Glaucoma, Part II

I went back to the ophthalmologist this week for a re-check on my eyeball situation. The good news is, the new medication seems to be working, and my eye pressure has come down to a level it hasn’t been at…

Read MoreGlaucoma, Part II

Photoshop World Las Vegas

Doc and I spent a couple of days last week in Las Vegas for the Photoshop World conference. The conference was really good and I learned a lot about a lot of things, and came home with “The Phone Book,” the name everyone was calling the 2-1/2-inch-thick conference workbook. That thing is amazing; it’s got all the instructors’ notes and presentations from all the sessions, so if you weren’t able to attend a class you still have the materials from it. Despite both of us being sick in various ways (see last post), we still managed to have fun. Neither of us really wanted to “Vegas it up” this time, so we didn’t feel pressured to go to expensive shows or drink or gamble. We did a lot of walking around, taking photos. On our last day, I gave Doc $3 to put into a slot machine and 2 minutes later he cashed out with $43. Not bad! We bought a nice lunch. A few interesting observations: In Las Vegas, it’s sometimes hard to tell the real whores from the regular tourists that are just dressed that way. Everything in Las Vegas is about double the cost that it would be almost anywhere else. “But it’s a dry heat” is bullshit. Adequately padded shoes may not look fashionable, but they’re crucial. I estimate that I may have walked close to 5 miles each day of the conference (in flat sandals…. owwwww my feet). I think it was about 1/2 mile between our hotel room and the convention center, and this was in the same freaking hotel. All the restaurants except for one in the Land of Foodcourtia in the convention center were closed. The one that was open had only greasy fried food, hot dogs, and $9.50 hamburgers. We ate […]

Read MorePhotoshop World Las Vegas

feeling a bit better

After my night of misery and sleeplessness, I relented and went to the doctor. She confirmed that indeed I do have a bad case of poison ivy. I got a steroid shot in the hip, and also a steroid cream to rub on the rash. And something called Zyrtec, which I think is an allergy pill, to help me sleep at night. She told me to avoid hot showers because they would irritate the itching, which does seem to be the case, so I’ve been taking barely-warm ones. Kathryn told me, though, that hot water, as hot as you can stand it, actually can help once you get beyond the first few minutes of “this hot water is making the itching worse!!” Lots of people have pointed me in the direction of home remedies, which I’m not opposed to, but most of them seem to be geared towards stopping the spread of the rash when you’ve just contracted it. I got it ten days ago, so I think that the point at which most of that stuff would work is long past. Today I look awful, but at least I don’t feel quite as awful today. With skin cream freshly applied about 2 hours ago, the itching has subsided to a low-grade background noise. If I thought about it I would probably need to start scratching, but it’s not an overwhelming urge right now. The cream goes on twice a day, so I didn’t even bring it to work, but I do have Calamine to treat “spot itches,” although I’m doubting its actual effectivenes. Other things that I have learned: The reason that it can pop up later in unexpected places is because the poison travels internally through the bloodstream. Most cases of poison ivy last anywhere from 12 to […]

Read Morefeeling a bit better

in memoriam

Our tree is gone. 🙁 The courtyard looks so empty without him. A lovely 30-foot tall Chinese Elm, he served us well in the two short years that we lived under his graceful branches. Sadly, he was ill towards the…

Read Morein memoriam

Get my monthly newsletter!

I'll email you once a month with the latest stuff I've been going on about!