Pressed

I was overcome w/nostalgia the other day while perusing the local Tar-gay. [1]Target

It was the funniest thing. I saw a guy checking out who had on a pair of pressed blue jeans. And by pressed, I mean they were starched and ironed. Is this a thing anymore? Was it every a thing anywhere besides the south? I grew up where it was routine to see folks in pressed jeans. It was a way of being ‘dressy’ w/o wearing actual dress clothes. It often came with a very large pressed shirt, of the country variety, as well.

I saw the guy and a flood of memories hit me. It was like I was back in high school. Random scenes flashed before my eyes of different folks wearing pressed jeans. Students weren’t the only ones either. I remember plenty of faculty who also wore them to football games, public speaking events, class, etc. While girls tended to wear them more regularly, plenty of guys wore them as their dressy attire.

I remember one guy who wore them all the time. He always said he liked the way they felt against his skin. There are so many ironies apparent to me now of course. One, he wore them w/o undies and his jeans were often skin tight. Two, they still weren’t very revealing. Three, while he was straight (and I believed he was), you could often catch him grabbing himself front and back to lift them up tighter. I could see it in my mind as if he had been standing right in front of me at the store. I could even smell the faint smell of his stetson cologne, of which he often bathed in. I’m sure the fact that he had a very round backside had nothing to do with why I remember him specifically. hehe

Another prevalent memory revolved around an Ag teacher who was famous for having all his junk pushed to one side of his jeans. [2]And it was an impressive display He was ‘straight’ and was routinely the topic of various gossip groups, teachers and students alike. But he loved his jeans pressed. I can’t think of a time actually that I ever saw him anywhere w/o his pressed jeans.

Anyway, it gave me a giggle. I hadn’t thought of it in years. I didn’t realize people still did it.

References

References
↑1 Target
↑2 And it was an impressive display

Which

I’m settled into a final prescription for my contacts. Ironically, my prescription is now identical in both eyes. Leave it to me to continue being the odd ball. I’ve had to go with disposable dailies vs single monthly lenses. Blame it on the astigmatism correction. Everyone has said that the disposable dailies will be more comfortable for me. Maybe I’m out of touch but it seems so wasteful to me. At lease I never have to worry about putting the lenses in the wrong eye. hehehe 

Now that I have figured out how to put my contacts in properly and to know when they are in backwards, I do struggle less. I’m down to about 5-6 mins total. As mentioned, I prefer the contacts for a variety of reasons but there are moments where just being able to put glasses on and off are quite appealing. I thought I’d ditch the glasses one I got contacts but I think I’ll hold onto them. They’ll come in handy for those times where I just can’t be bothered to hassle w/putting contacts in.

I’m curious to know how often most people where there contacts? Daily, every other day, etc?  I’ve been trying to wear mine every day. I do notice toward the end of the day a lot, my eyes seem to get tired of focusing. Or maybe a better description is I have to focus more on keeping them in line. Does that sound right?

I won’t see the specialist again till June. She’ll decide then on whether I should proceed with the muscle surgery.

Imported

Good news! After 5 years, I’ve finally been able to import all of the posts from my old blog. I started the sfmoby domain with a fresh database as WP grew a lot in those first few years and my old mysql table was quite cluttered. I didn’t want to import all the errors from the old database basically.

That’s the good news. The bad news is I may have inadvertently imported duplicate pages and user accounts as well. If you were signed up as a user on both blogs, you might (and I say might) see double emails for new posts if you are/were subscribed. I will be reviewing them slowly. You’ll most likely just need to reset your password as if you lost or forgot it. And conversely, if you notice a problem logging in, just go thru the lost password process.

Some images didn’t come across either. I’ll have to manually update them one by one. [1]WP didn’t always support short linking very well This will also take some time to complete. While most of you won’t notice anything, I’m giving everyone a heads up.

This also means I’ll be retiring the old archive as it is now in one place. Once I have purged and/or corrected everything I can, I will delete the old blog completely. I’ll keep the old URL for some years to come but it will just redirect here.

If you have any problems with your user account, please email me directly.

 

References

References
↑1 WP didn’t always support short linking very well

Hot

So I deal with a lot of dog in car calls in my line of work.  I also have a beloved animal that I would never ever let intentionally suffer. And of course, I do a lot of volunteer work the local SPCA. Considering the temps outside here today, I thought I’d pass along some helpful info. 

First, it is OK to leave your dog in your car in some circumstances. Second, it is NOT OK to leave your dog in your car inmost circumstances. 

Just follow a few basic rules and you and your beloved pet will be good.

1) Always make plans that do not include having to leave an animal alone in a vehicle for more than a few minutes. If you plan accordingly, the likelihood of you putting your pet in danger will be very low. (Going into Safeway to shop for an hour or two is NOT a good example.)

2) When deciding if it is ok to leave your animal in your car for a short period of time, add 20 degrees to the temperature outside. If you would leave a child in the same temp and be ok, even for 15 mins, then it is ok for your pet. [1]The caveat is if you’re stupid enough to leave a child in an obviously too hot car for 15 mins or longer, don’t breed or own a pet.

