I reckon I’ll start with the good news. Some of you know that one of the health problems I’ve been coping with is heart-related. I’m on two different heart meds to help with that, and the good news is, we seem to be managing the issue fairly well, so far. I’m hopeful we can continue to do so as time marches on.

I also had an incompetent dentist install a crown crookedly, resulting in a terrible infection beneath it, and some amazingly severe pain issues. The good news with that is, I managed to find a dentist who was able to give me a root canal, which ended the pain, and I’m going back to my old tried and true dentist for a new crown and any future procedures to sort all that out. He doesn’t take my insurance, sadly, but I know I can trust him to do the job right, so it will be worth it. And for now, the tooth is pain free, yay!

There were a couple more issues I’ve had to cope with that are all being slowly cleared up and/or managed well, so that’s all good.

The bad news is I have had a terrible infection in my eyes since October 3, and am still trying to deal with it. How do I know exactly when it started? Because Mark and I were doing some front yard hedge planting EARLY that morning. It took several hours, and when I came inside, my eyes were blood red and watering like mad. And THEN I discovered that we should have checked the news before working out there so long. Florida seldom has severe air quality warnings, but it turns out everyone was advised to stay indoors that day as the fires in Canada had resulted in the air quality being seriously impacted all the way to Miami. (Where the smoke was so dense, it looked like the city was burning.) The notices said anyone with any sort of allergies or sensitivities should NOT go outside at all. Uh-oh.

We didn’t have smoke or other visible signs in central Florida, but we were definitely impacted, and what started out that day as an allergic reaction became seriously infected, and hasn’t let up since. I’ve been dealing with puffy red eyes leaking tears down my face for SIX weeks now, making reading and blogging extremely difficult. (In addition to being irritatingly messy and sore.) I saw my ophthalmologist two weeks or so ago, and she prescribed an ointment that not only made me feel like my eyes were covered in Vaseline all day long, but also totally failed to clear up the issue. (Which she diagnosed as conjunctivitis). We are now in the process of switching to prescription eye drops, in the hopes that will finally clear it all up. Crossing my fingers, here!

I do know in the grand scheme of things, this is ALL relatively small potatoes, especially for someone who will turn 80 in three months. But damn if it isn’t tricky to deal with, and it seems like it’s been going on forever! 

All of this info is by way of alerting you that I know I haven’t scheduled any cool guest posters for awhile, and have been limited in the time I’ve been able to spend blogging, in general. (It’s amazing how tricky that is when you can’t see worth a darn!) But I do feel like we are starting to get things under control again, and by the first of the year (if not sooner), I should be scheduling new guests who might have books they’d like to promote, and be back to my normal blogging routines. In the meantime, I’ll keep up as best I can, though my favorite blogs to visit may have to make do with my “Like & Tweet” routine a bit longer.

For now, here’s to a wonderful fall season for everyone, and a very happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!

Happy Fall, Y’All!!!