Now time to upgrade my soup pot from empty to full. That will be a great improvement, even if it is tragically temporary.
25/11 2024
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Here’s Bella, and some weird stranger we’ve never seen before.
.. oh wait, that’s that guy I am. In new glasses. Okay, they don’t really look a whole lot different. I think the lenses are a little more seethrough on pictures, which I don’t really like. On account of my ugly dead eye. But if I can see a little better then that’s worth it.

25/11 2024
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I have a dent in my forehead now, because I kinda leaned forward and rested my head on the table in front of me and fell asleep. I may be a little tired.
Speaking of sleep, last night Mathilde visited my dreams. One o the first goats. I wonder what ever became of her. She was the first goat I had to say goodbye to. I never found out why she had to leave. She was a sweet goat. As I have told many times, she was one of my first success experiences with goats, as I managed to gain her trust even though she was afraid of humans. She mothered Magnethe, who became the big matriarch before Mio’s line moved in.
Anyway. It was good to see Mathilde. I love dreaming of old goat friends, I wish it happened more often.
25/11 2024
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Jeanette making sure Sky gets a share of the leftover carrots after visitors had left.

25/11 2024
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Got an hour ten on the bike today. Starting to ramp up the intensity again. Still not twisting my rod, but I didn’t have any chest bone pains while stretching, so I think I’ll be ready to manipulate my rod again soon. And good intensity on the intervals. So that’s good.
Breathing and chest pains feels like they’re close to being back to normal, now I just need to work on my back pains. Trying different exercises and stretches. I think I’m going to go back to my old shoes for a bit too. I’ve gotten used to the new ones, but I wonder if changing shoes have helped hurt my back, probably not, but the first while after I started using the new shoes, I did feel like my posture suffered. Better try the old ones before it gets freezing again. New ones are warmer.
Anyhoo, that’s wazzup.

26/11 2024
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I was going to take a photo of Sky, but she somehow completely disappeared so I guess that’s not happening.

26/11 2024
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Off to the doctor’s office to get checked up. It’s the big yearly one. My blood pressure and ekg are just fine. We’ll have to see what the blood and urine tests say. I know my longterm blood sugar will have risen, but hopefully it’s still in the acceptable range. We’ll see in a few days.
Afterwards I stopped by the optician to get my new glasses adjusted. They are fitting much better now, hopefully won’t be sliding down the tip of my nose constantly now.
I also wore my new filter glasses out on a sunny day for the first time today. And unfortunately my initial impression is that they don’t help as much against the sun light as the old ones. I’ll have to take them both out at the same time on a sunny day to compare. But my impression from today is that they help less than the old ones. So the new ones give me clearer sight, but the old ones protect against the sun better. I might wear the new ones out on days that are projected to be grey and dark. We’ll probably have lots of those coming up. And then wear hte old ones out on days that might be sunny. I’ll see how that goes.
Time for soups now.
27/11 2024
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Happy Thanksgiving everybuddies. Thank you for being a friend.
Wish you were here.
28/11 2024
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“I have an enormous ego, and no confidence”
I hear ya, Richard Kind. Same. Me in a nutshell. Help help I’m in a nutshell.
Aw dang i love Craig Ferguson. And Richard Kind.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IULNvm9zrVw
29/11 2024
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i just can’t face myself alone again

29/11 2024
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Well, that’s one position to eat in.
I think Bella was too hungry to realise it would be easier to just get down on the ground, she only got her front paws down and then started eating.

