TGIF!

After the cataract surgery on my left eye on Wednesday, I'm no longer seeing double. Distance vision is awesome. Medium vision (like being on my laptop) is doable. Close vision is bleah at the moment. Doctor G canceled my second followup because he thinks I'm doing awesome.

He also scored brownie points for intelligent discussing Star Trek.

So, I go back at the end of January for an eyesight check-up once the swelling in the left eye goes down. I may need reading glasses. I may not. We'll see. (Pun intended.)

In the meantime, I have enough visual acuity to complete the publishing and Kickstarter tasks I had to put aside back on December 13th. I'll finish writing the Millersburg Magick Mysteries holiday story, but I'll probably save it for next Christmas.

(Anybody besides me get that anticipation hangover after Boxing Day?)

In the meantime, I'm also wrapping presents and shipping those and cards to family and friends. My depth perception (or rather, lack of it) during the two weeks between surgeries made me leery of using tape or scissors around the gifts. Ironically, this was the year I tried very hard to have my gift shopping done well before Christmas. Maybe I should have stuck with gift cards for everyone as I have in previous years. I could have given DH the forms, had him print out labels for me, and made him sign the cards for me.

I guess being late is better than never showing my peeps how much I appreciate them!

Once More Into the Breach!

I need to be at the surgical center early this morning for my bionic left eye. Keeping my fingers crossed (until the sedative kicks in) that this surgery goes as well as the last one. Another three weeks of eyedrops, then we'll see where we are. (Pun intended.)

I'll probably need reading/computer glasses, but I'm still amazed how well I can see with my right eye when I wake up in the morning!

When I get home from surgery, I'll have one of my homemade cinnamon rolls.

Assuming GK hasn't eaten all of them!

My Favorite Hotel

I'm still talking about my vacation because I cannot write at the moment.

Let me amend that. I'm having difficulty seeing my laptop screen while I type. My mismatched eyes are causing double-vision and headaches if I stay on the computer more than a few minutes at a time.

The issue will only last until my surgery next Wednesday. So, I do a little bit here and there and spend the rest of my time watching my very long list of programs I've saved. I can close my eyes and listen to Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, and Gabriel Iglesias's comedy routines.

Or I imagine DH and I are still in Las Vegas for a much needed vacation.

The Luxor is still my favorite hotel. It's not just the fabulous architecture. It's set up in a way I don't have to deal with too much smoke from the casino.

Before any smokers jump on my case, I stay away from you and your habit for the same reason I stay away from cats. I'm frickin' allergic. If I'm sufficiently forewarned, I stock up on allergy meds and decongestants.

The first time I stayed at the Luxor was the year after it opened. My friend and I had a room on the south side of the pyramid. At the time, construction had started on Mandalay Bay, but for all intents, the Luxor and the airport were the edge of the city.

These days, you can't tell where Henderson ends and Las Vegas begins as you drive over the Muddy Mountains and into the desert bowl. But damn, if you can't still see the light at the top of the pyramid the entire way.

While I'm in Surgery...

Depending on what time you read this post, I might be in surgery getting my eyeball sliced with a laser. For some reason, I'm more nervous about this surgery than I was about the mastectomy five and a half years ago.

Why? Because this only affects the quality of my life, not my survival.

Sounds stupid, right? Except humans are irrational at heart.

That idea is difficult to write about because we humans also want things to make sense. If I wrote about some real life incidents from my own or others I know of, most readers would do the proverbial "throw the book against the wall". Those incidents make good barroom tales, but most readers would write the idea off as unbelievable because it is so outrageous and there's no satisfying ending in real life.

We humans are the ultimate paradox.

Which is why, after wearing glasses and contacts over the last fifty-one years, I'm scared that I might see clearly without visual aids.

Writing More than Showing On the Stats

Over at my main website, I keep a list of stats on current and future writing projects. Right now, it doesn't look like I'm doing much of anything. My NaNo project is an Alter Ego book, the first in three(?) years. 

Also, I'm double-checking for typos in Magick and Murder after finding a few I missed in Fae and Felonies while proofing the paperback. Also, there's the annual Christmas short to write. I need to have everything done before DH and I set out on our first real vacation since GK was born. (The treks to Ohio to visit family do not count as vacations because they definitely weren't relaxing. Neither were the staycations to fix house stuff.)

After we return from our trip, I've got two eye surgeries scheduled in December to fix the cataracts I have thanks to the tamoxifen. Like I told my oncologist, if there's a weird side effect to a drug, I'll have it. Merry Christmas to me.

But that also means, my writing may be limited until my body processes the new bionic lenses, as my buddy Jo would say, and we figure out if I need glasses or just reading glasses or *fingers crossed* I don't need anything at all. By January, I should be able to drive al night again.

Can I now? Technically yes, but I don't feel comfortable doing it.

This is just one of many things a person deals with on the way the big 6-0. Yet, I still want Barbies for my birthday, and I plan on hitting my favorite comic book shop when I'm in Houston. I feel very paradoxical at the moment.

However, I will be taking Baby Blue with me on vacation. DH no longer flies so the drive to our destination will allow me to only write. While technically a laptop, Baby Blue isn't much more than a glorified tablet with a keyboard. She only has WORD and EXCEL loaded, and the wi-fi remains turned off unless there's a dire emergency that my phone can't handle. And there isn't much a smart phone can't handle these days. However, I only have my personal e-mail on the phone.

If all goes to plan, I should have a few giant updates on stats at the beginning of December. Then, things will be quiet until the beginning of January.

P.S. The entire Justice series is currently on sale at all retailers (or it should be) until December 10th. Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice (Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse #1) is $0.99 until Deember 31st!

I'm Blind

Well, that's true since I was seven. I always got put in the back of the classroom because I was so much bigger than most of the other kids. And I squinted at the blackboard. (Yes, young'uns, this was in ancient times.)

So, I was tested by the school nurse, and she sent home the recommendation that I visit the eye doctor. This was the '70's, which meant huge ugly plastic frames and equally huge heavy lenses. By the age of eight, I had huge ugly divots on my nose from the weight of the dang glasses.

Contacts came in high school and went with my pregnancy. New plastic lenses made it possible to wear wire-rims for the first time ever.

Then came the cancer. And the tamoxifen. And the cataracts, the one side effect from the tamoxifen I worried about the most. My eye doctor thought I'd be looking at cataract surgery after I turned 60.

Today, I had my annual eye check-up. My eye doctor said the cataracts have progressed faster than she guesstimated, and she referred me to an eye surgeon. My appointment with him is in two weeks. It means I need to get my winter holiday story done before November 7th since I don't know what happens next.

I'm rather glad I haven't committed to any releases for the first part of the year. My fingers are crossed that this surgery goes smoothly. I need to see my laptop screen!