(google cache)

I did some shopping yestesrday. And when I went to pay the clerk I gave her a 500 note instead of a 50 note as I had intended. Oops. Good thing she caught it.

I felt so stupid though. It’s the same thing as when I’m standing at a traffic crossing and I can’t see if the light is red or green. How dumb must I look standing there waiting for a green light that’s already there?

I know I shouldn’t be embarrassed, I mean I’m half-blind. I have a good excuse. And bigger things to worry about than what people think. But I am the self-conscious type of course.

It’s not all bad though. Today was another beautiful, warm, sunny, summery day. I’m glad I spent it with goats.

The goat boys as much of a joy as always.

Finn hanging on my back. Don’t tell anyone, but he is my favourite. Just because he loves to jump up on my back so much. Goat kids like doing that in general, but of all the kids I have known none other have been so crazy about it. I can just see it on his face sometimes, as he comes walking slowly towards me.. he’s gonna jump, he’s gonna jump! And then sometimes there’s no warning, I’m just sitting there looking in the other direction and something comes crashing onto me. The amazing flying Finn.

I got to see Sigrid today as well. She came up to the fence and said hello. There was a boy with her, and he was asking her questions about the goats. That was nice because I got to hear her say some nice things about me. “Is that guy the only one who can go in with the goats?”. “Yes, because he’s so good with them”. “Do they like him the most?”. “Yes, he’s number one with the goats”. “What about the rest of you?”. “Well, we’re number two then”. Hehe. And all the while Finn was trying to jump up on me and I sort of caught him halfway and pulled him down so he was lying in my lap and I was scratching him good and he was enjoying it a lot and the sun was shining and everything felt good.

Here’s a little, big piglet for you:

After numerous recounts I have come to the conclusion that there are 8 little, big piglets. Growing fast. In size I mean, not in numbers.

Now it’s weeekend, and then time for acupuncture. I will not worry yet.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 21:22 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Winged Goats”

1. Debster Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 4:08

I would think you might devise a method to keep track of your money denominations…maybe by paper-clipping a certain denomination and marking the other bills by another way so you could “feel” the difference.

When you get your money at the bank and you tell them what denominations you want, you could ask them to separate the denominations so you could mark them (maybe fold over a corner) and then you’d know which bill was which.

I know I had trouble counting the piglets in your videos. I would get 7 then 8, then 7. (That’s when I said I was going to count spots and divide by four legs!) hee, hee

So you are the #1 Main Man With The Goatzies. What a title to have! Congrats.

We picked up trash in our ditches after work tonight in honor of Earth Day. Our community is picking up trash along the highways to our town on Sat, cleaning up the local park, and then having pizza for the volunteers at lunch time.

We picked up about 5 1/2 big trash bags full of stuff in 2 1/2 hours. (My husband thought is was about 70 – 80 lbs. of trash.)

I saw 2 garter snakes and a mouse. I don’t know who was more excited, them or me!

My husband saw 3 snakes and 2 mice, a dead coyote, and a bunch of pheasant feathers. Poor pheasant! We’ve heard one “kirking” in the evenings. I hate to think he has met a bad end.
2. Katrine Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 19:07

Lovely pictures :) Of course you’re the goats’ favourite, you are after all their marvelous mount Plume!

I made friends with a strange cat today: I was sitting on a bench soaking up some sun in between studies, and a big, long haired cat padded over, jumped up and planted himself in my lap, nudging my hand for pettings. He stayed there for half an hour, and an elderly lady who came over to chat told me that he was a “shared project” in the neighborhood-he didn’t have any owner, but they all fed and petted him, and at some point in his life the cat had been neutered. He was beautiful, healthy and well-fed, looked like he had a good life :)
3. Plume Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 22:49

Debster – Well, I can still tell them apart. If I just take a proper look instead of hurrying too much. It should be ok. I get my money from a machine bty the way, and it never listens to what I say. It’s rude like that.
That was a lot of trash. We humans are excellent at throwing trash around. I don’t know why we bother putting up trash bins when we never use them.
A dead coyote? Wow. You didn’t see any road runners jumping around with glee?

Katrine – Aw that’s a lovely cat story. It’s always good to make new animal friends. Makes life all the more better.

(google cache)

Got the cataracts exam done today. And it went just fine. They still had all the data from the last one so I didn’t have to do all the tests again. Instead of four hours it took just one. And a lot of that was just waiting.

