I have had a couple of good days. Yesterday I was treated to mama’s world famous chicken soup. Delicious in its bubbly goodness. Now I will have soup leftovers for days. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

On Friday I finally made it back to the playground. There is still snow on the streets, but a lot less so than recently. And a splendid sun in the sky. I guess spring is here in some fashion after all.

It was great to see all the animals of course. The goat sisters big and pregnant. Just as I got there, Bodil came by with her dog Sif. “You know they’re going to have kids?” she asked. I did. Within the month, hopefully. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Bodil picked up Sif and handed her to me. So I got to hold her, briefly. Just to feel how heavy she has gotten. Which, to be honest, is not that heavy after all. She’s still a small one. A little later she was jumping up on my leg, barely reaching my knee. A lovely little doggie. Bodil loves her a lot, that is easy to tell. I am glad she found such a sweet dog, after what happened to Lulu. I can barely imagine Bodil without a little charming dog in tow.

It was really good to spend time with the goats again. Lots of scratches and old bread and just sitting back and enjoying the sunshine on the snow. I also walked around a little and said hello to the other animals. The piglets are mighty, mighty big now. And loud. The little lamb is not so big or loud, running around in the heels of his black mama. And Polka with them. She was looking a lot more comfortable than last time I saw her. But I didn’t see any lambs with her. I guess it’s possible that her lambs were inside, but I don’t think it’s likely that she’d run around with black mama and boy like that if she had had lambs of her own inside. I think it’s more likely that she may have lost hers. There wasn’t anyone around for me to ask, but last time I was there they had been worried about her. So it probably did not turn out well. Poor Polka, she has been through a lot. But she did look like she was doing okay, as far as I could tell.

I made a little video. youtube.com/watch?v=nkgQcdbv4T8. Nothing outstanding, but sweet animals. Loud piggies, migrating sheep. And big goats. I did not realize how big Vanilje was until I saw the video. I couldn’t really see it when I was there in person, her white body against the snow. But she’s looking like she’s got something cooking alrite. I hope we will be blessed with many babies. Maybe if they get a bunch they’ll let me steal one home.

Hey, it could happen.

This week’s doctor and hospital appointments are now over and done. With mixed results.

The doctor’s appointment on Tuesday didn’t accomplish much. I guess there’s not a lot to be done about the side-effect of the kidney medication. The dizziness. It’s not that horrible to be honest, I can live with it. It’s worth it to protect the kidneys, right? I can just hope it gets better in time.

Today we were off to the hospital. Much waiting time as always. Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure on my MP3 player helped with that. And the news were pretty good, I think. My eyes seem stable. The pressure is okay, even without the anti-pressure eyedrops. So we are just about ready to proceed with the work on the left eye. We have scheduled surgery for May 6th. Full anesthesia. They’re going to take out the oil in the left eye. And then possibly see if they can clear out some scar tissue and cataracts. And then evaluate whether I need to have another pocket of oil inserted, or if I can go without oil. That’s what I’m hoping for of course. The doctor said that there was a little chance that they could make the eye a little better. The cataracts aren’t a big problem in the eye, but removing them and clearing scar tissue and gettng rid of the oil, it could make for a slight improvement. That would be wonderful of course. Any improvement would be very welcome. I’m not going to get my hopes up too much for that, though. As long as it doesn’t get worse. As long as I can hang on to what little eyesight I have now, that’s what’s most important. Anything else would be a bonus. A wonderful, welcome bonus. It’s going to be very scary though. That first day after the surgery, in bandages. Completely blind. And then when they remove the bandages. It will be very much a moment of truth. Will I be seeing? Seeing more? Seeing even less than now? It’s going to be a little terrifying. But I’m looking forward to getting it done very much. In a couple of months it could all be over. Well, of course it will never be over. The rest of my life will be this. But all the doctors and hospitals and insecurity. Maybe some of that could be over. At least toned down a fair bit. There will be a lot on the line in that surgery.

But for now I can relax a little again. I’ll be going in for anesthesia consultation at the end of April. Until then my calendar should be pretty open. Unless… you know. Something. Unforeseen. Etc.

I am hoping to go visit the goats on Friday. And mama makes soup on Saturday. So the immediate future isn’t too bad. I even turned off the heating system today, as the sun made a welcome appearance and it almost looked like spring.

PS. I added a Cliff Clavin tweet-feed on the right. Because Cliff Clavin is awesome. I identify with him a lot. You might almost say he’s my secret identity. Or something. Whistle.