Eye update

Here's the latest. I have funky vision now and it's a pain in the a**. 2 week check up was great. I got to turn bright yellow for a day(dye injection for new retina photos), walked around all day with one eye dilated and one not and the prognosis is good. I won't get back what I lost, but the healing from the laser surgery is continuing. I have distored vision in my left eye but not a blind spot at this point. I tell everyone it's like walking around in a fun house and catching a glimpse of what is ahead of me in those goofy mirrors.

My balance is slightly affected as my brain is still trying to rewire itself. Since I tend to rely more on my right eye to focus and my peripheral vision is affected, I've been cutting corners and when I stop suddenly, wobble a little. The headaches come and go, depends on how much strain I put on the right eye while working on the computer. It's just plain weird. For those that are interested, here's sort of what it looks like. This is an Amsler Grid and I have to use it daily to try and detect any changes in my sight. The top one is sort of what I see. My distortion area is in the upper left to center now, the lines are crisp and not blurry like the above grid. The one on this page is for macular degeneration, which some research indicates that they are similar issues. Mine is caused by histoplasmosis, while MD is genetic for the most part.

If I get a chance at my 3 week check up, I will try to bribe them for a DVD of the retina photos so that you can see what it really looks like.

I forgot to add--I'm still very legal to drive without any restrictions! I do tend to walk around with my sunglasses on more often as it helps with the eye strain.

later gators...

C

State Fair highlights

Oh the funnel cakes at the west end of the horse barns, the caramel apples in Pioneer Hall, taffy from the Varied Industries building and a big cold pickle right out of the ice water from the general store. I swear that we have rituals at the fair each year and they always involve food.

Did you know that joke is that you can get anything, on a stick a the Iowa State Fair? Pork Chop on a stick, steak, apples, hard boiled eggs, fried cheese and yes even a salad. It's kind of fun to see what there is. Oh I did miss out on the fried Twinkie and fried Snickers, of course, both on a stick. Alec said I walked right past the booth. Have to wait for next year.

I went on the first Saturday of the fair to watch Alec show a few of our ducks at the FFA Poultry Show. Both of us learned a lot. I stayed for the day and Mom and I went to the Rick Springfield concert that night. Yes he's still hot at 50 and I do have photos of him that I have to send to Holly out east. It was fun and would do it again and again.

The next week it was Draft Horse Show!! Again, learned tons, made some great new friends-HI to the Lacrosse's from WI! But the best part was this.........

Still can't believe that is our horse but Glory took the Best in Iowa class at the Clydesdale show. Wee Haaaa! Bragging rights for a year.

Can't wait for the fair to roll around again. Until then, I'm going to practice my rubber chicken throwing so I can enter that contest next year.

Later gators.....

C

Darn it, lost my dog, again

At some point in the near future, I would so much like to have a dog of my own to show. Got Eddie for me, nope, kid stole him, finished him and said, my dog. Russ belongs heart and sole to Kim and with 5 short shows, that's all I got. So I sit here admiring my lovely little puppies, trying to decide who to keep, who to show, who to send out to someone else. Seems Alec has decided that he will make the time to show Frank, so hands off. RRRR, well that leaves me with the lovely little girl, Dove. As you can see below, I lost again.

Yes, Ms Lovey Dovey will be co-owned by myself, Mumme's and Meredith, guess who's showing her? Yeap. Squirrel. And I get to stand ring side holding brush, spray bottle and towels-kennel assistant once again. The Ringer already has her free stacking, on the table nice and square and now working on baiting.

When do I get a dog all my own to show????

Later gators,

C

Would someone please shut off that damn Music!

Okay, I've been conned! I agree to dog swap, thinking I'm getting the better deal. I know my boys and well, love'm to pieces but there are days that you just shake your head at what they do. So far Moose has found all the corded electronics and slimed them. Fred has stolen corn cobs out of the garbage, taught his grandson the fine art of properly chasing cats and oh yes, Moose has once again demonstrated his ability to find the tallest object and stand on it-like the dining room table. All this while charming the pants off the residents at the Gibson Ranch.

What do I get, oh a sweet little girl who never causes any problems. She's a couch potato and well, that's it. She's the book end for Hope. Notice that little grin on her face?

NOT! I got chewed out, harassed and got a talk'en to on the way in the house from work tonight. Not my own dogs, noooo, they stood by and watched Music voice her opinion. She and Marg are best buds, which I might add, could be part of the problem. Marg taught her the fine art of herding ducks and horses. I'm thinking it's like a Dr Jekyell and Mrs Hyde movie--I have Mrs Hyde at my house!

