I'm more broken than you

[Greg]

Sure. Now I just need a plate put it on.....

[Drunk Monk]

Sure. Now I just need a plate put it on.....

Oh oooh!  I got one.  But it's now behind me being guarded by a ferocious yeti with a broken torch that lights up.  

Hey, wth?  Is my office nook becoming the receptacle of DOOM discards?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Museum, not a “receptical”. A “Curated Collection”, if you will.

[cranefly]

My eyes are messed up.  About 3 weeks ago I noticed a degradation in short- and long-distance vision.  I think I did it to myself.  Lady Cranefly bought some gravel from Gem Mountain to sift through for sapphires.  I got caught up in this mad scheme, which requires close eyeballing of tiny particles.  And, well, it's best done in the sun where they twinkle most.  Belatedly I realized I was subjecting my eyeballs to large amounts of stress as well as UV.

Anyway, the eye doctor confirmed that my eyes have changed, both near and far -- not quite enough in the far to require glasses for driving, but it's getting close.  Oh, and there's signs of cataracts beginning to form (yeah, the UV).  They will need to be dealt with down the road.

So I ordered new glasses -- not through Kaiser, because they're in that whole corrupt dance with eyeframe sales (covered in a 60 Minutes episode), but through Zenni online.  I may need a second or third pair for distance and up-close reading, but the computer range is what I need most right now.

Anyway, every day brings on an eyestrain headache.  It's not hugely painful, but has a Mr. Bed-Spin queasiness to it that also upsets my stomach some.  I really need the new prescription soon, but it may take a week or so.

In the meantime, I'd like to give a big shout-out thank you to Four Eyes DM for all the really fine animated GIF tesseracts now replicating like tribbles on Doom threads.

[Drunk Monk]

Sorry to hear that.  I guess we all have glasses now.  Is there anyone in DOOM that doesn't wear glasses regularly now?  

I always hoped that decades of cannabis use would somehow help my eyes.  Something about glaucoma.  Well, what it did do was now I can function fairly normally when things are really blurry.  And by 'fairly normally' it's me, so I really have no idea wth that really means.  I will say that tesseracts and cannabis are two great tastes that go great together.

[Greg]

My Kaiser optometrists are crazy.

I had the joy of seeing the eye doctor two days in a row. I had to go back because they dilated my pupils on the first visit and they couldn't do the exam for a prescription after they had done that. Which begs the question, why not just do the prescription exam first.

I saw Dr. Gin first. He gave me a long speech about the disadvantages of having kids. He had a long list, which included buying them airline tickets to Chicago. He was oddly specific. I said I had dogs. He than did a long riff about what you had to buy dogs, including boarding them in a kennel while you flew to Hawaii. Again, oddly specific.

Dr. Gin talked about his dead father. He talked a lot about staying in shape. He talked a lot.

I saw Dr. Rousson today. After he looked at my eyes and did some tests, he told me about macular degeneration and it's symptoms, which got me worried. But he finished by saying I didn't have that. He could have led with that.

When I mentioned I made films, he told about a book he wrote for kids and why kids didn't like it and the photographs that weren't up to snuff for the book. He quizzed me on how do you get ideas for films and how do you make films. He told me that when he retires that what is probably going to do is make films.

[Drunk Monk]

That's kinda funny.

My Kaiser optometrist used to be my Kung Fu uncle...x 2 no less because he studied with Wing Lam in the SF days and taught alongside Tony Chen.  We'd talk about Kung Fu.  He relocated to SF only so I don't see him anymore.

My new Kaiser optometrist knows my Kung Fu uncle really well.  He looks up to him as a guru.  So we talk about my Kung Fu uncle.

Never compare having kids to having dogs.  That's like comparing film-making to videos you post on instagram.  You don't have to send dogs to college.  Arguably you don't have to send your kids to college either, but all I know is that's where my money goes now.  All of it and then some.

[King Bob]

Lack of tuition is one of the benefits of my child-free lifestyle. Although I could have gotten a CSU exemption, but they probably would have wanted to go somewhere else. But as the dog gets older, she gets more expensive. The biggie is the teeth cleaning.

I don't got to Kaiser for my eye appointments; we get a vision plan so I see an optometrist, who doesn't talk much.

[Drunk Monk]

Teeth cleaning. Yeah try braces and oral surgery (wisdom removal).

[Drunk Monk]

My elbow is still messed up from the plumbing hyperextension then the successive tendinitis flare up when my Master came through back in Nov.  Been getting chiro, soaking it in lots of epsom salt baths, pouring liniments over it, bracing it, resting it, etc.  This is the worst I've ever had and I'd dealt with tendinitis on my right many times from sword practice.

[Greg]

Have you tried rubbing dirt on it and then just manning up?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Sympathy, dude. My tendonitis battle has been going on since June, finally getting some relief since I was given a walking cast/boot thing to wear at work.

---

A lot of us get those elbow-strap thingees. You try them?

[Drunk Monk]

Have you tried rubbing dirt on it and then just manning up?

Yeah, lots of dirt.  Me so dirty.  You like it dirty, I know.

Sympathy, dude. My tendonitis battle has been going on since June, finally getting some relief since I was given a walking cast/boot thing to wear at work.

---

A lot of us get those elbow-strap thingees. You try them?

Yeah, I got several different types of those.  I call 'em elbow capos.  As if I played guitar or something...

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

In keeping with the “if yer old, something has to be broken”, I’ve been battling severe tendonitis in my right elbow for the last month or so. In times past when it would start to flare up, I’d nuke from orbit with enough Advil to stun a moose and all would be well in a day or two. Blood thinners changed my Advil diet, however.

What with day job using hand tools and night job slapping around stabby tweens, it got pretty unbearable. I learned after my last bout that if my methods don’t work, get on the horn to the doctor. I pay enough every month for the privilege, so go talk to an expert.

Upshot: Replace my strap with a larger one, take a course of steroids orally, and if those two fail, cortisone shot. I like that the doc was with me on the shot-as-last-resort.

Day III of Roid Rage 2019: Huge improvement. Can use full-length foil for lessons, can use hacksaw and metal file with almost no pain. Bolt-cutters were agony, now just a mild annoyance. Really amazing.

Down side: Definitely feeling...antsy, slightly manic (fortunately in a pleasant way...so far) Using Benedryl to knock myself out at night and deal with allergies. Considering switching to red wine and barbituates, because, tradition.

[thatguy]

The old ways are the best ways...

--tg