It’s been a good week. Specifically Monday was a great day. Really great.

It started off with an eye test. Not at the eye doctor this time. But at the sight central. The place where I get my helping aids and accessories and such. I had been wanting to get an extra magnifying glass. And I figured they’d be able to get me a really good, strong one. I was a little annoyed, though, when they called me in for a sight test. I thought to myself I thought “oh come on, just give me a really strong one. That’s fine.”. But my dad more or less convinced me to go do the test. And it turns out that was a good idea. My eyesight was considerably better than the last time they tested me. That’s not surprising, though. The last time they tested me was before the cataract surgery. So that’s several years ago. But with my better eyesight came new possibilities. Specifically, reading glasses. I never thought that would be possible. After my eyesight went to hell it was no longer any use to have glasses. But these aren’t normal glasses, of course. They’re basically powerful magnifiers. And they work! I put them to the test at home. I got out my Official Book of Ultima. It’s just one of several Ultima books that I bought even though I knew (or thought I knew, as the case may now be) that I would never be able to read them. But with my new reading glasses on… I could. I could read it. That was a pretty wonderful feeling. Regaining something that’s been taken away. Those blurry lines of text that were always frustratingly out of reach no matter how much I tried to focus on them. Now they were suddenly back.

It’s not like I’ll be going back to fulltime reading paper books. It’s very tiring and stressful for the eyes. But a chapter here and there I can do. Taking it slowly. My ultima books. And I found my big Lost Encyclopedia that I had also bought without hope of being able to read. Like Ultima it was just something that was dear to my heart and I wanted to own, even if I couldn’t use it. But now I can. So that’s great. Really good news. I have already ordered a couple more books. Making of Star Wars books. Cheap thrills. Now I can get that feeling of turning the page again. I have missed that.

Here’s a photo of me wearing the new glasses:

The lady asked if I wanted to wait 3-4 weeks and get a pair with a stylish frame that I might have to partially pay myself or if I wanted to just take the pair she had right away. That was an easy choice. It’s not like I’m going to wear them around people. So I just grabbed the pair she had. They don’t look very fashionable at all. Although when I posted the picture on Facebook I got lots of nice comments about them. I don’t know if that was just people being “internet polite” and happy for me or not. But in any case, I’m just thrilled to have them.

I also got a really good magnifying glass with a built-in light. That’s been very useful too.

The only downside was that I had to give up my CCTV. They came and picked it up on Friday. It’s a big magnifying machine with a monitor and effects like inversing white/black etc. I have barely used it the last couple of years so it’s fair enough that I don’t qualify for having it anymore. It was nice to have for the things that were super-hard to read, though. But I should be able to cope without it. It’s kinda nice to have the desk space cleared actually. It was the size of a desktop computer practically. I found my Lost Encyclopedia lying in it when I cleaned it up before they came to get it. It’s much, much easier to read in it with my glasses than with the CCTV.

So that was a good trip. Afterwards I went to the playground and hung out with the goats. And there were more good times. Bodil came by and I gave her the present that I hinted at in last week’s entry. I had gotten my dad to wrap it nicely. Bodil said that it would probably be best if she opened it when she got home. I agreed with that. Then she went for a trip with Sif to the park. When she came back she said “I can’t wait, I’m going to open it now!”. Haha. I can’t blame her. I couldn’t wait to give it to her on her birthday next month. Fair’s fair. So I got to watch her open it, which was a treat. And the present happened to be a photobook. I had gone back and collected all the pictures I had of Bodil and her previous dog Lulu and of Sif. And put in some pictures of me and the goats for good measure. I thought that would be a really nice thing to do for her. I had been a little worried that seeing the old pictures of Lulu might make her sad, but whenever we talk about Lulu she’s always happy and I thought to myself that if someone had pictures of me with the old goats that I’ve had to say goodbye to then I would have loved to see them. And people on Facebook were very supportive of the idea too. So I decided to go ahead and have the book done. And I’m glad I did. She was really happy with it. When I told her that I had worried if it would be too sad she said no, not at all. She had choked up at first but it seemed like she loved seeing it all. I got to watch her flip through all the pages and look at all the photos and talk to her about it all. It was pretty wonderful. She hugged me several times. She was very happy and proud of it.

It was the least I could do after how sweet Bodil and Aase were at my 10 year anniversary. Bodil showed the book to Aase too and told me that they had both been delighted. Aase has eyesight problems too so they had look at it in her magnifier, maybe it’s something like the CCTV I had to give up now. Aase had said that because her eyesight was so poor the book was the first time she could really get a good look at me. Haha. I love the thought of them sitting together and looking at all the old photos. Very sweet.