Thanks Kim---I owe you one!

Later gators,

C

leaving the nest

Sigh, well it was bound to happen. My baby is leaving the nest. Yeap, down to just the three of us at home. I won't know how to cook for so few--lots of left overs.

Alec leaves today to move into the dorms at Iowa State. He spent the last two years doing an ag transfer program at Kirkwood Community College - much cheaper and gets most of his prerequisites out of the way early. Now it's on to ISU to complete his teaching degree. My only complaint---I couldn't figure out a way to pack Lacey or Fred in a suitcase and send them with him. Hopefully in an other year he will get a campus apartment and can take those two dingalings with him. I swear it's not so much that I will miss him-last year he was gone so much with FFA related activities, that it's not much of change, but that Lace will have a fit for a few weeks. Fred is happy at Camp Gibson so he won't miss him as much-he's got Nick right now.

So now it's down to the three of us. How boring-truly, the three of us are about as much fun as molasses in winter. Guess it's time to start doing dog shows, horse shows and start tracking classes. Or paint the four rooms that need paint, move Meredith to the bigger bedroom, rip up carpet in the new dog room, install the tub, gosh that sounds like a swinging time, doesn't it? Not.

I seriously need a life, only problem is that I have no idea what a real life is.

Help!

later gators....
C

We're even, I think

Just an FYI--found the back of the cell phone and yes found it when I was doing pooper scooper patrol in the yard. BUT unlike the suggested locations I might find it, I found it in one piece, laying in the yard with only one tooth mark on it. It did not seem to go through the collie as initially thought.

Not sure if that makes us even or just lucky cause I was not going to do another incident like we had in February with Eddie.

Later gators....
C

Collie 1, Me 0

I swear this dog will be the death of me. But there's nothing I can do about for, let's see, another 8 years? That's when `her kid goes off to college.

Okay, here's the deal. Meredith picks out a favorite puppy out of the litter. Inevitably, I sell that one and keep another one for ourselves. When the damn collie litter came around, and I am reminded daily why you don't let people convince you into doing a breeding-worst mistake I have ever made. Anyway, when the damn collie litter came around, I finally gave in and told Meredith yes, you may keep one puppy out of the litter. So what does she do--picks the runt.

Now let's talk about this runt. I swear when God got to done creating the #10 puppy, he looked around and saw spare parts. Scratching his chin and gently pulling at his whisker on his beard, he said, what the heck and threw them all together to create puppy #11. This puppy is totally leftover parts. She was 1/3 of the size of the rest of her littermates. She has pea sized eyes. her head planes are, well, all one. Prick ears that even with heavy duty glue and the expensive Japanese tape would not fix. They are too small and too thick to tip correctly. Her body-OMG-she can't walk in a straight line-sidewinds horrible. Has a blue merle head and neck, tri saddle, blue merle butt and tri tail. And her name....Click.

Meredith adores her and has a blast training her. Both are about as hard headed as they come so it's fun to watch. She loves agility-tunnels and chutes are especially fun. Click was a total embarrassment at Fair this year, just being her usual bubbly happy self and giving her best What??? look when asked to do something. Beyond that, she's very responsive, loves to sit in your lap. Did I mention that she is slightly under 50lbs too? Not big at all.

Now Click and I have a truce on things. We don't bounce on Mom when she's sitting in the chair. We don't put our nose on the table, counter or help out in the fridge. And we don't chew on things we aren't supposed too. Including cats, puppies and frogs, well sort of. I found a lawn chair that has nibbles on the handles now. Someone is chewing off the wellhead cover-I can only guess who. Buckets always loose handles and Frisbees are in thousands of pieces in the lawn. But all promises were broken after I went outside last night and found that someone, namely Click had jumped up on the grooming table and gotten something off it. I take responsibility for leaving it out there, but come on, she had to jump on the table to get it! So here's my cell phone--post collie chew.

New one is being overnighted to me. I still have no idea where the back cover is, with my luck, oh I don't even want to think about that.

Collie 1, Me 0

Later gators....

C

Words from Above

Alec and I drive to work each day, the same way. I love getting to one spot in our trip and reading the newest saying on the Baptist Church's sign. It's a super busy intersection so they are great at getting catchy slogans. So in the quest to find more, here's a few fun websites with other church sign sayings from across the country.

http://www.cheesychurchsigns.com/

http://family.webshots.com/album/327663713rjGXAy

Here's the link to the infamous God's Billboards
http://www.godspeaks.com/AboutTheBillboards.asp

Later gators....
C

top heavy

Okay it's been asked how things are going with puppies and certain matters that must be attended to as they grow up. We have house breaking, crate training, leashes, collars and of course those awful vet visits.

