Garden Buddy and More Macro

Warm at Last

I just got a birthday macro lens in the mail today. Even though Kyle isn't a fan of these popping up in our yard, I figured they might make a nice photo. Tamron 90mm 2.8 lens.

More at Edwards Greenhouse and a Photo of Lucy

So Today Was a Sad Day, But I Did Have This Happen

Super Dog!

Best Miracle Drug Ever is OTC and under $10 for 2 Months Worth

Is anyone else shocked that no medical professionals knew about it?

Not my eye, but a good look-a-like most days

So who would like to go to work looking like this most days? I see no raised hands. Who would want to go anywhere looking like you might be stoned, or your dog just died -I know what that looks like :(

Over the past several years I've been having dry red burning eyes to some extent. I decided to bring it up to my doctor about 2 and 1/2 years ago. I got a prescription for an Rx eye drop that didn't do much of anything but charge my insurance a whole lot. I gave up on it and suffered pretty much daily. The only times that were a little better were on the weekends if we kept the house closed up with the hepa filter on the heating/cooling system. I love spring with the windows open at night, but Kyle and I have not been able to enjoy that for a few years. The house is almost always sealed. I have seasonal allergies, allergies to smoke (wood burning stoves are abundant in my neighborhood) mold, and of course pets.

Work has always been bad. I work in a huge warehouse. Parts of the office are in more office-like settings, but my offices have been annexed to the warehouse with tons of boxes. think something like this:

O.K., maybe on a smaller scale. 

A typical morning for me at work is to get the morning briefing meeting materials together, get through the meeting and then once I'm back in my office, if its a quiet day, I blink, hold my eyes shut, and add non-red removing eye* drops hourly with little relief of the burning Saharan messes that are my eyes. This continues all day until I go home and wash my face and run a humidifier or have pots of boiling water on the stove. The only time I got relief was if I was out on a call and had work to think about so that I could ignore the pain for a while. Weekends were a little easier, but again, a newer house and decent air filtration combined with a killer vacuum probably made quite a difference. 

The past few weeks my allergies have had me feeling really low energy and down. Bike rides to work resulted in mild flu-like symptoms with fatigue and serious aches and pains. I stopped riding because it was making me feel so badly. I have never had that happen before. I wondered if the loss of Sadie and her previous decline were wearing on on me emotionally. I really felt bogged down, super low energy and began to wonder if I had some serious underlying medical problem ( I can't help that with my profession).

Then today, I stopped at the local Fred Meyer and checked out the allergy aisle since my Dr. recommended me continuing with Allegra in the morning and then adding Zyrtec at night. I was dreading adding another pill I'd have to take daily, but I figured trying wouldn't hurt. Then I saw this stuff:

I thought what the hell and I bought probably the 10th different eye drop in the past few years. I got back to the office and put one drop in each eye. I've done this hundreds of times and the best I got was a wetter eye that felt vaguely better for a few minutes before returning to that dry burning awfulness. These eye drops stung a little, but that subsided quickly. Then my eyes, felt simply O.K. That has never happened with any drops I'd gotten prescriptions for. Then amazingly about a half hour later I realized that my sinuses weren't stuffed up and my post nasal drip was gone. I was pretty sceptical until I found this article. Several hours later I'm still doing great and my energy had returned a bit. 

I feel like a whole new world has opened up for me. I spent the evening in the yard with Lucy the dog and can't wait to open the windows again on our next warm spring night. 

* the "get the red out" type eyedrops will actually make your eye problems worse. Only use these if you are a regular Jane like me who might be on TV one time for your 15 minutes of fame. Here is a link.

Lucy Learns the Treadmill

We go for two walks a day, but since she's such a scary beast, treadmill training seems like a good idea. She won't do well in the high heat of summer or the super cold temps of winter.

A Poem for Sadie

I wasn’t there when she entered this world

I didn’t give her a name

She was trouble, a liability that I took on

For the rest of her days

We learned to share our lives together

Enjoying the company

Her soft black fur

The smell of her head

her laugh

Then we let another into our lives

Two flawed humans and a flawed dog

A family who learned together

Years of happiness and companionship

Suddenly pain fear, trembling

the only way she could let me know

The future turned bleak

The decision was made

Listless tired and in pain

Her eyes closed and breath ceased

In our arms helpless and loved

Now ashes in a little box

We were fortunate to be there when she left this world.

We miss you so very much sweet baby girl.