And that's done

 I THINK that's the last medical checkup/testing I need done for this year. Today was eye doctor day.

Probably of all the medical things, this is the one I dread the least - you aren't having anything stuck in body parts, you don't have to prep ahead of time, you're not getting blood drawn, there's no chance of getting a shot (though any more, I have to schedule my own vaccines at my pharmacy - and yeah, I still need the shingles series (now that we're getting past the terribly hot times, I can start soon - I don't do well with vaccines when it's 110 F out) and then get the flu shot and the fall covid booster, and because I react strongly to vaccines, I want to space them out as much as I reasonably can (and get them on Friday afternoons). 

But anyway. Today it was mostly getting my prescription checked and having a few minor tests done. I don't *love* the glaucoma test where they shoot air at your eye, but it's not as bad as one my former eye doctor used where they had to touch a thing TO YOUR EYEBALL. And they also do a scan of your retina, which is extra and such vision insurance as I have doesn't cover it, but I've heard about people having serious issues diagnosed when there was still time to save their vision with those, so I pay and have it done. (Also - I have a family history of macular degeneration, and this test can give a good view of the macula). 

Good news: the scan showed no difference from the last time I was in (2021) and everything is healthy. I have the very earliest stage of a cataract but it also has not changed, and the doctor said it was so early it would probably be 20 years before I noticed anything. 

My prescription had changed just enough I could tell a difference when she tried the different (slightly stronger for both distance and close-up) lenses, so I decided to spring for new glasses (future me can pay for that, I put it on the credit card where the bill won't come due until after I have my next paycheck). It took me a while to find good frames. I like the round ones I have right now, I think they're a good look for my face, and also the larger lenses mean I don't have the lower frame impinging on my vision. But I found a similar set of frames - not round, roundish but slightly angular, with lenses the same size as the ones I have now, and they're a rose-gold colored frame, which is a good color for me. I tried a LOT though, and one thing I realize: really dark heavy frames look bad on me. I think maybe someone with darker (and not greying) hair and a more strongly colored complexion than mine could pull them off, but really heavy frames look clunky on me. 

And I will keep my current pair, both for emergencies and since these are ideally suited for when I play piano, so if the new ones aren't perfect I can wear these when I practice. 

They also put a blue-light blocking coating on them, which I think does help cut eye strain. 

***

I'm glad it's the weekend. I need to bake muffins for a labor day breakfast at church; I might do the All Star muffins from the King Arthur flour book and put dried cranberries and white chocolate chips as the add-ins. (Plain chocolate chips, while that might be my choice, won't be ideal: we have a couple folks with chocolate sensitivities, I think it's the caffeine like substance in it)

***

And something I saw on bluesky, from a person called woman carrying thing. They were riffing on something about Nietzsche, and I admit what I know of his philosophy I dislike and also I dislike the class of "bros" who seem to have taken him up as a sort of patron saint (because they tend to be disagreeable people), but the rejoinder they made to the post they were riffing on, I liked:

"live: resist the forces of disintegration

 laugh: to bear a world shot through with unjustifiable suffering 

 love: go forth brimming with joy you cannot but spill onto all you meet"

And yes. Especially to me, especially now, the  "bear a world shot through with unjustifiable suffering." I try to use humor, and do so appropriately (not tearing other people down; more commonly doing silly puns or laughing at some of the absurd things in life) and yes, it does make things easier to bear. And at my best I can do the third, if I'm not enmeshed in my own sorrow about something. And as for "resist the forces of disintegration" - well, maybe that's why I eat so much cabbage and work out for at least  half-hour a day. 

***

I have noticed it's starting to feel like fall. Oh, it's still unbearably hot, and we're going to have more over-100 F weather with limited or no rain, but the angle of the light, especially the color tone of the afternoon light, I can see fall is on the way, and it does make me think of knitting blankets and making socks and cooking soup and all those kinds of things. (And hopefully before fall is much advanced, I'll have  a dishwasher again, to make cooking that much easier.)

I am really ready for it to be fall. And yes, some folks online are already anticipating Hallowe'en and while it's still a bit early for me, yes I do plan to decorate this year and maybe I even find some kind of little light-up artificial pumpkin to put in a front window along with my orange wreath and haunted-house doormat. 

It's funny how I've gone from  thinking of hallowe'en as "just a holiday for kids" or "ugh, this is one of those drinking holidays for adults" (Well, it was when I was in college, and I always knew it was going to be loud Hallowe'en night) to now, going "You know, it's just simple fun. It's nice to put out cute-spooky things or things that are halloween-nostalgic and it's fun to figure out a simple costume" (which maybe I will, though at this point I'm not sure what)