You still don't know my name and you're always so cold

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! We have a pigeon in our back porch. Presumably it is sheltering from the cold, having flown in like everyone else through the absence of door. spatch saw it this morning and reports that the dead bugs which normally cover the windowsill have inexplicably vanished. So as not to spook it, I did my best to photograph it through the kitchen window, hence the environment of multiple reflections. I hope it feels safe. Hestia has not yet noticed its existence.



I was reminded earlier this afternoon of the tartan that came out of a bog. It even looks as though it can be worn by people who can't trace their ancestry to bog bodies. Less pleasantly, I was reminded of an article about Tesla cars by reading about the Odysseus moon landing. I understand it really wasn't a wash, but "unqualified success" seems a strong translation of "even heroically last-minute engineering salvaged only partial data thanks to a major missed pre-flight checklist step among other inherent glitches." I would like to feel unmixedly cheerful about new space exploration and it's hard when it's all the same language of disruption and innovation that data-scrapes my life and makes my city less and less habitable.

For reasons that are not medically mystifying, the significantly blurred vision in one eye with which I have been dealing for the last week is my new normal for the foreseeable future. I am not looking for advice; it should resolve without complications; I am just complaining, especially since it interferes most with my ability to look at screens. I have been recommended to black out one lens of my glasses with gauze and tape. Seriously an eyepatch seems more dashing and less trouble.

Comments

[redbird]

I hope it doesn't count as advice to say that the eyepatch does seem like a better idea. Among other things, this way you won't have to remove adhesive from your glasses later.

[lauradi7dw]

It's my impression that medical people want you to spend nothing rather than only a few dollars, while participating in an extraordinarily expensive system. When my mother was in a neck brace and needed to have her pills crushed (then mixed into pudding) because she couldn't tilt her head back to swallow, the nurses explained how to smash the pills on the countertop with the bottom of a water glass. This seemed absurd to me. I asked at the pharmacy. The pharmacist showed me two brands of pill crushers, told me which one he liked better personally, and then took my four dollars at the cash register. Easier to clean, more precise, didn't get scattered med powder on the countertop. Sheesh.

[gwynnega]

That bog tartan is pretty cool.

I hope the blurred vision resolves as soon as possible.

[aurumcalendula]

The bog tartan is so neat!

I hope the eye stuff resolves itself soon.

[ethelmay]

Kind of wondering why the new tartan pattern doesn't actually match what was found.

[sovay]

Kind of wondering why the new tartan pattern doesn't actually match what was found.

I assume it has to do with the effect of the peat acids on the original dyes. The recreation doesn't look inconsistent to me if you assume that the contrasts between the lighter and darker bands have been eroded—the original pattern is clearer in this image where you can see the grid of the deeper-dyed columns, especially near the bottom horizontally and vertically in the right-hand half. I don't know what the original dyes would have been, but some of them must have been more colorfast under the circumstances than others. Everything that goes into a peat bog basically tans. It's the source of that beautiful blackened metallic effect in the skins of bog bodies, who didn't all start off with rust-colored hair.

[edit] Cf. the difference between the Huldremose woman's clothes as excavated and as reconstructed from similar analysis of the dyes.

[sovay]

Among other things, this way you won't have to remove adhesive from your glasses later.

I was originally recommended just to tape the relevant lens over, but the lenses of my glasses are made of treated plastic and will not survive this experience. I believe I can pad it in gauze it without having to risk contact with adhesive. The metal frames can be cleaned fine. It just feels slightly complicated.

[sovay]

That bog tartan is pretty cool.

It makes me extremely happy. I couldn't wear it because I remain allergic to wool, but I hope other people who have no beef with lanolin are wearing it happily.

I hope the blurred vision resolves as soon as possible.

Thank you!

[sovay]

The bog tartan is so neat!

I love that someone cared to reconstruct it and that it could be done.

I hope the eye stuff resolves itself soon.

Thank you. It is benign but obnoxious.

[sovay]

the nurses explained how to smash the pills on the countertop with the bottom of a water glass.

When we had to crush treats onto Autolycus' food, I did it with the stone base of our mortar after wrapping the treats in paper towels, but we also had two pill cutters for the actual medications!

[asakiyume]

I love that a pigeon has decided to adopt you--for whatever period of time it may be.

And best wishes for the march through eye blurriness :-\

[troisoiseaux]

I understand it really wasn't a wash, but "unqualified success" seems a strong translation of "even heroically last-minute engineering salvaged only partial data thanks to a major missed pre-flight checklist step among other inherent glitches."

On one hand, if you want an unqualifiedly successful mission, maybe naming your lunar module after the guy who famously took ten years to get to his destination because of The Problems.... is not the best idea?

(In the real world, though: unfortunate that the general trend of enshittification has reached space exploration. :/)

[thistleingrey]

Best wishes for eye stuff! (Tape, though fussy and annoying, makes sense to me instead of an eyepatch because the former will let air and light in; eyepatch seems bacterially risky, or potentially even fussier for changing out its padding, etc.)

[ethelmay]

Okay - it just didn't look to me as though the original had any wider stripes.

[a_reasonable_man]

I hope your eye resolves ASAP!

Also, I have it on good authority that you shouldn't let the pigeon drive the bus.

[sovay]

Best wishes for eye stuff!

Thank you!

(Tape, though fussy and annoying, makes sense to me instead of an eyepatch because the former will let air and light in; eyepatch seems bacterially risky, or potentially even fussier for changing out its padding, etc.)

Understood. One of my parents wore a patch for about a week following a recent surgery, so I was under the impression it was still a current technology.

(For what it's worth, your original English seemed legible and correct to me.)