29/11 2024
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Good news! My tests came back fine. My blood sugar has risen, as expected, but the levels are still fine and within acceptable ranges. So that’s a relief. We’ll see how it looks in 3 months. Hopefully things will stil be good by then. But I’m just relieved that I haven’t tanked the longterm test. Now I’ll try to take it easy over the winter, work on staying in shape and getting my back better, if I can. And then come spring I’ll try to lose a little more weight. That’s the plan.
29/11 2024
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I started watching Terminator Zero. I’m not really a fan of anime, but I’m a big fan of Terminator. I watched the first episode and it has some really cool stuff, very interesting and atmospheric. But the action sequences and the dark visuals, it’s hard for me to follow. Visual storytelling is tricky when you’re a blindy, you know?
But that gets me to the point. I went to the youtubes to see if there were any recaps. Back in years past, when watching complicated shows, i’d go and read recap/reviews online. Places like The AV Club would recap episodes after they aired. I remember reading recaps of Lost, how long ago is that now, a million years I think.
Anyway. Now we live in dark dystopianfuture, but technically advanced. Along with the killer robots, there are apparently AIs making recap videos on youtube. Haha. It’s kind of weird. You can tell by the narration that it’s not a human talking, it’s an ai voice. It’s kind of weird. But it’s actually super helpful for me. Going through the story beat by beat, picking up on the stuff I lost because it was visually complicated.
It’s just a kind of funny juxtaposition. Here I am watching a show about ai that destroys humanity, and I’m using ai to understand it. Funny.
I’m sure in THIS world the ai won’t become self aware and destroy us all. I am sure. It’s not like there are already scary stories about AIs acting weird and potential harmful to humans. There definitely isn’t. Don’t look it u.
Anyway. If you need a recap of this post, i’m sure an AI will be along shortly to help you. DU DU DUN DUN DUN.
29/11 2024
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Little Sky time.

30/11 2024
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There’s a Cat Town in Terminator Zero. It’s not the same as the Town Of Cats in 1Q84. But still.
Neat.
30/11 2024
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Spent fourteen hours in bed. Driffting in and out of sleep. Haven’t done that for a while. Year or more. Shouldn’t get back into the habit of sleeping that much, but I do love the dreaming. The real world is much less fun.
And now it’s December somehow, surely there must be a book keeping error something, i’ll have to fact check the calendar.
1/12 2024
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goatlog

1/12 2024
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Have you ever danced with the Luna in the pale moonlight?

1/12 2024
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That’s all for now.

Good goat times today.
The real cold has set in, though. Only barely over freezing in the morning. Had to bring out the trusty old sweater for the first time this season. It kept me nice and warm. Only problem was my hands. I hate those frozen fingers. Fumbling with cameras and mp3 players and treats. Ugh. And coming out of a hot shower in the morning into the cold air of the bathroom. Ugh.
And it’s only going to get worse. For the next 4 months. Ugh.
I don’t always cope well with heat, but I much prefer dealing with heat than with cold. Much.
Speaking of heat. i think Luna must have been in heat today. She was a hot mess. She was snorting and blubbering a lot. She sometimes does little snortysnorts, but today she really was like a little buck. With her beard too. if you didn’t know she was a girl you’d have thought she was a boy. Breaking those gender stereotypes. But pretty darn hilarious.
Got some news to share, but I’ll bring them later.
18/11 2024
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Well, I have bad news from the playground I am afraid. We lost two chickens over the weekend. To a fox, presumeably.
We lost the two big whites, Henrietta and Susie. It’s terribly sad. Henrietta had been with us so long, she got the nameHen Solo because she was the only chicken we had for a while. She survived another fox attack and a dog encounter and other things. She was a lovely big hen. And Susie was lovely too. She was with the goats often, Henrietta tended to wander more. It really sucks that they’re gone.
I know these things happen in nature, but I can’t stand thinking of it happening at our place. Damn. Poor feathers.
It happened over the weekend, Jeanette told me Andrea called her and told her yesterday. We’re going to try to let the last 3 hens be outside while Jeanette is around, but they’ll hae to be locked up when Jeanette isn’t ther.e
I am glad Red Sonja is okay. She is part goat by now and always hanging out with us. She’s the only tame one left now. The other two are Maren and Hanna. I still haven’t learned which is which, they’re hard for me to tell apart. But they aren’t tame and socialized like Sonja, although they do hang out with us a lot too.
Yeah, that was really sad news to get today. Hopefully the last three cluckers will stay safe, it’s so nice having them with us. They liven things up. I’ll miss the whites.
18/11 2024
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A happier post before heading to bed. I managed to grab some lapgoat time with Luna today. It’s been a long time. She’s kinda too big for it now. Only barely fits. But I’ll take it. She was a hoot today, funny girl.

18/11 2024
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The platform may be askew on the treddle, but Bella can still reach up to the hay on the storage shelf through the gap at the back. It’s funny how the hay on the storage shelf is always more alluring than the hay we actually put out for them in the hay rack.

