Five things for a rainy Thursday morning

[scarlettina]

1) I've recently seen ads for concerts by Yes and by Alan Parsons Project and I couldn't get excited about the prospect of attending either. This is A Change; I adored these bands for years. I saw Parsons once: they stood, they played, they left. Awesome music, exactly zero stage presence. I can listen to my discs and MP3s if I want a stay-at-home experience. I've seen Yes at least four times, maybe five. The last time, Anderson used a teleprompter and still forgot words, and Squire somehow lost the rhythm in one song and took a verse to find it again. At the prices this band commands, I think I've seen my last Yes show, much as I'd like to go. I'm not spending much money on concerts these days--hardly any at all. It has to be something special--and, frankly, something reasonably priced--for me to attend a show anymore. The confluence of the two is so rare that I suspect my concert days are dwindling to nothingness.

2) Proposition 1, a special ballot connected to transit in King County where I live, has failed. That means, most significantly, major cuts to bus service and other transit-related things. How shortsighted are we as a city that we'll undermine a service that's being used more than ever? Pretty damn shortsighted. Friends of Transit is pulling together a proposed measure to save those bus lines. I guess we'll see what happens. mcjulie has some things to say on the subject that are worth reading. Mainly, she's interpreting the results, and I don't think she's wrong.

3) Things at work are very, very busy. I'm on two teams, both of which are hitting crunch time, and I'm getting squeezed all around. I don't respond well to the kind of pressure I'm getting: Are you done yet? How much longer? Is your reporting up to date? Please update your reporting. What's taking you so long? Why are you working on that project for the other team? Are you done yet? ::sigh:: I promised myself I'd go to the office early today to try to get a leg up. I don't actually see that happening.

4) I harvested the first salad from this year's balcony garden and had said salad for lunch yesterday. It was gratifying and delicious.

5) I have a Thing happening with my left eye. I think it may be work-stress related. It feels like there's something in my eye--the left corner of my left eye specifically--but when I examine it in a mirror, I can't see anything wrong there except a little bit of blood in the corner there. I need to make an appointment with my eye doctor. I don't like this. I don't like this at all. I don't know when I can go, though. See number 3 above. I'm . . . irritated.

Comments

[lagilman]

oh, that's very sad about Prop 1. For all that NYC does wrong, our mass transit is one of the things that most defines and enhances it, and giving that up would be very, very difficult...

For the eye: you've tried a camomile compress? Just dampen a tea bag (as organic as you can get) and let it rest on your eyelid for ten minutes. Whenever I get a stress-twitch in my eye (complete with broken blood vessels), that clear sit up in a few days.

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Go to the eye doctor. Now, please. I don't care how you find the time, but do it. Never mess with eye problems. Please. Take care of this.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

My eye doc's office opens at 11. I'll be calling then for an appointment. I'm a little freaked out about this.

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

As you might imagine, I'm kind of atomically furious about the Prop. 1 vote myself. But let's not forget that the state legislature is the root cause. They refuse to vote on a transit bill - or much of anything - and so Metro was screwed.

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

In re the eye issue: I had something similar (and have had it recur) and was told by an ophthalmologist that it was simply an allergy issue and other than using eye drops there wasn't much to be done. In one case, I rubbed so hard at the edge of my eye that I burst a capillary and for weeks looked like an extra in a horror movie. Again, looked awful, nothing to do about it. Good luck and don't stress about it too much (says the person with no medical training but lots of first-hand experience). YMMV and the usual disclaimers.