[sovay]

I love that a pigeon has decided to adopt you--for whatever period of time it may be.

It seems to have flown the porch! I hope it will come back. Hestia will be on the other side of much glass.

And best wishes for the march through eye blurriness

Thank you. I am still reading novels.

[minoanmiss]

It really is a bit overcomplicated. I also vote for an eyepatch.

[sovay]

On one hand, if you want an unqualifiedly successful mission, maybe naming your lunar module after the guy who famously took ten years to get to his destination because of The Problems.... is not the best idea?

I absolutely think that from a perspective of sympathetic magic it was only a fingernail up from naming it Icarus.

(In the real world, though: unfortunate that the general trend of enshittification has reached space exploration :/)

I hate it, thanks!

[sovay]

I hope your eye resolves ASAP!

Thank you!

Also, I have it on good authority that you shouldn't let the pigeon drive the bus.

Fortunately, we don't even own a car.

[minoanmiss]

snerk Well said.

[minoanmiss]

Oh, that's a very good point.

[thistleingrey]

I think it is still current! Just for a different set of use cases.

(Good to know, thanks. I realized one could also interpret it as taping an eyepatch, which might serve a third set of use cases....)

[anna_wing]

I hope that your eye recovers quickly.

The tartan is a rather beautiful colour combination, and very wearable. Many years ago I had a small piece of vintage silk in the luntaya acheik style (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=luntaya+acheik&atb=v385-1&iax=images&ia=images) from a Myanmar longyi, that was the most beautiful apricot pinky-orange colour. I had it copied in Mandalay, but when I received it, to my surprise it was pale yellow, with the pattern woven in bright red and green.

"?" I said.

It turned out that those had been the original colours. My specimen looked the way it did because at some point in its history someone had washed it, probably more than once, and the colours had run. I've never had the nerve to test if washing the new piece will produce the same effect as in the original.

[sovay]

I hope that your eye recovers quickly.

Thank you!

The tartan is a rather beautiful colour combination, and very wearable.

I like it a lot. It would look superb on rushthatspeaks. If it came in non-wool, my mother who loves warm colors and especially orange would be another ideal recipient.

My specimen looked the way it did because at some point in its history someone had washed it, probably more than once, and the colours had run. I've never had the nerve to test if washing the new piece will produce the same effect as in the original.

Do you still have the original? Or did it finally succumb to time?

[luzula]

Oh, what a lovely tartan! Thanks for the link, and I do hope the blurred vision will resolve itself--that sounds quite annoying.

[cmcmck]

People don't always like pigeons, but with us, it's wood pigeons and they are great tidiers up of anything remotely edible or nestworthy.

[sovay]

Oh, what a lovely tartan! Thanks for the link, and I do hope the blurred vision will resolve itself--that sounds quite annoying.

You're welcome! And thank you!

[sovay]

People don't always like pigeons, but with us, it's wood pigeons and they are great tidiers up of anything remotely edible or nestworthy.

Around here we have mourning doves (I just heard one, like a woodwind) and rock doves, which in urban areas I believe are majority feral pigeons. I like them around cities in the same way that I like seagulls and falcons.

[elisem]

Full agreement on the dashingness of eyepatches as a bonus to the less troublicious nature thereof.

Bog tartans! So cool to see.

[moon_custafer]

Somebody on Tumblr the other day suggested that the Erebus and the Terror should have been named the Success and the Notdyingofscurvy, and maybe then things would have gone better for Franklin and his crew.

[sovay]

Full agreement on the dashingness of eyepatches as a bonus to the less troublicious nature thereof.

Thank you!

Bog tartans! So cool to see.

Have you ever made shinies that came out of a bog?

[moon_custafer]

I see them (feral pigeons) all around the city, but I’m particularly amused by the ones that live in the subway stations. They come and go frequently in search of twigs and leaf stems for nesting materials, and if the sliding doors are open they just fly through and down the stairwell. If the doors are closed they land on the ground and wait to walk through with the next human. Occasionally I’ve seen them get on and off trains in the same manner, though usually only if somebody’s dropped some kind of baked good on the floor of the train.

[sovay]

Occasionally I’ve seen them get on and off trains in the same manner, though usually only if somebody’s dropped some kind of baked good on the floor of the train.

We have pigeons in the stations and tunnels of the T, too, and pigeons mingling with commuters are the best. (I also once met a commuter cockroach which I hope survived rush hour and lived long and happily away from people's feet.)

[moon_custafer]

pigeons mingling with commuters are the best

They’re so matter-of-fact about it!

I also once met a commuter cockroach

I’m afraid the one cockroach I recall seeing out in public was dead on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, which left me amused/worried about the probability quality of the food, assuming said cockroach had been one of their customers.

[thisbluespirit]

I am just complaining

And so you should! *sends hugs*

[sovay]

And so you should!

Thank you for your objective counsel!

*hugs*

[sovay]

I’m afraid the one cockroach I recall seeing out in public was dead on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, which left me amused/worried about the probability quality of the food, assuming said cockroach had been one of their customers.

That does sound like some kind of vaudeville routine.

[anna_wing]

Yes, I still have it. It's just a small piece that was remade into a wrapping cloth for a palm-leaf manuscript.

[sovay]

Yes, I still have it. It's just a small piece that was remade into a wrapping cloth for a palm-leaf manuscript.

I just wanted to know you hadn't lost its color.

[elisem]

Hmm! Good question. I vividly remember making something with a piece of bog oak that someone brought me, but the question is whether that was in daily life or in a dream.

[sovay]

I vividly remember making something with a piece of bog oak that someone brought me, but the question is whether that was in daily life or in a dream.

It sounds lovely, so I hope it waking exists.