Dennis and I were on the road back to Columbia about 7 AM.  Arrived at Mason Eye Institute about 8:50 and by 10:30 I had my “walking papers”.  When the contact (lens) bandage was removed, my cornea was almost completely healed, and looking good. So I just have to use the antibiotic eye drops a few more days, then just the “usual” morning and night Muro 128 drops until there is another problem.  I made an appt. for 6 months…which I have permission to reschedule for 1 year, if all is going well.  That’s an appointment I’d love to reschedule.

To celebrate, Dennis and I had another meal at Five Guys Burgers & Fries.  It was good.  Who knows how long it will be before we get a chance to eat there again. We ran into some snow flurries on the way home.  It was 36, gray and very cold, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground.  It was still snowing when we got home.

With my vision no longer blurry, I managed to balance the checkbooks and pay bills when we got home. I even did a bit of reading.  Dennis decided to take a nap.  

I decided to reheat the cheddar broccoli soup and make cornbread for supper.  About that time, Dennis got the dreaded phone call from work.  He was to report to work at 7PM…to be ready to plow snow tonight.  We had time to eat supper before he got ready for work.  Not too long after he left, the power went out for a few minutes.  I now have candles lit in a couple of rooms. The temperature dropped below freezing but it is no longer snowing.  

I think I’ll watch a few episodes of “Dark Shadows” and go to bed.  Nothing worth watching on TV.

today we celebrated Christmas with Jax, Matt & Sara…or Joyeux Noel.  It was lots of fun.  Jax is walking, but if he wants to get somewhere in a hurry, he drops to all 4′s and crawls.  Sara was at work when we arrived, so we kept an eye on Jax while Matt folded laundry and fixed Jax’s lunch.  After eating, Jax showed us all his new toys and kept us entertained until he gave up and took a nap.  He woke up a little after Sara got home.  We then exchanged gifts.  Jax liked his wagon but the living room was a bit small to really try it out.  It was too cold to take Jax outside.  We got a photo of the 3 of us, but Jax was wanting to get back down and play with his toys. 

Food today was high in carbs and calories. Breakfast at McDonalds–I had their biscuit & sausage gravy (should have had a parfait).  Ham & cheese sandwich & chips for lunch (while Matt fed Jax).  Stopped at Dickey’s BBQ on the way home for pulled pork, mustard potato salad and fried onion “tanglers”.  

The snow all went south & east…along with the blowing winds.  It was just cold today…some sunshine.  Dennis went out to work on the van and it started and kept running.  Hmmmm.  We plan to take it to Springfield tomorrow, I think.   

Lucas had a shampoo and a slight trim–he’s keeping his hair longer during the cold weather.  I think the Almanac is right with the Dec 25-31 prediction–snow showers and cold.  We have another chance of snow on Friday, then again Monday.  It sounds like “typical” Missouri winter weather.  

I cooked down the turkey carcass this afternoon.  Did some laundry.  Read a little in The Passage.  It reminds me of S. King’s The Stand in many ways.  Both have government/military developing viruses that cause the “end of civilization.  Both have an old black woman as a sort of leader–Auntie in The Passage & Mother Abigail in The Stand.  The Passage is spanning a lot longer time frame than The Stand, but I suspect it will end up with 2 camps, good vs evil.  Both also have some sort of “mind reading” going on.   L. eye bothers me a little when reading or focusing on “close” things.  Computer also bothers it.  I spent a little bit of time cleaning house.  For supper I heated up the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy and rolls my mom sent home with us.  Good stuff.  

Once again, I’m heading for bed early.  If anyone asks what i did over the break, I can honestly say I slept a lot.

We headed to Salem Arkansas to spend Christmas with my parents Monday afternoon, in spite of a minor setback.  We got the van packed, hopped in,  & turned the key.  The van started….and died.  Over and over.   Plan B.  Find empty rubber tubs (formerly used to store Christmas decorations but currently empty) and put gifts &  overnight bags into them.  Head for Arkansas.  

We had potato soup for supper and went to Candlelight Christmas Eve services.  Opened gifts. Got my parents to pose and smile in front of the Christmas tree.  Sat around and talked about all kinds of things.  Had a good time.

