Charlie feels icky by Hannah

 Oh oh oh. So Valmom is a very cleverish human person. Sneaky sneaky!

In the morning she got out her hiking vest and the squishy water bottles and set them by the door. We saw our treat bag and the water dish which meant a big walk!

I, for one, was going to make sure she did not forget me. I had my hiking vest on and blocked the doorway. 
I like 'rides' and hikes.

"Charlie," I nosed him. "Charlie! We are going sniffing!"

Charlie ignored me, he was grumpy because he did not get any breakfast. He sat on the floor and stared at Her intently.

"Whatyah doing?" 

"Staring at Her. She will realize she forgot my breakfast."

"Bark at her, pick up your bowl and tell her!"

"I don't do histrionics."

I had no idea what that meant. I'm still a puppy and learning the ways of the world. 

I left him alone as She was having her coffee and reading which is her normal morning thingy. 

When She picked up her keys to the house and the hike vest we ran to the door and She let us scoot out. We were going for walks! Sniffs! Adventure! Water, bugs, rabbits, smells!

She put us in the car seats and when she turned the car around I got out of mine and tried to sit with Charlie. My tether kept me in my seat so I settled down. 

Charlie whines in the car all of the time. He groans he moans, he even makes little barks. I asked him why he did that.

"I'm giving her directions. I'd be a better driver. Her turn signal always makes me nervous so I tell her."

I dunno, humans and Charlie don't always make sense to me. But I am going to just go along with it because I'm still a puppy.

Charlie got really agitated when we pulled up to the stoplight in town. 

"Hannah, this is not the way." He whined and carried on while we were stopped. 

"Maybe we are going to Paisley's house," I suggested. Paisley lives at the farm where She took Sunshine the mule for the summer.

Charlie stood in his car seat and sniffed out the window and then gasped, "Maybe we are going to the Office of Shots! The place where you just went."

I had no answer for that. Charlie hates the Office of Shots. I don't really care one way or another. I've been there 4 times already and the humans there are so nice even when I had something called surgery. Lots of pets and love with a few pinches here and there.

I reached over and licked his ear. He seemed to be very nervous. It got way way worse when She pulled into the Office of Shots parking lot.

"No No No!" Charlie barked. "Not here, Not here! Let's go hiking! No!" He turned around and around in his seat and got all tangled in his tether.

Valmom came around and picked Charlie up from his seat and carried him in the door. She told me to 'Stay'. I can do that so I did.

She came back without Charlie. SHE fooled us! She pretended we were going for a walk/hike/sniff and took Charlie to the Office of Shots!

Then we were back on the road.

She said to me, "Charlie has some bad teeth so he needs to see Dr. Grimm who will take out the bad teeth and clean up his good teeth."

I whined, her words sort of came out 'Charlie Blah, Blah, Blah." 

I forgot all about that when we arrived at the hiking place and she put on her vest and hooked me up to the long line.

Oh the smells the sights! A rabbit smell, deer smell, and horse poop! 

15 seconds of Hannah on the trail.

We hiked and smelled a long way through the woods. She said we did 5 1/2 miles. The bugs were awful, but She said I did so well with following directions and coming when she called my name.

The rest of the day I waited for Charlie to come home. 

I waited all day. I really missed Charlie. 

Late in the day She told me to 'Stay' when She left.

Guess who She got!

My bestest friend, My Charlie!

Oh but he didn't feel good. He said he felt icky and very tired. His face was swelled and he was miserable.

I think She felt almost as awful as him.

She said he had 5 teeth removed.

He got some mush food for his supper.

She said that the Doctor said that we had to be separated for his safety. I wasn't allowed to play with him.

Since he smelled like the Office of Shots, I left him alone but lay down near him and watched for the old Charlie to come out.

Valmom decided we needed lots of quiet time. She read with Charlie on her lap and we went to bed early.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning....

The day[s] after eye surgery

 Well Friday morning was a huge surprise after seeing the moon so clearly.

At 9AM the Tech, Josh, called me to follow up with how things were going. 

He had his basic questions that he had to ask. Date of Birth, name, and so forth. Was the eye swollen, red, dripping, fuzzy,...it was a list of things he had to go through. 

Nope, nope, nope, all good.

The sun just broke over the trees when he asked how things were going. I gasped like a little girl and told him that the pine trees outside my house had texture in the bark along with beautiful colors. I said the snow was incredible with all the contrasts of white, blues, and shadows.

Really. I was floored at how incredible things looked. Stunned would be a good word. The world had depth to it.

Josh asked me to look at the chart that I'd been given and stand 10 feet away from it.

What could I see?

Dang, I could read line 8 and sort of stumbled through line 9. He chuckled and then said, "Wow, we are happy when our patients can read the big E at the top of the chart!"

Yep, I was giddy and not from the meds they gave me during surgery. I was giddy at the visual explosions of color, light, and clarity. 

Josh signed off and said he'd talk to me next Friday after the Right Eye Surgery. He said he'd tell Dr. Whitford the good news I relayed to him.

I knew ahead of time that my close up vision couldn't be corrected. So I prepared myself to deal with great distance vision and crappy close vision.
I had purchased a pair of cheap readers. I am totally annoyed at having to wear them on the end of my nose. Maybe I'll get those half glasses. 

Now here is the funny part.

Cons of getting your eyes fixed.

You can see your face without glasses and at my age it looks just weird to me. I can see all the Crow's Feet at the edges of my eyes that my glasses hid. Oh crap, where did all those wrinkles come from??

As I looked in the bathroom mirror, I was aghast at the spots, dust and smears that were on the mirror! OMG. I immediately stopped what I was doing and cleaned it. The clean mirror did not make me look younger. Perhaps I should have left it smeary....

Huh. 

I'm working out a way to use my cheaters for computer work, but it is a pain taking them on and off. I have to peer over them and I don't like that much.

BUT, I can wear regular sunglasses outside and I don't have to wear the Granny Over the Glasses Sunglasses!

Saturday was the first day I ventured out without glasses and took a nice long walk with Mr. Charlie. He was so happy to be out and about with me. 

I took my infrared camera out with a filter that only allows IR in Black and White. I know, odd choice after being able to see colors. But I could see such wonderful contrasts through the view finder.

For now, I spent a very limited time using my computer. But as time goes on I imagine I'll get back into the swing of things.

Charlie walking with me on the road:

Charlie saying he will not enter deep snow with his vest on:

Beautiful contrasts: