Friday, February 13, 2009

Sleep deprived

Well, it’s another cold, windy, dark February night so what’s the problem with heading to the sauna and hibernating early? I am beat as the shore captain was up every 20 minutes trying to reach the boat on the cell, sighing, back to bed and then of course up at 5:30 a.m. So there are new sleep rules for ‘the night before the boat’s in’ which include him removing himself to the spare room as if he wishes to have an anxiety attack he can enjoy it to the fullest - solo. FYI the delay was that the ‘jog stick’ which is a steering mechanism broke, the captain had to steer from outside and the crew had to stop ‘in between tubs’ to dress fish, it blew hard and they only had 10,000 lbs of fish and not many halibut so they were not impressed. Annoying but hardly life threatening stuff. I was amused by a friend’s description of being alarmed if the shore captain was – not likely – I (and those who live here) have seen much hyperventilation, pacing, raised voice and other meltdowns as he waits and we mostly ignore it do not react. He of course puts on his ‘outside’ face so she would only have seen him acting like a calm adult.

I had a frantic morning at work, which had as much packed in it as some full days and rushed off to have my eyes examined due to the boy keener optometrist who not only inflicted me with bifocals but also thought my intraocular pressure was on the “high side of normal” I had my visual fields tested and suspect I will never be diagnosed with epilepsy because I’m sure that exercise would have triggered a seizure should I be susceptible and was told sternly to “focus now, I don’t want you to have to do this all over” which made me feel like I was in the slow class . Then drops and a machine in both eyes, which is of course as easy as it sounds to cooperate with. Then a final chat with the boy wonder where he describes that the layer on the front of my eye is thicker than usual (not sure why he chose not to name the part as that would’ve been easier for someone who understands anatomy than me guessing eye structures – oh you mean the cornea?) and he agrees “yes the cornea” So I ask if this was something I was born with or a new development – thinking to myself - is this something else that’s gotten thicker as I got older? So he agrees my eyes have always been like this and that when they convert the measurements my pressure is actually very normal, but it’s good to have a baseline measurement. Sure wish the rest of my skin was thicker than my cornea after this past few weeks at work especially.

To reward myself I head to do some errands and find a Suduko game for $2.97 for a valentine for mister – he doesn’t have to know that’s what it cost. The very fractured translation of the instructions (which he has thus far avoided so can’t figure out what to do) is a hoot. Mind you, how much Mandarin do I translate eh? I picked up some Poppycock with cashews for us and treats for the kitty boys so covered all the bases. I had chosen from the flyer a neat stainless steel water bottle, which has a denim pattern on it for the cruise. There was one with a camouflage design but it seriously reminded me of Rommel the Desert Fox movies as John Wayne or Ford or some such actor raised a canteen to his lips. I also found a beautiful fluted white pottery pie plate so have pie making on the agenda for tomorrow.