Christmas day.  My dad getting ready to carve the turkey.  Along with the turkey: mashed potatoes & Gravy, dressing, green bean casserole, asparagus, rolls, pecan pie, fruitcake and cookies.  Only Roy & Mary made it to my parents house due to illness and fear of snow/freezing rain.  Dennis first skyped with Hannah–carried the laptop around the living room and we all got to chat with her. She got to see the tree and the new ornaments Grandma got this year.  Then we skyped with Paul and he got to chat with everyone.  He wasn’t as interested in all the ornaments…just a look at the tree. Mary took photos of me & Dennis holding the laptop with each kid but for some reason when it was time to download those photos from my compact flash card (yes, my camera is OLD–probably the first digital SRL Canon made, over 10 years ago) they were corrupted (along with the photos I took of Mary and other events during the afternoon).    This is the 2nd time that has happened in the past few months.  I’m now looking for a new card…I don’t think it is the camera.  I’ve been using a 2G card and have another one that has only 512mb that I can use in the mean time.  

We headed home before 3 PM because Dennis is scheduled to plow snow tonight.  I’m not sure if we’ll get snow.  Yesterday it was all over the news, how many inches we were getting.  Tonight the forecast has changed, and we may not get any.  The system went to the south and east of where it was originally forecast.  We did get the cold though. And winds.  Dennis is at work, waiting for the snow, so he can plow it (or get sent home because the snow was cancelled). My Aunt in Searcy AR had freezing rain all afternoon.  

I plan to go to bed early and see what the morning brings.

I said it first but it was just for the humor.  I’ll wait until after Christmas Eve Candlelight services, when we all open our gifts.  Opening gifts to and from each other (family, select close friends) on Christmas Eve has been a tradition in my family.  Back in the olden days when I was a kid, it was at my great-grandmother Weathers house.  After eating, the men would play dominoes, women would clean up & gossip chat. The kids would all run around until it was finally time to open the gifts.  Since there were so many of us ( & several generations), we drew names and had a gift exchange.   Later on the large Christmas eve gathering was at my Granny’s house, and then it rotated a while, ending up quite a few times at my mom’s house.  Then, as the family got more and more scattered, the big get-together fell apart.  Kind of sad.  But at least we have a small family gathering on Christmas eve., and my dad’s relatives come to my parents house for Christmas noon-ish gathering.  With medical and military members of the family, there’s not even a guarantee of having any time off around Christmas. So we skype and celebrate on non-traditional days.     And thus NEW traditions are born.

Last night we had a nice visit with Beth.  She brought gifts for us to take to Jax on the 27th.  Paul wasn’t able to leave his post to make the trip.  Thank you for keeping us safe, Son.   Our visit was short but hopefully we’ll get another glimpse of Beth before she has to go back to CA on the 27.  

Yesterday was abnormally warm–definitely in the 50′s.  This morning was frosty & not supposed to warm up much today or tomorrow.  Snow is in the forecast for Christmas evening.  Dennis may have a long day on the 25, if he’s out plowing snow that night.  The joys of working for MODoT.  

the nice thing about corneas…they heal quickly.  Since Friday night, I’ve gone from zero vision L. eye and blurry vision R. eye and pain, to barely swollen L. eye, still blurry vision, but R. eye is seeing just fine.  It “just” feels like something in my L. eye, which is annoying, but not painful.  I didn’t go outside in the sun, but wore my regular glasses inside today (wore my sunglasses most of yesterday, inside).  Both eyes are still red and irritated.  

We had baked potatoes with finely chopped ham, cheese, sour cream for lunch.  I made broccoli cheddar cheese soup for supper. I also baked cookies (white chocolate chips/dried cranberry/macadamia nut) this afternoon.  It was nice to see well enough to follow a recipe. 

In our house, there was a tradition that whoever said “Christmas Eve Gift” first, got to open a present that morning. My mom said it first almost every year growing up.  It will just be me & Dennis in the morning…so I have a good chance.  LOL

That’s what’s happened today.  Even though I’ve had this problem with my eyes before, I forgot how limiting blurry vision, discomfort and photosensitivity can be.  I did some cleaning and a couple loads of laundry.  Can’t read.  Computer glare is barely tolerable in small amounts.  I can tell that the cornea is healing though.  Less discomfort and not quite as sensitive to light.  No reading, sewing, working on crafts…which is extremely frustrating.  I watched “Four Christmases” on TV–cute with a lot of famous name stars in it.   I managed to cook supper–macaroni & cheese, left over cornbread and black beans.  

Now it’s time to go to a dark room for a while.

Photos of all 15 ugly Christmas sweater contenders were put into a powerpoint program and this morning each class of students at RMS got to vote on which sweater was ugliest (no faces, just the sweaters and a bit of my skirt, since it was made from sweaters).  I was the winner.  It was lots of fun.  

