My quartely diabetes blood test is over and one with. And as usual my longterm blood glucose levels were just fine.

If I were prone to negativity I might sit back and wonder why, when my blood levels have been fine for all the time I have known I have diabetes, why then have I lost 90% of my eyesight? I could wonder about that a lot. But what would the point be and where would that get me?

Instead I spent some time shopping for vision loss aids. Made an order totalling 400 dollars in fact. Some magnifying stuff. Most of it spent on this thing: Aukey portable reader. At 300 bucks it was still one of the cheapest portable readers on the site. I’m not sure how well it will work. But if it works as well as I hope then it could be really useful. Especially the inverted mode, that should make black text on white background display as white text on black background. That would be amazing for me. I hope it works like I think it does. I have a very hard time reading black text on white background. The white blinds me. That’s why I have my computer set to high contrast mode, all background is black and all text is white. If I hadn’t stumbled upon that high contrast mode I don’t know how much I would be able to use the computer today. If the portable reader could do something similar for me in regards to letters and things like that, then it would be really great. I will try not to get my hopes up too much, though. I don’t want to get too disappointed. We’ll see when it gets here. The price might end up even higher if customs gets a hold of it. I don’t know how much extra that would be. But oh well. I have the money to try things out, I am greatful for that.

Now there is a week to the eye surgery. Just in time for the World Cup. I remember the first time I really started feeling my eyesight getting worse was during the European Cup two years ago. My dad would come over and we’d watch some games together. Which meant I had to move from my comfy chair, so he could sit there, and I’d sit on my bed. A little bit further away from the TV. And I noticed that I had a hard time reading text from there. I was figuring that my eyesight was just degrading a little, that I would need stronger glasses soon but nothing worse than that. And then of course a few months later the diabetes thing hit and everything went downhill.

But let’s not worry about that. Let’s have some goats.

youtube.com/watch?v=GGCnc3I3bhQ. Fun with goats. It seems they have been permanently moved from the goat/sheep/bunny/chicken house to the pig/fodder house. They were in the geese pen again. Or maybe it’s just temporary, I don’t know. In the video you can see them being let out. By Anne. She is fairly new. I haven’t seen Sigrid for a long time. I guess she doesn’t work there anymore. Too bad, I really liked her. …I just looked at her facebook page, it looks like she’s doing volunteer work in Thailand. How about that. Working with monkeys I think. I should add her as a friend. If only I wasn’t so shy.

But Anne is perfectly nice of course. When she let out the goats she said “they are a bit naughty sometimes, but when you are here they might behave”. Goats behaving badly? Never.

youtube.com/watch?v=P7AV_4ZzW3g. Teaching tricks to Hans. Up on two legs to get raisins. Took him a while to figure it out. I would let him smell the raisins and raise my arm and he’d start going to my other hand instead of following the raisins up. But he’s learning already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vNJK5kuy0. And some Magnethe scenes. More warning sneezes, some tongue poking from scratching. And showing off her smarts as she opens a door.

She had some kids scared, Magnethe. It was quite funny. They weren’t little kids, they were like 12-13 year old girls I think. But they were scared of her and so they ran into a little shed, where the mooncars are usually stored. And then they closed the door and started shouting for Alice to come rescue them. The funny thing was that Magnethe was absolutely, compltely uninterested in them. She didn’t even come close to their hideout. They were in there screaming for help and Magnethe slowly wandered after me and her babies in a completely different direction. So Alice had to come over to the shed and tell them “you guys, she isn’t even around here anymore”.

It reminded me a litlte of that scene from the Simpsons, when a bear comes to Springfield and Flanders completely panicks and it seems like he’s at the verge of being mauled and then it cuts to the bear who just slowly trods around with no interest in him whatsoever.

There were some younger kids around too, and they were a little scared of Magnethe’s babies as well. Hans and Grethe are so big and rowdy now that they are a little daunting. There was a fun moment though, when Grethe jumped up on my back. I wasn’t even leaning over to invite her up. She just jumped up and stood there. And the kids, who were playing with bunnies, started laughing and yelling to other kids “come quick and see” and soon I had a half-circle of laughing kids around me, as Grethe tip-toed around in circles on my back. I think they even called me the goatmaster. I like the sound of that.

I found out why they are digging a hole too. It’s to lower the big container into it. Something about health and safety regulations, to make their work easier. I hope the work will be done soon, it’s a little dangerous for me to stumble around with big holes in the ground.

Also, I dropped the lens cover for my camera somewhere. Per looked around for me, but couldn’t find it. I hope it will turn up. Although my lens is usually covered in dirt anyway, maybe it won’t make much of a difference.

That’s all for now.

Guess what? Magnethe’s babies have finally been named.

And guess what? They went with my suggestion. Hans and Grethe, Danish forms of Hansel and Gretel. So I finally got to name goats. Wahey. Quite appropriate names too as I suspect someone has been fattening them up. They certainly are huger and huger.

Here’s a video from Thursday: youtube.com/watch?v=sEoa08UZC6w. Lots of fun stuff. Including the moment when I learned that they had been named, although you’ll need to understand Danish to get that. But the kids were in the bunnypen again. They are now big enough to get in and out all by themselves. But I still wanted to lift them out so they wouldn’t harass the bunny. While I was fumbling around with the girl Per passed by and said something like “were you getting yourself in trouble, Grethe?”. So then I knew. “Oh they have been named now?” I asked. And Per said “yes, that was a good suggestion you came up with”. I think I told him my suggestion a week or two ago. I asked if they had been named and he told me they hadn’t. Some people were calling them Kaj and Andrea (after Kaj and Andrea), but there was already a bunny called Kaj. So they were still looking. That’s when I suggested Hans and Grethe. And I thought that Per didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. But I guess it was discussed with the others and that ended up being their names.

youtube.com/watch?v=IHv5TTUJFtA. Another video. Hans and Grethe playing around. And there were quite a few human kids around too. I think I was asked 3-4 times if I owned the goats or the playground.

I also came home with a bruise on my inner lip. And I felt like I had gotten a bloody nose a couple of times. They are quite rowdy, those goaties. Maybe my mother is right, maybe I should be a little more careful. I got horns and heads smashed into my face 3-4 times. Just accidentally. Their horns may still be small, but they can hurt you if you’re unlucky. Goats will be goats.

Hans is quite a fighter, too. He butts first and asks questions later. They have figured out that I have raisin treats in my right pocket, and whenever Hans wants attention or treats he starts butting me in my side. What a little bully.

Grethe, on the other hand, is the one who enjoys jumping on my back the most. Any chance she gets she catapults herself up there. Sometimes when she doesn’t make it all the way up she’ll fall back down and end up on her back or side. And then I’ll usually seize the opportunity to give her a good belly rub.

Yes, always good times with the goats. Other than that there is nothing new to report. My dad is doing okay and the eye surgery is less than two weeks away now.

Oh and the Lost finale was amazing. Although, as anticipated, about 50% of the fans hated it. Some people don’t deserve good TV.