emacs community

Recent lessons and news:

Dad called to report how great he is feeling, how much energy he has. So good to hear.

Christine had a visit with a specialist who had good news: no invasive procedure today; bad news: obviously needs a surgical treatment; good news: it's straightforward. This is to address a factor that probably contributed to her emergency room and admission. She also liked and, i think may trust, the practitioner, a rarity. (Although i think her extreme discomfort with medical treatment may have eased a little after her hospital stay.)

Chestnuts, at least my chestnuts, with the skin left on them, are perfectly edible after being chopped and simmered in a very herbal cream of butter soup. (Carrots, celery, dried mushrooms, rosemary, sage, and young onions). I assumed it would be fine with pureeing, but even the chunks i sampled were fine. I will probably peel in smaller batches than i did this weekend -- heat is needed to ease the skins off -- but now i have a use for the chestnuts that aren't perfectly cleaned.

Wait, is Carrie eating the chestnuts in the yard??!!

Yesterday's breakfast fresh figs and blueberries, chopped chestnuts, yogurt. Squeee!

Sunday afternoon - Monday evening chestnut harvest: 2 lbs 6 oz. Now curing in the bottom of the fridge.

Lutein yellow is everywhere. A mass of yellow crownbeard lines the woods edge on the east, cutleaf cone flower  is massed at the back of the orchard and in other spots within.  Swamp sunflower sprawls across the meadow, but the yellow crownbeard grows too high and hides it. I've begun my No Seeds Bleep It campaign to cut back the cutleaf coneflower where it is likely to continue its aggressive growth. It's just not quite as aggressive as deer.

In good news, where i was harvesting the cutleaf coneflower in early spring, the florabundance is remarkable.

So many bean pods on the thicket bean. Here's hoping that i can find a way to make them a bit more palatable.

Optometrist visit yesterday did not take forever, leaving me spinning a little with the extra hour, which then dissolved into audiobook listening and poking at things.  I definitely had part of my brain saying, "I didn't plan anything, oh well, can't help but fritter this away!" I am giving myself a tiny pass in that the workday was packed and i did work over the weekend to meet a deadline in the style i wanted.

The optometrist office is on my Do Not Trust With Data list ever since they seem to have hooked up with some for profit optometry management business. That year i was asked to sign a data release that signed off on releasing medical data to a for profit company. I am not sure they had read their release. They ask for my medical insurance and i decline to give them that. I'm not sure what nefarious use could be made of it, but decline under the theory that the less data people have, the less correlating information can be amassed when they eventually have a breach.

Then, my favorite new thing: you are asked to sign a note that they gave you your prescription.  "But you haven't seen me yet." "It was being forgotten." PFFFFFTTTT. I suspect they are sick of people calling up and asking for a prescription to use at one of the inexpensive glasses places, then pitching a fit when they don't get one, pointing to state law requiring they give it. Well, now one has pre-signed a document saying they did give you the prescription. It's a nice signal that making money is more important than eye health.

I'm not excited about any frames, but i think the new ones will be comfy. I will continue to wear the current pair for yard work. I do really like these frames, but they are heavy, and a bit of the metal inlay (in the metal) has snagged and broken off. I forgot to have them readjust the nose pieces before i left. Piffle.

Dad's heart surgery on Tuesday went very well, the mitral valve flap modified so there is no more backflow. Sister L was at the hospital during the day Tuesday and Wednesday. I came in Tuesday evening and helped him with dinner and various needs. L got him home on Wednesday.

I've spent the past Wednesday and Thursday evenings with Dad, slept the night on the couch, and drove home to be at work on time. This was to be there in case the surgical incision location had issues or the lingering effects of anesthesia needed counteraction by a clear headed person.

Work has been intense although i couldn't really say why.

The long Labor Day weekend had some yard work, an obsessive analysis about Louisiana Irises to identify ones that bloomed late and would give me color diversity -- and then i questioned whether i should spend money that way. (And whether i would complete the plant removal needed to create the home for them - -would having them need a home be motivation?) I also made fig jam with pectin which had irregular setting. I think the pot isn't getting hot enough in the top level, and that the first jars filled are the ones that didn't set. I will need to re-address this batch, too.