I left work a bit early to get to my eye appointment in Columbia.  My left eye had been bothering me for about a week…not too bad, a little stinging and feeling irritated.  Since I had the appt. for today, there was no point in even trying to get in earlier. Plus Dennis was off today and could drive me.  I have/had the beginning of a new cornea erosion…which Dr. Cowden made time to “scrape off” so that it didn’t end up tearing the cornea, as has happened in the past.  Instead of the past treatment, which was taping the eye shut and wearing a patch (a la pirate) I have a contact (as in lens) patch on the eye.  It is supposed to control the pain better, and let the cornea heal “smooth” instead of bumpy scar tissue, but it is still quite painful tonight.  I declined the offer of controlled substance pain reliever…and may regret it.  Hopefully Tylenol and Ibuprofen will be all I need.  Ibprofen has taken the edge off the pain for sure, and after a night’s sleep, it should be less painful tomorrow. In addition to the usual Muro 128 eye drops, I have antibiotic eye drops to put in twice a day.  I go back next Friday to have the contact patch removed. Hopefully it will be healed enough that I can do without the patch, but have been warned that sometimes it takes more than a week to heal properly.  The most frustrating part will be the blurred vision for the next few days.

After the eye appt, Dennis and I ate at Five Guys.  I had the small burger, he had the regular burger, and we split a regular order of fries.  It was a wonderful meal.  I’m looking forward to a repeat meal next Friday. 

Today was the day to wear your ugly sweater/outfit for the contest at RMS.  Tomorrow there will be some sort of powerpoint presentation for all the students to vote.  I’m not sure I’m even in the running.  It is a Christmas print turtleneck under the sweater, plus the skirt is made from sweaters, so maybe there will be points for the combination. 

It was raining when I drove to work, but shortly afterwards, it turned to snow.  It melted for quite a while, but finally started sticking on the grass.  It was very windy, so even though it was only 29, it felt much colder.  Tomorrow morning is going to be very cold, but then it will warm up again over the next few days.  Right now it looks like St. James could have a white Christmas.  

Brenda & I spent the any spare moments we had Monday & Tuesday, packing up and getting rid of anything we could. Today was moving day.  Here is the old office arrangement:That is Brenda’s desk, with her chair blocking access to the black metal cabinet (which is now in the bathroom–for extra/emergency clothing, feminine products, and a few supplies).  The even uglier, larger metal cabinet that was in the bathroom is now gone.   My chair back was up against the window.  There is another floor to ceiling window on the right of the “wood” cabinet.   The cot & chairs for students were along the inside wall.  The hallway entrance to my office is at the foot of the cot.

Here is the new and improved arrangement:

Brenda even got a new bigger, better, but older wooden desk.  No blue computer cable coming down from the ceiling.  The cot & chairs are on the outer wall of the office.  There is still work to be done, and some tweaking, but I am very happy to have my back against an inside wall (much warmer) and to be able to see out the window.  It was fun playing games with certain students, trying to convince them the office had always been like this…  The office has more space with this arrangement…mostly because there is one less big cabinet.  

It was a good day to move—we had no computers while the move was happening.  We did it during the AR reward movie, which most students were watching in the auditorium across the hall. Those students who did not meet their goal, were in classrooms reading with teachers who didn’t think there was any reason their work should be interrupted by a trip to see the nurse.  

The winter storm with snow is on its way.  It’s moving slower than originally predicted, and the cold and rain turning to snow is supposed to start at noon tomorrow instead of the wee hours of the morning.  It’s also losing strength as in travels slower, and we are not even supposed to get an inch.  With no accumulation since the ground isn’t frozen.  

Yesterday I went to Julie’s Christmas party. She’s a hostess that puts Martha Stewart to shame.  It was fun hanging out and catching up with friends.  Unfortunately I had to work today (St. James schools got out yesterday) so I was among the first to leave.  I still don’t have all my ducks in a row for Christmas.  I feel disorganized and have so many things going on, I am not sure where to even begin…so I wander from project to project and get distracted.  It’s not a good feeling.  

Tomorrow is the RMS Ugly Christmas sweater contest.  This year I am participating…wearing the sweater that several students assured me could have won if I’d only been in the contest.  I even have a skirt made from holiday sweaters that I am wearing with my sweater.  

And now I must move on to another project…the Christmas letter.  I have faith that the Mayans were wrong about the end of the world on the 21st.