3) If you are ever in doubt, don’t do it. If it is that close in your mind, error on the side of your beloved pet and don’t do it.

On the flip side, what should you do if you are concerned about an animal left in a vehicle?

1) Vehicles are not air-tight. Even if the window is rolled up, the animal is in ZERO danger of suffocating. I hear this one a lot. While it may contribute to a given situation, it is not enough to cause disress on it’s own. 

2) Unless you know of a specific ordinance in your area that indemnifies you from harm, you are not exempt from liability if you break into a strange vehicle. Committing a crime to right a crime doesn’t protect you. You should call your local non-emergency police number or animal care agency for guidance. They will in return make the necessary response or referrals. 

3) While you personally may not like it, legal conditions for ‘in distress‘ have to be met before drastic action can be taken. Again, make an effort to know local ordinances or use option 2 above. An excited/barking/whimpering animal is not enough on it’s own to be considered in distress. In very general terms, ‘distress‘ means the animal is in danger of injury or death if no one acts to intervene. 

If you have ever hopped into a baking hot car, you know from experience, it is not a comfortable feeling. Do not inflict such punishment on your companions. They are defenseless against such things and depend soley on you for their care. 

References

References
↑1 The caveat is if you’re stupid enough to leave a child in an obviously too hot car for 15 mins or longer, don’t breed or own a pet.

Brand

Unless you’re a stranger to the internet, you’re probably aware of the ongoing drama with a certain brand name getting raked over the coals for bashing their own.You’d think that seeing the outcry they would apologize and shut up for awhile. As of today, they continue to dig-in in an every expanding failure to defend comments that should have been kept private. [1]Do these people not have publicists?  And frankly, no matter how you slice it, the comments were demeaning. 

You can think whatever you like and are even free to say it, but you are not free from the consequences. And acting like spoiled little brats doesn’t after the fact doesn’t improve your standing. If you own a brand name directly associated with your name is it really a good idea to insult many of the people who help make you wealthy? It is a hard lesson in the changing world though. No one is immune from the viral effects of the internet. 

As for the calls for boycott, I’m not really for it. Not every disagreement needs to result in a boycott. If I purchased their products, I’d probably stop as a personal decision. I would not however try to ruin them for simply disagreeing with me. Being free means people are allowed to disagree, even our own. Boycotts should be for those who actively work against us, not just anyone with an unfavorable opinion. Calling for a boycott marginalizes the big issues and minimize their effectiveness as well. 

Hopefully, they’ll just shut up and let things die down again. People will forget and move on to the next big scandal. However, the more they run their mouth the more inflamed it will become. 

References

References
↑1 Do these people not have publicists?

Smooshed

You know what a "smooshed sammich" is right? I was running late the other day and my coworker happened to see me making a smooshed sandwich and was very confused.

She asked why I was smooshing my sandwich. I’m like, "haven’t you ever made a smooshed sammich?"

*Quizzical looks from coworker*

It is a sandwhich you throw together, usually just meat and cheese and you smoosh it so it will stay together while you eat it. Usually a person is moving or active so the idea is to make it smooshed on purpose. ​

My coworker thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.

Clearly, she didn’t grow up poor or anywhere Southern. heehee

I’m just curious how many of you reading this knew what is was? ​

Contact

Well, I’m starting to try out contacts for my eyes. While I’m waiting to see the new eye muscle specialist [1]he is apparently very busy I’m back to the original Optometrist for my actual vision issues. I hate wearing my glasses and riding a motorcycle certainly isn’t conducive to said activity. I’m hoping I’ll be a good candidate for contacts. The Optometrist gave me some trial pair after retesting my eyes. There was only a slight change in my prescription since the first exam, prior to the surgeries. Unfortunately though, having a astigmatism is apparently a hard fix using contacts. Apparently, they didn’t even offer you contacts in the past for said issue. Because mine is not severe, I might be ok.

The first trail trial pair was a disaster. I had a headache within hours of wearing them. [2]Work’s "spring cleaning" my have exacerbated it a bit I promptly threw them out. The second pair has turned out to be much better. I’m working on wearing them all day, then every other day, and finally every day. I have enough ‘daily’s’ for two weeks. Overall, the fit well and don’t really bother me much. Getting them in/out of my eyes was the biggest challenge, even though the lab tech said I was a natural. I tend to blink a lot more and seem to "feel" them more as the day wears on. Is that normal?

Leave it to me to have issues that can just be fixed. The contacts work very well for the right eye, which affects most of my vision. The slight blurriness is all gone and the world takes on its normal crispness when I wear them. This will mostly likely help in the efforts to cure my diplopia left over from the eye misalignment. However, the left eye with the astigmatism may be the deal breaker. Reading up close (like on a phone or tablet) is worse than not having the lenses in. And I read a lot. On the flip side, using them at work is fine. I guess the distance between my face and the monitor is enough to even it out. And while the eyes do adjust a bit given a little time, I’m not sure yet how effective this approach is. I’m going to see how things go. The Optometrist mentioned one other trial pair I could test out.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I really want to be able to wear contacts. I might try to do glasses over contacts (even though the Optometrist wasn’t a fan of that idea) or alternating between glasses and contacts.

