Eyes and the Car

Yesterday was busy.
First up was an eye appointment with my new Optometrist.  She had asked Dr. Kilmore to send her my records... well, he sent only the last 2 visits.  She has no idea how high the pressure was in my eyes prior to my laser surgery.  Right now I put one drop in one eye.  The pressure in that eye is around 17.  The untreated eye has a pressure of 21.  That's below the pressure used to diagnose Glaucoma.  So, I'm stopping the drop in one eye so we can see how high that pressure goes.  Makes one wonder if I really needed those expensive drops Kilmore prescribed.
And, of course, I also picked up my new car.

You can see my old, plastic Nova checkbook in my pocket!  That's an antique!

It's metallic gray (really sparkly) with a gray leather interior.  Brindle Boxers don't go well with black leather.  Faulkner took $3K off of the MSRP/  Not quite down to the Kelly Blue Book price, but a lot better than the initial cost.  It comes with 'remote start' for those cold mornings.  There's an app which will let me start it up, and turn on the defroster.  Nice.  And, in case you're wondering, I'm not going to name it.  It's an inanimate object.  I didn't name either on of my bikes, and I love those babies.

The only hit I took was getting rid of the Rogue.  Leasing was great since I never had to worry about the mileage.  However, low lease payments don't decrease the $$ owed.  Trade-in value was $9 less than Kelly Blue Book trade-in quote.  That's not bad.  Still, there was a balance due and the trade-in didn't quite cover that balance.  I could have always turned in the car.  They prefer you to either buy out the lease, or an other, and so make the disposition expensive.  Turning in the Rogue would have been even more expensive.  I knew going in this was a bullet I would have to bite.

If you look to the right, you can see the algae growing on my neighbor's garage

Believe me, it's much better to take this hit now rather then pay lease payments for the rest of my life.  Now the payments begin.  I plan on having it paid off in 3 to 3.5 years.

Chip This

Well, it's Saturday and I get to go back to work.  We've already had a rain shower - more thunderstorms are supposed to be on the way, though nothing severe.
I went to see my new Optometrist yesterday, she works for the VA.  Very nice.  She seemed somewhat surprised when I told her Kilmore Eye Ass only had me putting drops in one eye.  That explains why the pressure in my left was higher than the pressure in the right.  Also interesting, was that the high pressure in the left eye was not high enough to actually warrant treatment, nor diagnose as being true glaucoma.  Maybe it's a good thing I'm no longer going to Kilmore Eye Ass.  I signed a waver.  They're going to be sending her my medical records.
Looking at the pile of limbs and branches behind my back fence, I have to admit to pondering the purchase of a wood chipper.  Most of the debris is three inches or less, and the wood chips would provide a really good mulch.  There's also the possibility I might be able to use it on any thin Republicans who get too close to the house.

Wouldn't this be just dandy!

And I guess there's a lot of bipartisan shrieking going on because the Idiot Jerk is caving to the Chinese... you know?  ZTE?  As I said before, you need to keep in mind that both he and Ivanka have trademarks in China and nothing is more important to the Idiot Jerk than those trademarks.

My roses are also beginning to bud and bloom.  I took some pics yesterday out front.

That's the orange bush.

And the yellow bush and the orange bush.  There is also a yellow rose bush inside the fence, as well and one that's blood red, one that is white, and one that is white and pink..  When they're all blooming at the same time my yard smells heavenly.

Sea of Forgotten Melodies

Well, here it is Monday!  My 2nd day off in a row!  How's that for all of you people who whine about having to go back to work on Monday?  And I'm off tomorrow as well!
Anyway, I was scheduled for an eye appointment this AM, got there too early so I decided to grab a cup of coffee at McDonalds.  When I did get to my appointment, I was told by the receptionist that my appointment wasn't for today, but rather for tomorrow instead.  She said, "we left you a voice mail back in November telling you Dr. Kilmore was no longer going to be seeing patients on Mondays and Fridays."  I smiled, and nodded.  They send out voice mails every month reminding patients of upcoming appointments.  That's right, every month I get a voice mail from this practice which means I stopped listening to their messages a long, long time ago.  I did make an appointment for February but I will cancel that.  My VA benefit has been working well for me, so I'm going to set up an appointment with one of their specialists.
Yesterday Anne Marie sent me a link from "Joe, My God," regarding Bernie Marcus... one of the original founders of Home Depot.  He is a true Tumplodyte.  Worth approximately 3.4 billion, he is a member of the 1% club.  He also has nothing to do with running the corporation, having retired a number of years ago.  During the campaign he spouted out some pro Idiot Jerk propaganda and the company was forced to put a lot of distance between his viewpoints and those of the company.  This guy's an old fool.  As a number of comments pointed out, the bonus he was bragging about is a one time only benefit while the tax cut will go on Ad Infinatum. 
So, I did 10 miles on the bike, on the trainer yesterday and I was pleased.  Today I'm planning on some free weighs this afternoon and another ride.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that the Grammy Awards were last night.  Bruno Mars evidently won big.  About 3 years ago I listened to one of his songs - from what I remember every body liked it.  Me?  I thought it was "pop - meh."  There's a lot of that out there.  The most ephemeral of the arts, every year thousands of pop artists, and their tunes, drown in the sea of forgotten melodies.

 Very, very few have had any lasting influence on the genre.  In the scheme of things, it's not what's currently popular that is important, it's what lasts.