Holy Cow...

the kitchen

Somehow we went from a nice space to an actual kitchen today. I finished painting the wall behind where the stove will go, and with K's help installed the range hood. Hooking up the electrical for it was a snap.

Then I cleared a path from the refrigerator in the living room into the kitchen, and again with K's help moved the refrigerator into its slot. A bit of cleaning of the stove and lifting it onto some sliders, and K helped me slide that into place. I hooked up the gas, checked for leaks, et voilà!

Of course there's plenty left to do, like trim and flooring, not to mention the dining room, but today was a good day, ending with a fully functional kitchen.

crushed by the stove?

The Eyes Have It

my other eye

Well, one eye has it. Iritis, that is. Saturday I had a bit of a headache. Sunday it was worse, and it was odd because it felt like it was behind my eye. K noticed my eye was bloodshot, and when we went out, I discovered it was very sensitive to light. I called the advice nurse at Kaiser, and they wanted me to come in to check it out.

So today I trundled over to Kaiser for an appointment with my doctor. After checking in and a short wait, I was ushered in for a mini-physical (weight, temperature, blood pressure), then in to an exam room. My doctor is great. He came in and quickly asked some questions and examined my eye, then very quickly said, "It could be glaucoma. I'll make an appointment for you at the eye clinic right away." Eek!

Right away was the next available appointment, which was two hours away. Sigh. So I ran some errands and came back. Another pre-exam including a quick vision test, then the ophthalmologist came in. He asked some questions, then examined my eyes. Then some eye drops, and a glaucoma test. No glaucoma, but I do have iritis -- inflammation of the iris.

After a visit to the pharmacy and some more waiting, I have some eye drops to treat it, and a follow-up visit scheduled for next week. None of these things took that long (except, oddly, the check-in at the eye clinic), but it all added up to pretty much the whole day shot.

I also got a heads up that my other eye (shown pictured above) was showing signs of pigment dispersion syndrome. That's where the pigment of the iris flakes off (I guess they didn't prime it before applying the paint?), and can clog the drainage of the eye, leading to glaucoma. So when in the next couple of years when I have to get reading glasses (what?!), he suggested I get a glaucoma test, too, and every couple years going forward. Hmmph.

Two conditions I'd never heard of before, and I've got 'em. It could have been worse, so no complaints here. But the upshot is that instead of finishing the touch-up painting in the kitchen today, all I got done was moving stuff back in and putting the outlet and switch covers back on for the part that is done.

With Fronds Like This...

bat star, ochre star
and hecka anemones

I'd like to say I've been busy on the kitchen, or that I've been super busy with other stuff that's been keeping me from working on the kitchen, but neither of those is true.

One thing we have been up to recently was camping. We've camped frequently in mountains and deserts across the west, but neither of us had camped on the coast before. We got the idea because we didn't have a large block of time, so we wanted someplace closer, but still wanted to "get away". And we wanted to stay in a state park, because the govenator has been threatening to close the parks in a misguided attempt to balance the state budget. Most state parks don't pay for themselves completely via collected fees, it's true. But when people have less money, they tend to take cheaper vacations like camping, and they still spend money doing it, generating sales tax. Close the parks, and more people will stay home.

So searching the many California state parks, I came across Salt Point SP. It's about 100 miles and (because of winding roads) 2.5 hours away. Being on the coast, it can get fairly windy, but we were prepared for that. It's a beautiful park on a beautiful section of the California coast. We spent a lot of time just watching the ocean and marine life. Amongst other things, we saw seals, sea lions, brown pelicans, a black oystercatcher, three osprey that were hunting, and all sorts of things in tide pools. Part of the park is a marine preserve, which made me wish we knew how to scuba dive.

Today K is back at work, and I'll work on the kitchen this afternoon. A special thanks to our friend Melissa for staying with the kitties one night. Rosie was definitely happier for it, and Star probably was, too, even if she wouldn't admit it. And yes, our cats are spoiled, but after all, they're in charge.

south of Salt Point

osprey

tafoni formation