2020 Sucks so far........ | SouthernPaddler.com

2020 Sucks so far........

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Went to bed New Years eve at 9:30 P.M. , around 5 A.M. New Years day I felt something in my right eye and still half asleep rubbed it. DAM !!!! That hurts , really hurts.
5:15 up and in the bathroom trying to rinse what ever it is out of my eye. The dam thing will not move , just keeps hurting.I'm sure the eye clinic opens around 9 or a little later.

9:20 called the eye clinic and got a recording to leave a message since they were busy with customers. I waited for a call back but it never came so in to the eye clinic , CLOSED........... Next stop , Urgent choice health care ...Closed.
Over to Walgreens for a eye wash kit and eye cup.

Home and rinsing my eye , Hurting more... no relief. OK I will have to tough it out till Thursday and see the eye doc.
2:00 P.M. Can't stand it anymore I'm going to the E.R. at the new hospital.

Driving by Urgent Care they are open so I do a U turn and go back to them. I asked , you weren't open at 9 like you usually are , no we opened at 10 today.
In to see the Doc and with some numbing drops , yellow dye and with a black light he sees what he calls a small black seed in the upper center portion of the eye.
He takes a Q tip and chases the "Seed" over to the right corner of the eye and eventually gets it. No fun when he was doing that , even with the dreading drops in the eye it still hurt pretty bad.

Next stop is across the clinic to the eye wash station and rinsing both eyes for 5 minutes. Just to make sure everything is out. He prescribed some antibiotic eye drops so off to the pharmacy for them .and then home.

Thursday...( 01-02-2020 ) Call the eye clinic and got a 12:00 emergency appointment.
Doc checks the eye and tells me there are some deep gouges to the outer layer and they appear to be healing. Also to use the prescribed eye drops 4 times a day for 7 days plus some eye ointment when I go to bed and then start a different eye ointment Saturday and use it for 3 months.

Friday .. the eye is feeling better and better all the time.

Saturday
Back to the doc at the eye clinic and he tells me it appears to be 90% healed and to still keep using the ointment for that 3 months time span.

The eye clinic doc I saw Thursday was the doc who had the duty Wednesday and can not figure out why her pager did not go off and alert her and why I got the recording instead.

I can tell you that damage to the eye hurts ( Made me think a needle was being poked into it ) a really good 12 out of a 1-10 rating. It will get your attention really FAST.

Been one week today and it's a lot better , almost back to normal.

In this time span the wife was to the pain clinic for her back , then later to the Urgent care for a strep infection. I visited the dentist for a crown which is missing a small piece of it. Going to be a good year for the Doctors.

So all I can say is that ....So far 2020 Sucks !!!!
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Famn, chuck, f it weren't for bad luck - you'd have no lick atall!

I can empathize with your eye pain. I was doing some grinding one time, and carelesdly and stupidly refused to put on goggles. A steel sliver stuck into my eyeball. Every blink ran the upper ehelid across the end of the sliver, and it sliced away at the inner surface. The Flight Surgeon skillfully removed the steel sliver. It had been sticking straight out. I don't recall what ointments were used, but ointment and eye parches were the mode for a few days.

I now believe more in goggles. And other prophylactic devices. Even if they don't protect my eyes very well.
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Could you determine the source, or type of the bad seed? Maybe got in your hair on an outing, and fell out later?

Jack... You got me to thinking and I think I have the answer.
Only thing I can guess at is I washed the sheets that day. The bottom fitted sheet is dried in the drier. The top sheet is dried outside on the clothes line. It was a clear nice day with a good breeze blowing. I like the freshness of the air / sun dried sheet and not something tumbling in a drier like the bottom sheet does. If anything it had to be on the sheet , where else could it come from at 5 A.M. while I'm in bed sleeping on my back.
The one time I'm sleeping on my back . I have a Sleep Number adjustable bed. I adjusted it so it felt like I was in a hammock. You know when you lay diagonal how it conforms to your backside and is really comfortable.

