Saturday

Early morning writing has not been happening. I don't have the flu, but I've been fighting off a sore throat and I've been extra tired lately. I almost got up to write this morning, but given how tired I'm feeling now, I'm glad I didn't.

Today we've took everything out of our bedroom for a deep cleaning. I'm always surprised by how much dust collects underneath our bed and the chest of drawers. Between the bookshelves in the room and our closet, I was reminded of when I used to live at Arcosanti in a eight by eight by eight cube. It looked a little like the scene of a hyper-spacial accident between a laundry truck and a book mobile.

The day has been foggy and grey. As I was walking outside, I had a new appreciation for my glasses. A hill rising a few blocks away faded out as it rose up into the underside of a cloud. Pine trees nearer were darker and sharper than ones a little farther up and away. The scene was made for practicing watercolor washes to indicate distance.

On the down side, when I was in a museum for the first time with my glasses, I became very aware that they have a narrow portal centered in my field of vision where objects have crisp outlines and that objects in my peripheral vision lean toward this portal of clarity. Normally I don't notice it, but in a gallery of picture frames the artwork ripples around whatever I'm pointing my nose at.

I'll have to hoard my contact lenses for when we go to art galleries.

New Look

Today when I woke up to write, I put on my new progressive perscription eye glasses. Luckily, the house was dark, so I didn't fall over from corrective-lenses-induced dizziness.

The top of my new lenses are for far away objects, the bottom is for things like books or cell phone buttons. I do like the clarity the glasses give me -- I especially appreciate how hills and street-signs and (OMG!) cell phone buttons -- but I'm still noticing how objects appear to move forward or backward as I move my head up or down. Also, I have to look straight ahead; if I try to look too far left or right, objects distort as if there were a mini black hole at the level of my forehead pulling things askew. And moving my head right and left to demonstrate this to myself so I could write it makes my eyes ache.

I'm afraid that all this pointing my nose at things I want to see clearly makes me look like a raptor trying to figure out exactly how far away its prey is. I suppose on the plus side, my glasses will force me to improve my posture, as my head isn't high up enough to get things into proper focus when I slouch. And I've just discovered that my trademark-geek way of sitting at a keyboard -- legs crossed and pointing sideways, back twisted so I sort of face the screen -- really isn't going to work with these glasses.

Now, all I have to do is get used to never seeing right angles or flat planes. And maybe practice walking some more before I try to navigate the highly decorated with floor tiles and textured carpets Eugene Public Library.