Luckily sometimes positive follows negative too. Today was very positive.

I decided to get a hair cut and then visit the goats for the first time since the eye surgery. And it so happened that today was the annual animal show at the playground. What wonderful timing. So I spent the better part of the day having fun with animals and kids. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face then you must be Mr Grumpy of Grumpydown Vale.

I also managed to walk around the playground, and all the way home afterwards, without my cane. So that was good too. I could see enough to walk safely. And I could see more of the animals than I have previously been able to.

And I was very happy to see that Hans and Grethe were still there. Beautiful and funny and so big now. They were even wearing collars. I don’t know if that’s because they have gotten so big or if it was for the animal show. As always some of the kids had to present the goats, so they had to be on a leash. With much struggling and baahing and running around as a consequence.

It was good fun, but to be honest I felt a little bad for the goats. They were a bit stressed by the whole thing. I don’t think it would be nice for them if this happened every day. And since there are no sheep at the playground at the moment, Magnethe had to do the “poop lottery”. It’s not very dignified to be followed around by a group of kids who are cheering for you to poop in the numbered slots on the ground that correspond to their lottery tickets. But when that was all over and the kids moved on to the horses I did see Magnethe looking at them all and baahing like she wanted more attention.

It was really nice to spend so much time with the goats. And the humans too. I got to see some kids I hadn’t seen in a long time. Like Santana, who used to help me sometimes when I fed the animals in the weekends. He’s a good kid, and seemed happy to see me too. And there were some nice girls who had to show off Hans and Grethe, so they came and spent time with me and the goats and I helped them out as much as I could. They asked me about my eyesight and I explained about my diabetes. One of them said “Why did you eat sugar? If you went back in time you should make sure not to eat any sugar”. And I agreed that I would definitely not eat sugar if I went back in time. Another one of them told me that her dad had diabetes too, but that he wasn’t blind. Later on, when the show itself had started, I was filming with my camera and a boy came up and asked me if I was a “producer”. Why not? I deserve a fancy title.

The show itself just consisted of the kids showing off the animals. I think there were quite a bit fewer people there than there has been the previous years. But it was good fun nonetheless. The judge went around and looked at everything and asked questions like “you aren’t afraid of the horses?” and “are the goats naughty or nice?” and gave the kids lots of opportunities to talk about the animals. The horses were pulled and ridden around the little stage arena. The goats just stood and ate grass for the most part when it was their turn. Grethe did some tricks too. And by tricks, I mean that Sara, the girl who was handling Grethe, lifted her up so she was standing on her hind legs for 20 seconds. They also tried to get her to baah, but Grethe decided to stay silent while the judge was there. It’s never easy to get goats to do what you want them to do. I remember years ago, when I got the job of showing off Magnethe at that year’s show. I was supposed to walk her around the arena, but I ended up picking her up and carrying her around instead.

I still got a gold medal, though.

I mean… Magnethe got a gold medal. Yes.

But it was a good day. So nice to see the goats again, and have fun with everyone. Got much praise for my handling of goats. The weather could have been better, though. Cloudy and windy most of the time. A little rain and a little sun. But good thing it didn’t rain any more than it did, that might have stopped the fun.

I will put up some videos of course, once I have them edited down to a suitable size. I am producer, cameraman and editor all in one.

Yes, I really should know better than to get too positive. Because positive is usually followed by negative, it seems.

My eyesight has gotten darker and less clear again. It’s still better than before the surgery. But it’s not as good as it was the first week’s time after the operation. So unfortunate.

We went to the hospital yesterday and had them look at my eye. The doctor couldn’t really find anything wrong with it, other than the secondary cataracts that my own eye doc had also talked about. Apparently there are quite a bit of them. So hopefully they are responsible for the degradation. Because they can be easily treated with lasers. Unfortunately you have to wait 2-3 months before you do that. So I am back in waiting position. No point in getting reading glasses until I know how good my vision will be. So I can’t do so much now. I thought all the eye stuff was finally just about over, but it drags on. On and on. The doc at the hospital said he’d leave a note to the higher ranking docs (he was the on-call doc after hospital hours) and they’d call me in if they thought there was a reason for them to see me. I haven’t heard from them today, so probably they won’t. I still have my appointment at the end of September, so now I’ll just have to wait for that. And call them if it gets worse.

It was nice to see Inge, the nurse. She’s like an old friend now, almost. I have seen her so many times. I should send her some flowers when it’s all done, to thank her. But who knows when it’ll all be done anyway.

There was a little funny moment, as she came over and talked to my dad and I. It was after hours, so it wasn’t too busy. But then the doctor came out and asked if she “had time” to find some *medical supply things* for him. “Yes, yes”, she said, “I’m sorry”. Slacking off with the patients. She’s really nice. She could barely believe that I was back again either.

And it’s not all bad, as I said my eyesight is still better than before the surgery. I still managed to go shopping on my own yesterday. This time I felt like I needed the cane. But I got it done. I even found the milk. I couldn’t find it when I was shopping on Friday. But this time it was prominently placed. I don’t know if they were out of mini milks on Friday of if they just changed places. But I found them. And I found the sandwich bread even though that had changed places from last year or whenever I last bought them. I even got pears, even though I actually gave up on them. I had found the tomatoes and cucumbers and was tired of walking around the fruit/vegetable section looking for pears. But then one of the guys who works there said “morning, champ” to me. I wonder if he says that to all the customers, or if he remembers me. I think I remember him from when I used to go shopping in Føtex regularly. He called me champ then too. But anyway, since he talked to me I thought I’d ask him if they had any pears. He had to go to his supervisor, an older lady close by, and there was a whole discussion about hard or soft pears and ecological or not and so on. But I got them. And I got through the cash register line despite there being other customers. So it went pretty well. But I could tell it was a good bit harder than it had been on Friday, so I might let my dad do some of my shopping still. At least until the cataracts are treated. We’ll see.

Tomorrow should be nice. If all goes well. Going to get a haircut. And then visit the goats. It’s been two weeks. I can hardly believe that. I hope they’re all okay. I am a little worried that the kids may have left while I was gone. I know at least Hans is supposed to go to Kurt’s at some point. But they better still be there. I missed them.

And please hold the rain.