Lupper-time in Paradise...

Lupper-time in Paradise...  Our ready-to-eat lupper is at right.  I managed (though just barely) to eat everything on my plate; Debbie had some leftovers.  After we had finished, all three dogs had a chance to share in the feast: they got to lick the plates.  They were not offended by this in the slightest :)

From the left, that's Mo'i, Miki, and Race.  They each have a different plate-licking style.  Mo'i is methodical: slow, steady licking in the same spot until every molecule of goodness is gone.  Miki is the mad sprinter: he licks at turbo speed, in every direction, jumping all over the place.  He also growls at the other two while not missing a lick.  Race is fast and methodical.  He goes cross-eyed when he hits something tasty :)

Earlier, when we were preparing this feast, the dogs were particularly attentive to us.   They know that something good might slip from our grasp at any moment – and when it does, the probability of it hitting the ground is vanishingly small.  The photo of Race at right shows the typical concentration that all three dogs show during any activity involving food in the kitchen...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  This morning's tutoring session with Abby S. went very well indeed.  She is absorbing this material like a sponge, at a very rapid pace.  Debbie, observing the two of us working, was struck by just how eager and excited she looks.  Whatever the reason, Miss Abby is intensely interested in learning to program.  It's fun to be the teacher when you have a pupil who so badly wants to learn...

Debbie and I took a walk this morning after Abby and I were done, as the weather was fine (though a tad chilly) and the views beautiful.  Debbie's walking gait is now oh-so-close to appearing normal, both uphill (easier for her) and downhill.  It's a big relief to me to see that.  At the moment her need is more for strength and endurance than anything else.  Regular walks will help with that.

The photo at right above is the view from the fields above our home toward Logan Peak (map), a roughly 9700' high peak in the Wellsville Mountains.  The panoramas below were taken along our walk; each of them is about a 225° view (and the road is a straight road!).  The dark area in the top panorama is caused by a cloud shadow over us.

The goose is still in the tree, still sitting on her eggs.  We frequently see her mate below her in the field, standing guard and leading potential predators away from her.

We had something happen in our yard yesterday that seems really odd.  Mo'i, our ancient field spaniel, was wandering around our back yard (he loves that back yard!).  After he'd been out there for a while, a spectacular male pheasant wandered from our front yard, through the fence, and into the back yard – with Mo'i.  I poked my head out our back door to see what would happen.  Mo'i picked up on the pheasant's presence in just a minute or two, and started ambling over toward the pheasant.  That's Mo'i's highest speed today, about like a slow walk for a person.  The pheasant clearly saw Mo'i approaching – but did nothing.  It just stood there in one place while Mo'i walked over to it.  I thought for sure that was the end of the pheasant – Mo'i is a bird dog, after all.  Instead of lunging for the pheasant, though, Mo'i just went up do it, snuffled it, turned around and walked off.  And the pheasant still just stood there.  Very weird!

“Lupper” underway...

“Lupper” underway...  We eat a late lunch or early dinner most days, generally around 2 or 3 pm; we call this “lupper”.  This is a two-meals-in-one sort of thing for us; we usually just eat a light breakfast and lupper.  We just got done the preparations for one of my favorite meals: baked salmon in a sauce of mayonnaise, dill, and Peppadew peppers, accompanied by roast vegetables (today we're having Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, and potatoes).  Below are the two dishes just before going into the oven.  When they come out, our lupper will commence!

Optometry is a really weird business...

Optometry is a really weird business...  Some of my readers know that I was once part of that business – not as an optometrist myself, but as a software provider for them.  Veronique de Rugy has an (characteristically) excellent piece at Reason.

One weirdness she doesn't mention, as it wasn't relevant to her point, is that optometrists routinely under-price or even give away their exam services.  This is unlike any other medical provider that I know of.  It's as if all their training, experience, and specialized equipment was worth almost nothing.  Why?  Because their business model typically depends on giving away their services in order to attract customers for the “dispensing” side of their business: selling glasses and contact lenses.  This makes them particularly sensitive to competition from discount sources for glasses and contacts, of course.

The solution would seem to be obvious: the optometrists should start charging a fair price for their services, and stop selling glasses and contacts at high markups.  The problem is that many optometrists have tried exactly that – and failed miserably.  Why?  Because not all optometrists (even in a particular area) have switched models, and as long as there's even a single optometrist offering discount (or free) exams, that's of course where patients will go.  Then they'll buy their glasses and contacts from a discount source.

As de Rugy points out, this is difficult today for contacts.  It's not difficult at all for glasses, though: there are about 50 sources for discounted glasses on the Internet.  I've used two of them myself.  The glasses I got certainly aren't the best ones I've ever purchased – but – they are both properly constructed, the prescription was accurate, and they work fine.  And they cost about a tenth of what I'd pay for the equivalent glasses at an optometrist ($76 vs. $850 for my last pair).  They're made in China (of course!), and took about a week to get here.  That's not really much different than the optometrist!  I had occasion to use one of those glasses (which I purchased as spares) a few weeks ago when I had to get my prescription re-done for the glasses I purchased from an optometrist (as that pair had been mis-manufactured).  The cheap spare worked fine...

I'm an irrelevant clown...

I'm an irrelevant clown ... and projected to be a meat processor at Trump Steaks.  The Trump Score, via friend and former colleague Simon M...

Two reset buttons...

Two reset buttons...  Remy, on it again :)