Last night we did the whole collar thing. That's always too funny to watch. I use adjustable puppy collars that are really thin and light weight. I have them very loose so they can come off if they decide to fight or play with each other's collars. Well the funniest part is when you put it on, they tip over. Yes, puppies think they are weighted to the ground. I know of a cardigan puppy who when put in his life vest the first time, fell over and refused to move until they took it off. Same here. Harry was the first. Quizical look at me, flopped his head and over he went. Everytime he tried to get up he would sit, then flop over. I said-gotta get used to it and walked out of the play area to find another victim to put a collar on. He got over it but not without voicing his opinion on it all. The other fun aspect of collars is the inability to move more then a foot without having to scratch at it. Makes for slow moving puppies.

After a couple hours, all was well. Though George did manage to get his off and I haven't found it yet. He looked very proud BTW.

Crates-they have four nice little crates in their play and sleep area. They fight in them, on them, around them and sleep in them. But no the doors are not shut-yet. That's this weekend. I do put treats in the crates and they are very comfortable about going in and eating their biscuits in them. Though two of them got into it this morning, with one dragging the other out of the crate by his tail. Boys will be boys.

House breaking. Boy is that just an unpleasant thought for most new puppy people. But this time around I tried something that a few other breeders suggested-litter training. And I swear, at 8 weeks, these guys are pretty much house broke! I have a small 2'x4' box in their play area. As I started to wean them, I would shrink their paper area down daily, only keeping shredded paper and fresh newsprint in the box. They learned to go over and use the box instead of messing up their area. I added wood shavings and alfalfa pellets to the mix and it keeps it dry, smells clean and easy to clean up daily. So when the kids start going home, new families will get a bag of alfalfa pellets and wood shavings to take home and sprinkle in the yard where they want the new puppy to go. Most of the time they all are good about running through the house and holding it till I let them outside too. This litter has been a cinch--even David remarked about it.

Next week is their vet visit for microchips. That's always a good one. I usually have to go hunting for puppies as vet techs like to walk off with them. Some puppies take it well and some well like Puppy Russ, turn into statues. With his chip, Doc said she didn't even think he breathed the whole time he was on the table.

Tonight is intro to the new agility equipment and swapping of dogs with Kim. If you haven't read poor Russ' woos-his housemate is in season so she's coming to Camp Cindy and the boys here are going to Camp Gibson for a vacation and to play with Russ.

Later gators...
C

Future show dawgs?

(apologize about the size on a couple of these. Meredith was taking the photos-pretty good for her first time I might add, but I forgot to tell her how to use the zoom )

Let's see-these should be Shaker, Harry, Dove and Bear. The red boys and George were avoiding me. And Eddie was supervising.

Cooperation at 8 weeks is not their greatest trait. Besides having to resort to peanut butter, they were not interested in staying still. Too many things to get into, including the find of the weekend-the horses' loafing shed and all the goodies in there. Harry, Trouble, Frank and Bear all got dunked in the pool and warning, don't let them kiss you any time soon. Yucky puppies.

So here's a few shots that we were able to get this weekend.

Later gators...

C

weekend off

Not sure if I should really call it a weekend off, but maybe a weekend without a preexisiting plan? So we sit around Friday night and wonder, what the heck do we need to do? Usual cropped up-haircuts all around, groceries, dog errands, then try to figure out if we need to tackle garage and barn cleaning, weed the garden or mow the lawn.

So we did we actually do? Played with puppies, sorted ducks for State Fair, and built some new agility equipment. The teeter needs two more pieces-seems I got PVC glue happy and glued something the wrong way-oops. The rest of it needs painted and decorated. Lace has tested it out the dog walk, several times. She even jumped the stuff I put on it to block the ramps. Shaker the puppy got 1/2 up and slid down. Stood there with his ever adorable cocked head and wondered how the heck he was going to get all the way up. Kim-I see agility in that boy's future!

If you would like the plans, let me know. The gal that sent me the plans did a great job. Pretty easy to do and portable too. Not totally regulation size, but it's a great set of equipment to practice on between classes. Tire jump and pause table are on the plans for this next week as well as some hoop jumps. A chute for the week after, then go pick up an A-frame from someone selling their's.