19/11 2024
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A little lapgoating with Luna. Pretty much too big for it now, but I am clinging on.
19/11 2024
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Will it ever be Hammer Time again?
19/11 2024
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goatlog

20/11 2024
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Got an hour on the bike today. Good to get back to that. I have only done it twice the last 2½ weeks. So I need to keep at it.
But I have always been wanting to let my body heal. One of the problems is, when i do the biking I need to stretch my legs a lot or I get horrible cramps. Even with all the stretching I still often get cramps. But doing the leg stretches involves using the arms, and when I do them I can feel the chest bone pain. And I don’t want to aggravate that too much, I want to let that heal.
But I think i’m getting better. Still some chest pains, but not as much. And not as quickly out of breath today. Got out of breath from the intervals, but this time it was more.. “working up to get out of breath because I’m exercising”. Instead of “Immediately out of breath fr no apparent reason”. And as I said the chest pains are less. So hopefully it’s all progressing as it should. The rib problems usually take 3-4 weeks, and this has been a couple of weeks, so I think it tracks.
Doing core strenghtening exercises too, in the hopes of helping my back. After a long where my back didn’t bother me as much, it’s been really bad the last few weeks. Back to excruciating pains and being wiped out for days after going outside. That’s no fun. Along with the cold, it has meant cutting back on goat trips. And i really don’t want that. So i’m trying to get better. Here’s to hoping.
Good to get back on the bike anyway.
20/11 2024
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Sky rocks.

20/11 2024
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Good goat times today. Frosty. Much too cold. Down around -5C/23F in the morning. Noooo. Expletive deleted! I can’t stand it.
And I had a busy morning. Had an appointment at the optician to pick up my new glasses first thing in the morning. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to the goats afterwards, with all the pain and the utter freezing, I figured maybe I’d just go back home afterwards. But the lure of goats was too big. So after picking up the glasses I trekked the walk to the goats and had some good times with them in the frost. Lots of nice visitors, the neighbouring school groups. Some of them happy to see again because it’s been a few weeks since I was there on a Thursday. But they are really nice people.
Now I’m back home and ready go heat up with soup. I haven’t tried my new glasses yet. I am scared to put them on. I just know in my heart of hearts that they’ll do me no good! Not that I’m pessimistic or anything. Well cross all you have to cross for them to give me a little help. It took an age, but at least now I’ll see. If there’s anything to see.
21/11 2024
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Frosty the goats.

21/11 2024
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Well, I’ve tried out my new glasses and the verdict is… *drum roll*
They help. A little. Looking at the computer screen, it’s definitely a little sharper. Is it enough to make a real difference? I think it might be. I have to get used to wearing them, they do a little bit of magnification I think so it kind of feels a little weird. But making things sharper is good.
I don’t think it’s enough to be a huge lifechanging thing. Would it be worth it if I had to pay for them myself? Eh.. I’m not really sure. I guess after using them more I’ll be able to evaluate that better. But my initial impression is that there is an improvement, and in my situation that does count for a lot. So, so far so good.
I haven’t tried the filter glasses yet. I did mention that I was getting two pairs, right? One for using at home, and a pair of filter glasses for using outside. I already had a pair of filter glasses, as you can see in all my photos from the goat place. But that pair doesn’t have any strength in them, the new pair does. So next time I go goating I’ll bring both pairs and see if I feel the new pair is better. We’ll see about that.
It took a long time to get done, but it seems like it was worth the trouble. Seems to especially help when I’m leaning back against my chair. Maybe that will help me not having to lean forward and strain my back so much. Here’s to hoping.
It’s going to be weird using glasses again, at home. From a young age my eyesight was very bad and I wore glasses as long back as I can remember. And then when my eyesight got wrecked by the beetus, I stopped because they didn’t help anymore. How long is that ago? It’s all a blur, like my eyesight. Might have been 2010 when I stopped wearing glasses all the time.
i think I may nee to go back to the optician and get them adjusted a little. The lady asked me if I wanted the ‘legs’ of the frame (what are they called?!) bent or straight. I figured having them somewhat bent on the pair for outside would be good, and the home pair not so much. But they’re kinda sliding down a little bit I think, so maybe getting the frame bent back around the ear more would be a good idea. i’ll see about that.
I’ll pronounce this a tentative success.
21/11 2024
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Time to bundle up. Today: Two blouses and one sweater under my coat. And a skullcap on my head and gloves on my hands, as investigated by Luna here. Also, now’s the time that the camera gets fogged up when you leave it off for longer than a minute. Really annoying when goats suddenly do something cute out of the blue and you race to capture it but then all you get is the foggy ghosts of the frozen wastes.