It’s just really nice being able to do something good for the people you care about. I enjoy giving presents much more than I do receiving them nowadays. Especially when it’s something you’ve put your heart into. It wasn’t easy making the book. The software I used didn’t work well with my screen settings. I couldn’t see it very well, so it was hard work getting it all set up properly. But I think it turned out pretty well. On the back cover I put a picture of the little electric christmas tree that Bodil gave me last christmas. I thought she’d get a kick out of that, and it did crack her up. Haha. I put pictures of Mads and Magnethe and Bob in at the end too. She knew them too, of course. And the transition from the last photo of Lulu on one side to the photos of Bodil holding little Sif on the opposite side, just a week or so after she got her, I think. As with my lost goat friends, they’re good if sad memories. Such big parts of our lives.

Yeah, it was a good day. Per seemed to like the book too. He told us that he’d found a new job from August. I’ll be sad to see him go, again. He’s got a job in a kindergarten in Gellerup. I wonder if it’s the one I walk by every time I go shopping when I come home from the goats? In any case it must be somewhere in the neighbourhood. Maybe I’ll see him around some time.

I also talked a little with Nina. I had to thank her because she posted a picture of Lucy (previously known as Large) on Mia’s Facebook page. It was Nina who helped us find the place for Large and Medium. And I guess she’d been to a summer solstice feast (or something like that) at the place and had taken the photo. I am still greatful that we found that place for them, that was a welcome happy ending. Or beginning, for them.

Nina was wheeling out some of the branches from the pen. The goats have debarked them for almost a year so there’s not much left to chew on. Some of them were taken out for the traditional Sankt Hans fire. When Nina was taking out a wheelbarrowful, Kamel casually followed her to the gate and then saw her chance and slipped out and ran to the green grass. Haha. She can’t jump the fences, so she has to take her chances in other ways. The other goats were quite upset that they were left behind in the pen. So in the end we took them all out to the clover field. And all was good.

In other goat news, I have been getting closer with Herman. He still doesn’t like being touched too much. But I have ‘taught’ him to come up and sniff my face. It happened once and I gave him a raisin. So now he keeps doing it to get a reward. It’s quite sweet. He used to run away whenever I got close to him, but now he’ll walk up and sniff my face any chance he gets. Good boy!

I think that’s enough writing for today. Let’s go go goat photo.

The hole in Herman’s ear is healing nicely. I don’t remember if I ever wrote about that. Well, I don’t know what happened anyway. His eartag must have been torn off somehow. I feel bad for him but it is kind of peculiar that you can see through his ear now. There certainly is an ear theme at the playground. Palle’s that stick out. Kamel’s that fold. Mio who is missing half an ear. I guess Mia is the normal one!

Peanut?

….Peanut?

Pea. Nut?

Brrraaiiins! I mean.. peeeaaanut?

Peanut!

Thanks for the peanut, bro.

So when are you going to let us out?

Pretty Mia.

Mia checking the wheelbarrow to make sure Nina isn’t taking their food away.

Poke-poke.

The goats have a pet rock in their pen. I call it Balboa.

Sniff sniff.

Sniff sniff sniff.

Always nice in the clover field.

I’ve heard Per and Dennis talk about how Kamel has lost weight and is looking better. I guess so! She’s still on the big side, though. Better not go overboard on the peanuts.

Mia and Palle in the sun.

The Palleface.

The Miaface.

Green Mia.

And a goatlog. With the escaping Kamel and goats rolling on the ground and other such fun.

And that’s all for this boat, folks. Set sail in the next one.

Back in action. My neck is much better. Pretty much back to normal. It’s a relief being able to lift your head again. Cherish the little things, and tomatoes.

And back to the goats. Six days away is too long. It was good to spend time with them again. Everyone doing fine. They probably barely noticed I was gone!

I found the wooden staircase partially toppled over. I don’t know if it was from a goat mishap or vandal kids or something else. I’d used rope to tie the crossbeam to the support pillars, I guess if one of the goats had knocked over one pillar it might have brought the whole thing down. I don’t know. In any case the goats could still jump on it. And it didn’t take me long to rebuild it, although it was complicated by Mia and Palle constanty trying to jump around on it, and on me. Goofballs.

Funtimes was had. The girl who likes to call me Goatman was there. She was practically screaming it at me. GOATMAN! She liked to feed the goats. But she was scared of them when they got too eager too. So she’d pick leaves and the goats would run to her and she’d feed them and then when they got too close she’d scream and run over to me and give me the rest of the leaves. “You give these to them!”. She also climbed a tree to get leaves, but then the goats went under the tree and she was afraid to jump down. Haha. I sat and talked to Bodil and the girl came over and talked to us too. When she parted she left us with “you two are the craziest”. I don’t know, I think I’m perfectly sane! Can’t vouch for Bodil, though.
Just kidding.
Speaking of Bodil, I have made a surprise for her. I can’t tell the details in a public forum. But I think it’s very sweet. As a thank you for the cards and CD and raisins she gave me on my 10 year anniversary. Her birthday is the 26th next month. I don’t think I can wait that long to give it to her, though. It will probably have to be an early present.