Then the nice doctor lady shone a light in my eyes and looked in there. And that was it. Plus a lot of talk about the operation and such. Scheduled for June. They’ll operate on my left eye. Since it’s the worst one. And the one that the laser doctor needs fixed before he can continue the laser treatments. Depending on the results I may come back to get the right eye done as well. Or not. We’ll see when the time comes.

I have 5% vision left on the left eye. 10% on the right. That’s not a lot when you think about it. Not a lot at all.

Apparently when you get tee operation you lose the ability to focus at different distances. So you’ll only have one distance where you can see well. But for me that’d still be a big improvement. I’d give a lot to be able to see clearly at just about any distance.

Not looking forward to having people slicing my eye up, though. That is the stuf of nightmares.

But a month and a half before that happens. On Monday it’s time for the acupuncture. I wish I had decided to wait until after the cataracts surgery, really. But I better just suck it up and get it done and hope for the best. Because the cataracts surgery isn’t going to help the diabetes problems and those are still the main causes of my sight problems.

Fingers crossed for it all.

Finally my thoughts go out to Julie, who just lost her dog Olive. I know how much that hurts. I know how much she loved her. I’m sure everyone who saw Olive loved her, she was a wonderful, fun dog. She will be missed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 20:44 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Responses to “Gray Starlings”

1. Desirée Says:
April 22nd, 2009 at 21:23

Arthur happens to love naked women – well, breast, anyways. He gets very excited when he sees mine! Waggles his little arms up and down and makes a rather unmistakable whinging noise to indicate his need to be closer to them at once!

Anyways, sending you and Julie both hugs. I’m so sorry for the loss of Olive. And I’m so, so sorry for the loss of 95% and 90% of your eyesight, Plume. I wish more than anything in the world there was something I could do.
2. Valja Says:
April 22nd, 2009 at 23:55

Hi Mr. Plume,

I got back from Copenhagen on Monday night, and I’ve just now caught up with your blog (the internet in the hotel was too expensive to order every day, oh well). Yay for sunshine and goat friends! It was sunny and clear during most of our time in Copenhagen as well. I hope your dad got to enjoy some of the nice weather. I am glad you enjoyed all the postcards. I am an expat nomad at the moment, which has its stressful moments, but I love seeing new places and sending notes to my friends, so it works out. :)

I’m glad to hear your visit to the eye doctor went better than you expected. I can understand why you’d be uneasy with the thought of the surgery. When I had eye surgery I was only two, but my mom still tells the story about how she was really nervous and fainted when she got to hold me after I came out of surgery. I turned out ok, though. :) The only other surgeries I have had were on my legs — not quite the same. Blah. Surgery is definitely not a fun recreational activity (regardless of what Joan Rivers says) but at least in most cases we know other people have had it done and they’ve come out better for it. It’s good that you have this blog and that you blog about your thoughts and fears — one of my problems back when I had to have my surgeries was that I just kept my feelings to myself until they bubbled up to the surface. Not such a great plan.

… I’ve been rambling, hehe. Well, it’s bedtime for me, so *hugs*
3. Debster Says:
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:07

Glad to know you didn’t have to have more tests. Boring. You’ll have to keep us updated on the acupuncture.

I have bunnies dancing outside the window while I type this. Bunny A runs at Bunny B. Bunny B jumps into the air about 12 inches. Bunny A runs underneath air-borne Bunny B. Repeat numerous times…………

Spring is in the air. When all good bunnies’ thoughts turn to . . . each other! Last year they made a nest in the middle of my lavendar in the flower garden. Guess they wanted a nest that was well hidden and smelled good, too!

Sorry to hear about Olive, Julie. It’s hard to lose a pet when they mean so very much to us. Hope you’re doing okay.
4. Plume Says:
April 24th, 2009 at 21:31

desiree – Haha, well the kid’s got good taste, I’ll give him that.
And thank you.

Valja – I’m glad our country presented itself well, weatherwise. You’re always welcome back!
I think you turned out quite well indeed. I’m sure everything will go fine. Hopefully with some good results.

Debster – I’ll make sure you tell you all aobut the acupuncture. Every needle, every sting. More or less.
Dancing bunnies, it sounds like a disney movie!
5. Debster Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 3:56

From what I understand, there really isn’t any/much pain. I don’t think people could just sit/lay there quietly if it was a dreadful ordeal. I don’t remember my sister saying anything about it hurting, so it must not be too big of a deal.

Anyone who can stand to have “goats tap dance” on their back shouldn’t have any problem whatsoever!
6. Plume Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 22:38

Debster – No there shouldn’t be any pain. That’s not what I worry about. It’s more the traveling, the people, the newness, the being away from home for a lot. But I’ll manage.