21/11 2024
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Jeanette was handing out the remaining carrots, after the visitors had left. In the picture she’s giving some to Bella, but it was actually Sky in Bella’s position to begin with. Jeanette was keeping the others away so Sky could get some too. She’s doing her part to make sure Sky gets a share of it all, at breakfast too if I’m not there.

21/11 2024
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Well, it’s about a day into using my new glasses. And I’m really happy with them so far. There’s definitely a slight improvement, and that counts for quite a lot when you’re as blind as I am. It’s not like it fixes everything. I still have to have everything enlargened and super contrastred and stuff. But I can read a little easier, when sitting back. So I think this was definitely worth it, and would have been too if I had had to pay for it myself. It remains to be seen if the filter glasses will be of good use too, we’ll find out next week.
The only thing that bothers me is that my glasses keep slipping down to the tip of my nose. I definitely have to get them adjusted. But I won’t be getting to that until next week either. But I’m really glad I got them. Glad I pursued it instead of avoiding it.
I think my lung situation is getting better too. Yesterday’s walk from the optician to the goats was a little longer than my usual walk, but it didn’t leave me completely out of breath immediately. So hopefully that is almost fixed. Almost. Hopefully.

22/11 2024
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if there is no lap to sit on, then a box will have to do, says Luna.
You know, photos look better with clearer eyesight.

22/11 2024
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It took me three episodes of Matlock to realise that her husband is Bernard from Lost. Man, I miss Rose and Bernard.
Just watched episode 4, enjoying it more and more. Still wish it wasn’t quite so modern, but Kathy Bates is as wonderful as expected. And now that I know she’s married to Bernard from Lost, weeell. I’m all in.
Currently reading Nicole Maines’ new book. Very interesting. It’s hard to imagine exactly what it’s like to be trans and have a lot of people in your own country wanting to deny your existence and being. Humans are weird.
There are things about myself that are.. complciated. Maybe some day I’ll be ready ro really dive into them.
When i’m done with that book, i got the new Murakami lined up. No, not Keiko. The other Murakami. Haruki. Finally, a new novel! The City And Its Uncertain Walls. It’s been a long time. The short story collections didn’t grab me as much as the full length works. I think I would enjoy the short stories more if I read them as a paper book. Hmm, i wonder if I can read paper books with my new glasses? Maybe I should try that. Well, even if I could it would be too much of a strain on my eyes I’m pretty sure. That much physical reading would be stressful. But it might be fun to try and see if it’s possible. I miss lying in bed on a cold winter night, readig and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. I used to boil up a coup of hot cocoa and then I’d put a chocolate bar into it and stir it so it slowly melted and then when the cocoa was drunk up the sides of the mug would be coated in hardening chocolate. Yeah I have no idea how I ever got diabetes.
Anyway. Hope you’re all doing well out there. Can’t believe it’s already the secondtwentieth of the eleventyfirst month of Y2k+two dozens. Time sure is a thing that has wings. Oh look the penguin exploded.
22/11 2024
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Got an hour on the bike today. Not the biggest effort, but just trying to get back to regular exercise. And my breath is definitely better, maybe not completely normel. But better. No rod twisting yet, but doing my core strenghteners. Working on it.
It’s too cold. Much too cold. Forecast looks good for next week though, it’s going to get a little warmer. We’ll probably get a bunch of rain, though. I wish I could pack the goats up and move to Hawaii for the winter. Live in a shack like Rose and Bernard and Vincent the dog. That or hibernation.
But I’ll have to settle for soup. For now.
23/11 2024
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Undercover Muppets. I would watch that.
23/11 2024
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I managed to get the framing andl ighting completely wrong for this, but nonetheless. Here’s me in two blouses, a sweater, a coat, a skullcap, a pair of gloves and a partrirdge in a pear tree. No wait those are goats.

3/11 2024
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goatlog

23/11 2024
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It’s been a tired, headachey day. Didn’t get enough sleep. Wasted too much time. Neighbours were drilling rseemingly eight into my head for half an h our. It’s Blehday.
23/11 2024
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Frosty Sky. It should be warming up now, at least.

23/11 2024
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That’s all for now.