Other fun goat things. That time when five big, strong goats ran away in a big panic and I turned around expecting to see some huge, ferocious dog. What did I see? A single chicken (or hen or rooster?) clucking its way along the path. Scaredygoats! And the time when Hans called out to me “Lasse, you have to keep your goats under control!” and I had to go shoo them away from the newly planted apple trees round the back, behind the new multi arena thing. Easy prey for goats!

Highlight of the week though, was bringing peanuts for the goats. I don’t think they’ve ever tried them before. One of Mia’s Facebook friends had shown videos of goats enjoying the crunchy nuts. So I thought I’d try them. The goats weren’t too sure about them at first. It took them some time to figure it out. The shells seemed to confuse them. In fact it took Mia several days before she realised that they were tasty treats. I’ve never know her to hold back when it comes to food! I had to crunch them for Herman too before he got the hang of them. But they all seemed to really love them once they got a taste for them. And I love listening to that crunching sound. It was especially funny seeing Kamel eat hers. She’s normally quite a dainty eater. She doesn’t open her mouth very wide. But with her peanut she was chewing wide with smacking sounds and curling her lips. A big show! And afterwards they were all nibbling at fingers and trying to somehow get more. Sniffing each other’s mouths when one of the others was devouring a peanut. Very popular. So that was fun.

On the home front, I’ve been trying to quit diet soda over the weekend. I’ve tried before but the results have never quite taken hold. I’m not sure it will this time either. I might have bitten off more than I can chew. I do want to quit some time, but right now I’m prioritizing weight loss higher. And the diet soda helps me with that project. I’ve been struggling a little lately to really give it my all. I’m not sure, we’ll see. I didn’t exercise today because I wasn’t feeling too good. I thought maybe it was withdrawal from aspartame. Haha, probably not. I’ve been feeling a little croak in my throat and today I had a big headache and lost all my energy. A long nap and some painkilers helped. But yeah, we’ll see how it all goes. Unfortunately the temperatures have dipped below 20 for the last half of the week. And it looks like it’ll stay like that for the next few weeks. That’s not helping. On Thursday I had to put a jacket on! Oh the horror. I want my T-shirt weather back.

But let’s go photo.

Firstly a bit of a creepy picture. When I first found it on my camera it took me a second to realise what it was. Herman’s eye.

Kamel up on the hill.

Back with Mia.

Where I wanna be.

The toppled staircase.

Lady Mio.

From the clover field.

Under the tree, uuuunder the treee.

Herman the great and powerful.

Four photos of Mia in the clover field.

Mia and me again.

Mia found a little oasis of green in the sand.

Walking down the street on a lovely summer day. Before the weather turned.

Hummm… peanuts? I love that expecting look on their face as they hope for treats.

Master level photography achieved.

Don’t worry, the bomb squad goat is here to check your bag.
She actually found a piece of apple that had fallen out. I was worried for a minute that she had grabbed something bad from my bag, some plastic camera accessory or something. I had to pry her mouth open to check. Then I realised it was just a piece of apple and I let her have it.

More interested in the leaves above than in me.

I think I took the picture before Mia was quite ready for a cool pose.

Tender moment with the cuddlemonster.

I see a little silhouetto of a goat.

Palle on a pedestal.

Baah!

Spotted something.

Palleface and humanface.

Maybe I picked a bad time to try to stop drinking diet soda…

In other news, Bruce Campbell retweeted my photo of Palle on my shoulders. To his 277,000 followers. That’s pretty cool! My inbox was full of people retweeting and favoriting the photo.
I had just finished listening to the audiobook version of his autobiography If Chins Could Kill. In it he included some emails from fans. So I thought to myself I thought “oh this guy reads his email and seems to appreciate it”. I thought I’d just send him a quick thank you because I always appreciate when writers narrate their own books and make something special of it. It makes me feel less sad that I can’t read physical books anymore. It makes me feel less like I’m losing out, you know? I may not have the feeling of turning the pages in an actual book. But I get to hear Bruce Campbell whistle like a boiling kettle of water. So that’s pretty good. Anyway, as I was writing the mail to him I checked his twitter account. And he was retweeting fans who tweeted at him using the hashtag #lollygagging. I looked up the word and the definition said “spend time aimlessly; idle”. And I thought to myself I thought “well, that’s kinda what I do with the goats”. So I tweeted the picture to him. And then I went to finish the mail. And when I had finished it I went back and checked twitter and he had retweeted the photo. I know this isn’t the best story in the world, but it’s awesome to me. Because it’s Bruce fucking Campbell, man. Groovy.
Happy birthday, Bruce!

But I digress. Let’s end with the goatlog. The highlight is of course: the peanut tasting. Treats!

And that’s all for this folks, see you in the next week!