It's the small epiphanies that count...

I'm just now figuring that my initial success in donning contact lenses was probably associated with the fact that the eye doc had just finished examining my eyes, during which process he had dropped some yellow solution into my orbs to anesthetize them.

* * *Drew, Shannon, and Huntur took off for the Durango airport after dropping me at the store this morning. I took the opportunity to do a bit more cleaning before opening the store.

I'd like to put in the contacts now, but I can't, really. The store's restroom (which is where the mirror is) is equipped with an ventilation fan that is powered by the same circuit as the light bulb, and the fan makes enough of a racket to probably violate one or three Geneva conventions on human rights, or at least enough to keep me from hearing the door "gong" that rings when someone comes through the front door. I have enough of a problem putting in my contacts when there is no time pressure; I'm not going to try to do it while attempting to cover the store alone.

* * *My nap late yesterday afternoon must have really refreshed me. After I went upstairs to go to bed, I couldn't fall asleep.

I recall turning on the light at one point in my insomnia to note that it was 12:50 am, and I know I didn't fall asleep for some time after that. In fact, I don't really remember sleeping at all last night, except that the alarm did wake me at 5 am, an hour too early, as it turned out, as the kids were leaving for the airport at a quarter to seven to catch Shannon and Huntur's 9 o'clock flight.

Back to work...

Cheers...

(Grumble)

I tried to repeat yesterday's trick of taking a short nap around 4:30 pm, but this time, I did it in Drew's car out back of the store. I'm not so sure that was such a good idea, as I woke up cold and stiff, reacting to Drew offering me a phone.

It was Galina. She was feeling kind of depressed down in Houston. She'd waited a whole day for a city inspector to come by and bless our improvements, and hadn't heard from someone she'd engaged to fix some shutters at the house we rent to a NASDA astronaut.

I was not very talkative, and not very informative, unfortunately, past telling her that we'd cleaned up the back of the store a bit.

Upon returning home, it took me a while to get the contact lens out of my right eye. What irked me about the process was the extreme frustration I felt when I could not get the thing out. (I think the frustration may have been tinged with just a soupçon of panic, expressed as "It's never coming out!")

However, I soon discovered a technique using fingers on both hands that got the lens out PDQ. It worked the first time when attempting to de-lens the left eye.

Dinner was... something new. Drew halved an eggplant and set it to simmer in a layer of spaghetti sauce. I'm not so sure the experiment was a success; I think most of the eggplant I had was undercooked. Soon after dinner, Drew departed - presumably to hang out with his buddies - saying he'd be back around... two hours ago. Unless he's been real quiet coming in, I don't think he's back yet.

* * *I simply was not in the mood to translate this evening, though I did do about 4 pages, which puts me just about on or a little ahead of my schedule for completing the work. (Part of my lack of enthusiasm stems from the fact that my right eye hurts, likely the consequence of my clumsy attempts to get the contact out.) In any event, I am nearly through the "main" portion of the document; the appendices to the document start in three pages, and after the first few - which are wordy - the rest consist mostly of numbers (which are always a pleasure to translate!).

It's late. I can't imagine having trouble falling asleep tonight.

Cheers...