WEEKLY CHAT (non-osprey) SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2015

I'm the same - couldn't recognise even a relative across a room without my specs, since I was 14, so I know how he feels. Do have the last laugh on my contemporaries who need reading glasses though, as I too can read better without any!!  Men do seem to feel they have to be brave.... Don't think they're any braver than us ladies in reality. My biggest fear about ageing is probably failing eyesight. So much you can't do without good vision.....

LINDY You understand, exactly, how my OH feels. Sight is precious to us all but those who have only had perfect vision for a comparatively short time must fear further loss more than most. If that makes sense!!

Lindybird - I had a crate for my last dog, best thing ever.  We had only intended using it for the first few months, but he loved it, gate was never closed and he used it all the time. It gives them their own little den.

Well, Sunday continued the same foggy weekend as Saturday, but we had a bit of a thaw Sunday night, some frost in the shade Monday morning, and then sunshine and 7 degrees which almost completed the thaw at last. None of us went out at all during the weekend, although we did sort some kitchen cupboards after agreeing to dispose of OH’s breadmaker which he hardly ever uses. We all woke up feeling brighter today. J went wheelchair curling with his main pupil and didn’t fall over on the ice, OH says his cold has just about gone and I received the boxes I had ordered and organised all my craft stuff.

Clare and Limpy – pleased to read that Limpy’s back is improving.

Starling – your Puppy has the most beautiful face; I hope you finalise his name soon!

Rita – pleased the postponed cactus meeting could happen. Not sure about mixing gardening with physio; don’t do too much at once.

Linda – lovely Granddaughter picture. Did you take any photos of the Grandsons on Saturday?

Margo – thinking of you this week.

Brenda – I hope you enjoyed the bowls.

Heather – I do hope OH’s anxiety will not interfere with having the cataract op. I know that I was relieved when they said mine really doesn’t need attention yet – apparently doc who suggested it was way ahead of the need, because my other eye is so good and even the one with the cataract would be acceptable for driving (which I don’t).

Coffee time now, and will then follow University Challenge, which we always record but almost always track on the DMR!

 

 

LINDY   Benson is the first dog we used a crate for and he very quickly got used to it and would put himself in there out of choice. We now only use it in the car. We have a vet bed in it and if he is going to be in it for any length of time we put his bed i there too. He just loves his bed which travels up and downstairs with him

HEATHER  I had my first cateract done a year past November and the other eye has started. I had a surgeon with a sense of humour. He came to see me in the pre theatre room and I asked "How do you know if the eye is completely numb?"   "Blind faith" was his reply. In theatre he scooshed some liqid over the eye and told me that if the eye wasn't completely numb, then I would certainly have known about it!!! The op was over almost as soon as it had begun and the only discomfort a feeling of grittiness for 48 hours.  The op was shown briefly on breakfast tv as it is 65 years since the first one. This was performed by a small group sworn to secrecy as the idea had been ridiculed. The surgeon was knighted later on and the proceedure is of course now commonplace. The only thing your OH will actually see will be the bright theatre lights which will take on a sort of rainbow effect.

Took a walk to Culloden House this afternoon and fed the ducks. Good job I took plenty of bread as there were dozens of them. OH kept Benson well back on his lead as he would have liked the bread to himself.

 

Thanks DIBNLIB, I will show him your post!

OG- I'm not entirely sure whether he has cataracts in both eyes, he is not good at hearing/remembering information of a medical nature ! We'll soon find out. I will be accompanying him to hospital next Wednesday and will ensure that he asks about the other eye.

Hello all, hope it is a good week thus far. We have been crate training Tapaidh, the result is that now when she is tired she makes her way to her crate. She travels in the car in the same crate north for weekends and sleeps in it up there too. They find their own space comforting I think. When we left her out of the crate on her own I found that she destroyed anything and everything, wee'd everywhere and went swimming in her water bowl. A neighbour told me this is because she was annoyed at being left. In her own space and thus her bed she has never soiled, but I cannot tell a lie and say she was not destructive as she was -she ate her wheaty microwave bed .  At bed time she leaps into the crate and awaits her bedtime biscuits. We now leave the door open and often come down to her lying on her blanket in the middle of the kitchen floor which she has dragged from the crate.

Many grateful thanks to everyone for all the stories about crate training for dogs: I feel more confident about it now. We have had a puppy before, as when our children were young we had a black & white collie who we named Holly (she was born around Christmastime). She grew up with the children and was much loved. However, in those days we had never heard of dogs being trained to go into crates, although we had of course seen them at dog and cat shows.

OG: although you've not been out over the weekend, it sounds as if you found plenty to do! We gave our bread maker machine to our Youngest as I only used it now & then, and it took up room on the worktop. Yes, of course I took photos at the weekend ;-). Will get them onto the computer in a couple of days, hopefully.

Off to bed now, I feel a bit "off" today, as I must have eaten something yesterday which disagreed.