Later gators....

C

Happy Barkday to the boy who started it all!

Yeap, I blame it all on Fred. The reason I know have those oh so obnixous, loud and rowdy puppies in the house. They are of course his grand kids and he now figures that since they are almost ready to leave, it's time to start teaching them the ways of the world. Like how to get in the wading pool, lift your leg on things and barking. That's got to be the worst. As soon as he starts, they all start.

He did get some extra hugs, treats and a run at the ducks yesterday. I couldn't do it on Wednesday, his actually birthday, so a day late-like he knew that.

Happy Birthday, Iron Gut Fred! We love you!

Later gators....

C

Pupdate for August 1st

The kids are 8 weeks old now. Time sure flies. They will be leaving for their new homes in about 2 weeks. Well most of them that is. It's been so darn hot and humid that we let them out at night, then it's back inside after only 15-20 mins. Let's seem several found the wading pool last night and Dove is now in and out of it on a regular basis, as always following her best bud Eddie. Five of them figured out that they can crawl through the front pole gate and now it's time to get the diamond fence welded on those.

But tonight they were inside playing and playing. Got a few good pictures. Funny, the red boys tend to hang out together, while Harry is a little independant, but does tend to be with George alot. Dove wants to be with any one who will show her undivided attention-I swear she's a diva in the making. Bear and Shaker, well those are the trouble makers.

Check out some new photos at http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563986195ldJOvu

Later gators....

C

It's all in the eyes

Unique objects, our eyes. Showing sorrow, pain, glee, astonishment. I think too many of us take them for granted. That is until something happens.

I've always worn glasses or contacts, since the first grade. I remember the stigma of being a "four eyed" kid in school. Luck had it, my first grade teacher, Mrs Kirkpatrick, was an angel sent down to help me through it. She actually made it a big deal and how special I was to be given my glasses. So I proudly wore them until my grandfather helped me get contacts in high school. Haven't looked back so to speak. I wear my contacts longer then I should-always get a finger wagging when I go in for exams. But so far so good. At some point, when finances and insurance allow, Lasik surgery will be attempted so that I have even more freedom from my nearsightedness.

Meredith has cool eyes. One has a brown stripe running up and down through the center of her baby blues. Ellie has the most beautiful soulful eyes and Alec has these blue grey orbs.

Well to the point, I just came back from having laser surgery on mine. Yeap, it's way cool to do it right in the office but not cool the reason. I've been having progressive vision distortion in my left eye. Got much worse of the weekend. So I called up Dr Smith-the best around and my regular eye guy. Today was an appointment with a retinal specialist. I have what's called POH, or presumed ocular histoplasmosis. Tongue twister isn't it? From our discussions today, I could have been exposed, like more midwesteners have been, to the histo fungus, 10-20-30 years ago. No one knows and that's a mute point now. What I do know its that I have two super minor scars on my right eye, while my left eye looks like a mine field. Over 20 scars with three of worry near my macular. The one that caused me to contact my dr, has started a bleed and that's what the surgery today hopefully stopped. Dr Boldi was pretty up front and very good about explaining the ins and outs of my new problem. I might have some permenant vision loss-a small blind spot from the laser scar. Or if this doesn't stop it, we will need to do some more aggressive measures. But he's pretty hopefull that we nipped it so to speak.

Anyway, I'm wearing my 10 yr old glasses instead of the contacts and can't see clearly with a numb eyeball and dilated eyes. For now I have to adapt to a slight off center feeling and keep a viligant "eye" on my vision should it get worse. I have a little issue working on the computer with the wavy lines in my upper left sight, but that I can manage. I also have a little issue with my balance as it takes both eyes to balance correctly. Ah the joys of it all. The prognosis is good, long term just to watch it and the brain does like the challenge of adjusting to the new sight limitiations. Just watch out when you come at me from the wrong side--I might think you're a monster or worse. No just kidding, nothing more then the line looking crooked and not straight.

For those of you interested here are a few sites to go to for more information. It's a very common thing in the midwest, the leading cause of blindness for those 20-40 years old and can affect you decades after you have had your initial exposure. And no, it's not contaigous!!

http://www.revoptom.com/HANDBOOK/sect5o.htm
http://www.williamsoneyeinstitute.com/theretinacenter/trc_pohs.php
http://mamtasomaiya.blogspot.com/2008/06/presumed-ocular-histoplasmosis-syndrome.html


Well, off to put my contacts back in so I can see to work!

Later gators...
C