Appointments & Meetings (Blah....... Bah!)

 

I have an appointment and a very long meeting today, both of which are tedious. 

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First, I have a relatively early eye appointment.  I am a little bit nervous about going to this appointment.  

For one thing, it will involve dilation (as usual) which makes much of the rest of the workday a bit more challenging.  I will end up likely wearing my sunglasses indoors even.  The last few years, even the fluorescent lighting in most of the U seems uncomfortably bright after dilation.  

Another thing is that I get nervous about is the glaucoma test.  Not so much about getting a poor pressure reading (as I have done well previously), but because of the tool with the blue circle light that touches the surface of my eye to determine that pressure.  Every year when I get that test, it reconfirms for me how I do not think I would ever want to even consider wearing contact lenses.  

I doubt my myopia nor my astigmatism has changed in any appreciable sense.  The amount of change over the last decade, hell even the last two decades has been minimal (almost zero) in that regard.  With the limited amount of change I anticipate, I may try to see if this year's glasses could be a "specialized" type of reading glasses.  I already have a nice pair of reading glasses (and another pair of bifocals from an earlier year) that seem to work well.  BUT, I would like to get a pair of reading glasses for the different distance I seem to read at while lying down.  My current reading glasses do a great job of reading the computer screen, and in reading textbooks at my desk and in reading music on the music stand.  But, at night, when I am in bed reading a book or looking at things on my Kindle, the distance I like to hold those items at is different, and it is harder to get a clear image with my reading glasses.  I would like these new glasses to be adjusted for that distance if possible.  

But, my biggest worry is about my developing cataracts.  The clinician mentioned them last year, which surprised me because she had never mentioned them before.  But, at the same time, I also realize it is logical for folks my age to have them.  I am nervous to find out if they have further progressed and if I am approaching any sort of need for cataract surgery.  I am hoping not.  

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Second, I have a FOUR HOUR meeting on Zoom with the faculty educational initiative folks I talked about before.  I am still disgruntled at this new approach where they are trying to have several multi-hour meetings BEFORE the start of the semester, instead of the original approach which was to have brief, one-hour meetings occurring every other week across the semester.  I think this "big before the semester series" of meetings is sort of cheating in a way, as while the hours of meeting together technically accomplishes the tasked number of hours..... I truly feel more is accomplished with the one hour every other week approach across the academic year.  By having briefer meetings that are spread out, we can (in my opinion) accomplish more and better work.  But, I did not get to choose this schedule.  So, I will sit through these four hours today (and more soon as well).  I am not sure yet if I will go and Zoom in my U office or if I will go to my home office to Zoom.  The eye doctor is about equidistant between my home and the U.  

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I did run extra early today.... and it was OUTSIDE as the Air Quality Index showed NORMAL air conditions for the first time in a helluva long time!  I may be sore tomorrow, as the running cadence is always a bit different outside than on the track, but it was nice!  It also allowed me to get up a bit earlier.  

I have been fussing and fussing with my pipes.  I have now gone back beyond the pipes that I have housed in my various pipe racks at home and at the U, to pipes that I have more in a "storage" sort of arrangement (packed carefully in a few boxes) in search of the official three "contenders" for my pictorial display.  I originally thought I had the three I was going to choose from, but then I realized I had not looked at these other "stored" pipes in quite a while now, and started on a "rabbit hole" exploration of them as well.  These "stored" pipes have flooded my mind with a whole array of memories I had not thought about in quite a while.  These reawakened memories have been swirling around in my mind all weekend.  I have to admit, I did not end up doing much in terms of picking the three contenders.... I ended up spending most of the time I had looking at them, remembering various memories.  But, after I do work through all the boxes, I should be able to make a better top-three contender list, so I may specifically spruce those three up before I make the ultimate decision.  

PipeTobacco