As far as in my hair ..I like a good shower before hitting the sack. .. I assume you are saying hair as in singular or very few. Anyway on the top because the sides are keep trimmed really short the barber calls it a #1. The old term for it could be called a Buzz Cut. I call it my Get up and go hair cut.
NO !!!! They will not give me a half off price since all the trimming is on the sides and the top is nothing more then a pass threw.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Some of those little seeds, when looked at with a magnifying glass, are scary. There are barbs and hooks on them. And hurtful chemicals too.
Gonna interfere with your winking at the pretty girls. But, it's good that it didn't interere with time when tha family was visiting.
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Yep .. The visitors ( Family ) was back at their home and it was just the wife and I here.
I might of spent to many of my younger ( Informative) years in advertising since I relate my luck to the old Morton Salt motto.
" When it rains , it pours" :D
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Along similar lines of "YUCK!", our weather here is freezing rain. Of all the types of weather we get here in Michigan -The Water Wonderkand - freezing rain is the worst. The stray tornado that wanders in every 100-200 years is no fun, but freezing rain is purely dangerous. It brings down trees, high voltage lines, gets roads as slicky-slippery, and isn't any good at all for snowball fights or building snow forts!

The ice will be accumulating through the day, and all night. Surely, some things that are whole right now, won't be by sunrise tomorrow morning. I'm thankful for the results of the folks out there scraping, shoveling, and fixing, and just as grateful that I'm not one of them.

But, as Scarlett O'Hara says, "Fiddle dee dee! There's always tomorrow."
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Dec 28 , 2019 I mowed the yard. Grass and weeds got to high to let it go any further.
Actually ran the heat last week for a few days , it was in the upper 40's in the morning but warmed up around noon and I could get in my daily walk wearing short sleeves and shorts. .
The cool has left and we are at 67 degrees in the mornings with the high today of 84. Right now , probably for 10 or more days , I'm running the A.C. here at the house. It's warm , humid and very windy.
Winter ????... More like early summer. Today is Saturday and the weather folks were saying that we might ...Mind you they said ......MIGHT ... Have some cooler weather a week from this coming Tuesday or Wednesday. Then they added , things could change by then.....I took that as meaning more early summer weather.
 

oldyaker

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
1,949
31
We seemed to have already had Winter here in SW Penciltucky.... Nov & December we had very cold weather & snow to cover the ground. After Christmas it started getting mild. Yesterday we hit 71 degrees I think it tied a record set in the 1890’s. My son picked me up and we had a wonderful day at the range. Now we seem to be cooling again and closer to average temperatures. Maybe the January thaw came early this year?
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Normally as days get longer after the solstice, the saying gies, "Days begin to lengthen; cold begins to strengthen."
But, since I didn't get the electric train that I wanted for Christmas this year, the weather changed.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Andy, I 'm glad to see you're still able to sit up and take nourishment. I've been thinking about you recently. (Good thoughts.)

Tell us about the new pirogue? Is it longer/shorter, wider/narrower, sexier/more utilitarian, lighter/heavier than your other boats?

My fishing skills are so weak that, if I were any worse, I'd just fall in and try to stuff fish into my pockets.
 

beekeeper

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2009
1,917
59
Good to hear from someone that is building. This is not the best time of the year (weather wise) for building.
Andy, did you get my PM about not being able to connect with you over the holidays. I can't find your message nor my response. I guess I need more schooling about this computer business.
 

oldbuffpilot

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2014
629
34
80
Central Kansas and Central Texas
Andy, I 'm glad to see you're still able to sit up and take nourishment. I've been thinking about you recently. (Good thoughts.)

Tell us about the new pirogue? Is it longer/shorter, wider/narrower, sexier/more utilitarian, lighter/heavier than your other boats?

My fishing skills are so weak that, if I were any worse, I'd just fall in and try to stuff fish into my pockets.
About the same Jack.it has a crawdad floor and I put more slope to the sides to try to reduce the wind ssignature.I also tried to go lighter. Cedar strips are 4mm, 4 ounce cloth. Working now on very thin fill coats. I started this boat last winter,before they invited me to vacation in the hospital. Got about 50 pounds back on mr now trying to catch up for missed fun! Overall I learned a lot from that ordeal
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
I'm not familir with a crawdad floor, Andy. What the heck is that? The sides sloping out more will increase secondary stability for you. I applaud your going for lighter weight. I've been reducing the weight of my camp gear.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
An old friend of mine passed away early on Thursday morning. Sevenrty seven years ago, when I started Kindergarten, he was a classmate. He was 5 days younger than me. We were friends all through school, and graduated together. I remember playing with him on the merry-go-round, teeter totters, and monkey bars. The last few years, Julie and I would meet him for a monthly lunch. I'll miss the old man, and the little boy.