Everybody's Doing It

In a few days, Feedburner - the service that sends blog posts to your mailbox - will be no more. When I learned of this, I did do a little research into alternatives and had decided that if I wanted to offer that e-mailing option again, Follow.It would be my choice. But I don't think many readers are taking advantage of an e-mailing option and I suggested any who did look into Feed Reader services like The Old Reader. However as the ending date for Feedburner grew closer, I've seen several of the blogs I follow as well as their readers singing the praises of Follow.It, making the switch and noting how easy it was. So I gave it another look, started following directions, and before I knew it, I had the new Follow.It e-mail subscription sign-up gadget added to my blog (in the sidebar to the right). So out with Feedburner, in with Follow.It. If anyone does give it a try, I'd appreciate it if you'd get back to me about if it worked and how well you like it.

In the meantime, I'm still muddling along with results of cataract surgery, the second eye being done on Monday. I guess I'm just too impatient, thinking I'd be able to see better right away since I'd been seeing pretty good with just the one eye fixed. I've actually had a harder time reading with eyes tiring more quickly (or so it seems). But everyone said the surgery went well (and I must admit the whole process seemed smoother second time around) and my first followup showed the eye is healing well so calm down about how well (or not well) you think you are seeing. And in fact, every day I have noticed improvements. Still, I wonder how much of my initial out of focus feeling is due to my brain being so used to heavy glasses on my face that when it senses those are gone it just assumes I'm seeing out of focus. Takes some effort to convince it to get to work!

Still not feeling like I can do anything much with any creative ventures. A day or two after surgery, I did pick up something off my work table to bring it to my other hand and totally missed that hand! Yeah, there were some depth perception issues at first but those seem to have resolved. I've been in contact with a friend who had her second surgery the week before my first and it's been interesting to compare notes. Unlike me, her near vision is not good now and she has opted for some Dollar Store cheaters which she said are a little weird. But she is a quilter and crafter like me and is trying to work on a project, impatient as I am to get through this healing 4 weeks before new corrective glasses can be ordered up to, as my clinic dr said, provide my best vision. And to be done with eye drops 4 times a day plus lubricating drops in between.

So still marking time, but getting really antsy. I love my afternoon reading stints on the back deck, a summertime pleasure that goes back to my childhood days, and there's always things on-line and recorded on my dvr to fill my time but those studio projects are definitely calling out for my attention. I'm looking forward to when I can tackle them with ease.

Marking Time

Brilliant deck flowers that winter over

I had my one-week follow-up with my eye doctor this morning and he says things look good. Still not all the way healed but getting there and that eye is seeing "20/20-ish". Of course, the other eye only sees that well with corrective lens but it will be fixed soon (Monday) and the two eyes can stop fighting each other. In the meantime, I've been able to read without glasses more than I anticipated and even took the short drive to the grocery store 4 days after surgery, albeit using glasses for better far vision. I really appreciated Kathy Loomis' comment that jogged my memory about being able to increase the size of text on our computers and tablets. That's one of those features I knew about but put to the back of my mind as I never dreamed I'd be in a position to use it. Much less squinting at the computer screen! And as she says, who could go for weeks without being able to read a book - or blogs - or newspapers - or any number of things that keep me entertained and informed. I only wish I'd been thinking more clearly when I picked out a book from the library and didn't even think about a large print version. Luckily, after a few days I found I could read normal text in books, at least for short stints.

I do feel like I'm just marking time though. I slept a lot the first few days (reminding me that this is my standard solution after or during stressful events). I watched on-line so many motorcycle races over the weekend (World Superbike Series at Misano, Italy). Made that shopping trip on Monday. And have slowly figured out what I can and cannot do in this space between surgeries. Not trying any sewing or quilting yet, not even sewing in the signatures of that blank journal. Think it would be too much squinting. (Had to laugh at my first thought when the clinic doc said things might look smaller since my current prescription is a "bug killer" - think kid with magnifying glass on a sunny day. What? Needle eyes will be even smaller???) No drawing or painting or writing yet, although I may give a letter a go. What I find I CAN do is:

• Watch tv, although not tackling the few foreign mystery programs with sub-titles
• Do most of the daily on-line stuff like reading e-mails, blogs, articles and of course, Facebook
• Prepare meals, although some of my recipes' type is tiny - is that 1/4 or 1/2?
• Take walks, leaving the glasses at home
• Continue with a not very strenuous yoga practice
  
• Balance my checkbook and figure the month's budget - a bright desk lamp helps
• Shred shred shred! I specifically saved this post tax preparation job for now since there's no reading involved
• Do light housework like laundry and cleaning bathrooms - have a weight lifting limit so am saving hauling the vacuum out.
• And best of all, enjoy the brilliant flowers in my deck garden.
  

Replacement geranium

 

One Down, One To Go

I had my first cataract surgery yesterday. As the date neared, I hustled to get as many important things needing good eyesight done as I could, knowing that there would be about a month between surgery one and when both eyes were healed enough to order up new glasses. They all promise me I will be seeing near perfect but for my best vision I will need some corrective lenses. I'm already astounded at how well I can see with my right eye without glasses, but being farsighted, deciphering things up close (like words on a page) requires getting the glasses on and some squinting as now the right eye isn't seeing well through the current prescription. I know some of you have already had this surgery so you must know what I mean. I had wanted to get a new blank journal made for myself as I had few pages left in my current one (used for writing prompts and yoga meditations). Well, I almost made it. I picked out fabric (I believe this is a hand-dyed fabric from friend Susan), fused it to felt, did some minimal quilting (following the textures in the fabric) and turned the excess along the edges to the inside for fusing. This makes a very soft cover and I found myself dithering over whether to fuse another piece to the inside for a little more stability. Still dithering. If you click for a larger photo, you can just make out white dots marking where I still need to punch holes with that awl for attaching the signatures. Said signatures are all folded and punched.

Which brings me to my fancy new punching cradle, made by Jim Poelstra of Affordable Binding Equipment. It wasn't cheap, which is why I've been putting off purchasing one, but it is beautifully handcrafted of sturdy birch. Sure beats making do with a catalog or phone book, and much sturdier than the DYI cardboard one I made. Punching my signatures was a joy instead of a struggle, and isn't that what we all strive for when plying our particular crafts with the tools we use to make them?

So even though I got this far just days before the surgery and probably could have eked out the time to sew in the signatures, I'm sure I can see well enough to do it in this time before surgery two in a little more than a week. I'll probably even be able to see well enough to write in it!