Life is what happens when you are....

All is well with my eyes, for those who followed my travails yesterday after an otherwise successful and satisfying third straight day at the pool: 12 laps Tuesday, 14 laps Wednesday, and 16 laps (400 yards) Thursday.

I bought goggles and allergy-relief eyedrops. The burning still returned gradually to my eyes after I applied the eyedrops twice yesterday, but -- since the allergic reaction was effectively the same as being sick -- I took an hour nap in the afternoon and woke up to find that the burning was gone. Some puffiness remain, I was told by an acquaintance who pays more attention to my face than I do.

So I got to thinking that the various eye symptoms I was experiencing might be compounded, once the pool's chlorine set them off, by the hours I spend staring at a computer screen (hopefully seeing new words appear on the screen fairly regularly). I continue to give my eyes a rest through last night, applied some eyewash in addition to the eyedrops, and changed my plan for today: I would swim in mid-day rather than when the pool is open from 7 to 9, which would give me a chance to assess whether a morning work session at the computer -- yes, that's right now -- would inflict more irrittaion on me.

And here's what I have to report:

• My eyes are good, so I am looking forward to the next swim, with goggles and eyedrops and eyewash at the ready.
• However, that swim is not going to come at noon today as I'd thought, because after it was too late to change my plans back and do a morning swim I learned that Danny is home sick from school today and I offered to split the day of Danny-care with his Mom. So, since I already planned on taking one day a week off from the pool, I'll make the off day today and take Danny and Brownie for a little walk around the neighborhood, instead, if they are up for it.
  

So there may be a plan for BMGS, but the underlying plan is that I am blessed to have a life that can trump my plans.

And just to make it easier on me, I was happy to note from the scale today that my weight is down from 256.2 to 255.0. I ate very moderately yesterday -- some pasta and salad left over from Paparazzi for lunch, as comfort food when I was feeling sick, and the only things I ate after that were two pieces of cinnamon toast and a banana smoothie with half a shot of Frangelico.

Meanwhile, got to hurry to finish as much as I can of a day of work before the Danny drop.

Taking the Red-Eye

Maybe you can tell me that this isn't pathetic, or that pathetic is the new something or other and I should just embrace the pathos.

Or maybe you can tell me what I should do to protect my eyes from the chlorine in the pool. I walked to Walgreen's an hour ago because I didn't trust my ability to drive. But jeesh, this is extreme.

I bought some Naphcon A "Eye Allergy Relief" drops, and I have taken them twice. Er, applied them. (I do know enough not to drink them).

And I also laid out $3.99 for some cheap-o Walgreen's eye goggles. I got blue. I figured that was my size, not pink.

So, anyway, this is going to be a short post. I swam 16 laps today and felt great ... until about 3 hours ago.

When I was having dinner last night at Paparazzi to celebrate two inexplicable checks in a week from Google Books, my good friend told me that my eyes were red. I had noticed they'd been watery earlier in the day but I just thought (time-shifted viewing reference coming up here) that I was being a sap because Jack Bauer's daughter was risking her life for him. My friend asked me if I was wearing goggles in the pool. I hadn't noticed any goggles. Google, goggles, giggles, is it really up to me to notice all this?

This morning I got to the pool a little later, but I had a great swim and ran into an old organizing colleague, Michael Brown. I also noticed that about half of the people were, indeed, wearing goggles. So I figured I would pick some up over the weekend.

Until my eyes started burning like Jack Bauer had just released the canister right here in my home office.

Live and learn. But you know I will be back in the pool tomorrow. Looking like all the other Martians.