Of course, if this is the worst I have to go thru as I age, I can live with it.

​

References

References
↑1 he is apparently very busy
↑2 Work’s "spring cleaning" my have exacerbated it a bit

Still

​It appears le blog is still being subjected to random brute force attacks. If you notice long load times or get a "500 internal server" error message, it is because I’m being timed out by the server to prevent it from crashing. [1]Nifty little protection mechanism I didn’t even know servers did that. lol I’m not gone, just try again in a bit and it will be back. If you get updates via RSS, you shouldn’t notice any issues.

I keep getting grumpy notes from my ISP about my server CPU stats. It isn’t me specifically that is being targeted. I’m nothing special in the grand scheme of the big interwebs. However, WordPress has some weak areas that bots and hackers routinely try to take advantage of to proliferate s p @ m. They basically take advantage of inherent internet workings to overload a server with too many page requests.

Anyway, I’m having to step up my game a bit. I’ve turned on site-caching from the server instead of from within WP. This just means a visitor gets served a cached copy of my index page vs the server rendering a file from scratch every time someone visits. Loading a static file only consumes bandwidth vs compiling php files on each request. The cache file gets updated every time I create a new post.

Hopefully, this will cut way back on the server load. If the problem continues, I’ll most likely move my blog to WP servers. They do a lot of work on the back end to prevent this sort of nonsense. I mean it is their product so it makes sense. lol My ISP helps when I ask but they are smaller and leave most of the burden on me. I simply don’t have the resources to combat such things.

Time will tell.

References

References
↑1 Nifty little protection mechanism I didn’t even know servers did that. lol

Better

The wonky eye saga continues.

As previously mentioned the last eye surgery was a success. It fixed the structural problem with my right eye. Sadly, the diplopia has not disappeared. I should clarify it is much improved but I’m still having some issues. The doc who did the surgery doesn’t deal with that so I’ve been referred to yet another doctor. This will be doctor #5 in the series.

I put off contacting him as there is still a chance my eyes my just readjust on their own. It seems the eyes are improving ever so slightly every month. It is possible that they my slowly go back to normal given enough time. That said, I’m just not willing to wait that long. And to be fair, it has gone from a chronic problem to a minor annoyance. It only affects the extreme angles of my vision now.

Anyway, the new doctor deals with eye muscle problems and possible rehabilitation of the muscle. I’m hoping it doesn’t require another surgery and its looking like it won’t. He is booking a month out so won’t even get to see him till late March. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the eyes will be even better by then.

Of course, I still have the underlying vision issues that started this whole caper. My right eye happens to be the weaker of the two in vision as well. It’s minor but the combo of weakness and double vision is what makes it so frustrating at times.

I’ve finally reached a point where I can wear my glassed pretty much all day w/o getting severe headaches. I’m down to a dull ache after a day of wear. I’m forcing myself to get used to them so I can switch over to contacts permanently. Luckily, I’m still eligible for contacts. I go back to see the optometrist in a week. They’ll recheck my eyes and if no major prescription changes, I’ll get my contacts within the month.

I’ve noticed that if I wear my glasses for awhile, the next day my vision seems slightly better. I’m wondering how common such an occurrence is? Is it possible to wear glasses to temporarily retrain you vision and then not need them anymore? I’m sure the Opt doc can tell me.

Cooper

Cooper is doing well. He is approaching

image
Nap Buddies

his 6th birthday. Can you believe it? My little pooper is all grown up now. I hope all the love has washed away those bad memories of when he was young and left alone. Bullies aren’t overly bright but they do have long memories. Anyway, I’ve been very pleased with his progress and continued health. He has yet to develop or even exhibit any major health problems that bullies are prone to. Thank the stars!

His hearing is still good and has shown no signs of declining. He has issues with certain tones but that hasn’t gotten any worse.

His skin, of course, is an every present concern. Being white makes it worse. We did discover that letting him go longer w/o baths makes combating his skin issues easier. His natural oils help ward off the never ending staff flare ups.

He did manage to hurt himself a little bit recently. We occasionally let him on the bed in the mornings. He likes to hop up and curl up with us. Some days though he’ll get overly excited and the moment he thinks we are getting up, he’ll run and jump and land on the floor. He managed to strain a muscle or ligament the last time he did it. He earned himself a few days of minor limping. He’s better but he just gets so excited at times he forgets he isn’t super dog. hehehe We’re actually thinking of lowering the bed to prevent it. Of course, this means making even easier for him to get IN the bed.

Beyond his misadventures, life is good for the Cooper. He still brings me love and makes me laugh every day. You can see from the pic, he still loves his naps. Shawn still finds it hard to believe he doesn’t suffer when we are gone. While the Coop certainly wishes we were home, he routinely sleeps pretty much the whole time. Hell, he pretty much sleeps the whole time even when we are home. If he isn’t begging for a treat or slobbering on our legs, he is usually asleep.