Monthly Archives: October 2016

New addition to the family – Stella

Posted on by
4

We’ve just adopted Stella, a 4-month old little dachshund.

a74d9cb0e0606c586ee804cd6ba3105c

Stella at the shelter.

Look at those green peepers!

Look at those green peepers!

Stella comes from the Humane Society and Shelter – SouthCoast (HSSSC.org) in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. My cousin Melinda runs the shelter, and Stella was brought in nearly dead from neglect. After a couple months of love and care from the amazing folks at the shelter, she made a full recovery. They do incredible work at the HSSSC, so if you’re looking to support a shelter that serves all of SouthCoast (Fall River, New Bedford, Dartmouth and more), there’s none better.

stella-01

Ready for the trip from Dartmouth to Montreal.

stella-website-cropped-not-scaled

Couch time. We bought her a new pink harness to match her pink leash.

We drove down to Dartmouth over the weekend and picked her up. She’s the sweetest little girl and is bonding very well with everyone.

bce30b91b8ce0297ae5d270fc6ec804a

Olly, Stella and Sam.

Sam keeps a close watch on the puppies.

Stella tries to figure out how a hose works.

And to Ligea at the HSSSC, thank you so much for taking care of her each day. I know it was a hard road to recovery for her, and I know you must be sad to see her leave. Please know that we will give her the best forever home we can give and that she will always be surrounded by people and other dogs that love her.

c4906f7e8c4733d7837a6f3df8cad763

Olly and Stella are both puppies, so they share a special puppy bond.

Stella and Olly “fixing” a hose.

stella-in-pine-needles

She likes to lie in the pine needles and chew sticks in our backyard.

They also love puppy play.

We love you Stella!

20161017_123136

Stella sleeping on the ottoman next to my chair in my home office.

She also loves her new bed from her friends at Canine & Compagnie.

snoozing

Sleepy puppy belly

First Eye Exam in 30 years. Plus pictures of my brain.

Posted on by
11

Had an eye exam last week. First one in about 30 years.

Over the past 5 years I’ve noticed that I really need reading glasses. And since I’m someone that hopes for the best but expects the worst, I was a bit nervous that something had slowly been going very wrong with my peepers over the past few decades. I’ve been using various over the counter reading glasses that have been working well for me, but I figured it was about time I got a professional exam.

Turns out I’m not doing too bad. Age happens, so yeah, my ol’ eyeball lenses are having a more difficult time focusing on the closeup stuff.  After talking with the optometrist and going over my prescription (here’s a helpful page for interpreting eyeglass prescriptions) I decided to get a pair of  glasses with progressive lenses. I hate having to keep taking my reading glasses on and off, so I’m going to try wearing these new glasses all the time.

They should arrive in a couple weeks. I opted for Silhouette TNG frames and Varilux S Series lenses.

I asked the optometrist to email me the digital images of my retinas. Because why not? I think they’re beautiful, like outer space nebulae or something. Maybe I’ll use one as desktop wallpaper.

The retina, a layer of nervous tissue, is a direct extension of the brain (brain -> optic nerve -> retinal tissue). So this is basically a picture of my brain.  Cool beans.

right-eye

Right Eye – Optomap Ultra-Widefield Retinal Image

left-eye

Left Eye – Optomap Ultra-Widefield Retinal Image

The Silhouette website also has a neat little app where you can virtually try on the glasses.

0d5154adce728aca2097fa702be28f8d

Finally, I really need to give props to Pro Optical Boston. I was in the neighborhood and walked in to schedule all this on the spur of the moment, and they accommodated me wonderfully. Whole exam and fitting took only about 45 min. Very professional and friendly and helpful. Especially for someone like me who is a total n00b at all this eye exam stuff and generally skittery around doctors. Highly recommended.

Anyway, as a soon-to-be new member of the eyeglasses wearing population, if any of you have any advice or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. I’m an eyeglasses newbie and need to learn stuff!

UPDATE 10.07.2016
Glasses came in the mail yesterday! Fast service! And so far I love them. So great to be able to see things clearly close up again.

john-lester-in-office-resized

-John “Pathfinder” Lester