Over sixty loons were counted on Holly and Ross's lake recently

April 13 2021 - Tuesday morning

39 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Spring must be here for real. Holly and Ross have record numbers of loons landing almost on their back doorstep with more arriving daily. Both have said they've never seen so many.

The shot ordeal is over for another month. I like my new doctor. He's young, very thorough, makes sure all my questions are answered, and flies from one patient to the other like a masked Superman dressed in white. 

I couldn't believe how large and busy the eye clinic is in the small community of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, population 7,750. There are countless ophthalmologists/MDs in residence and the place feels like a mini hospital. I asked a tech how many patients they saw in a day and she said there were sixty-four scheduled for injections yesterday alone. That's just in the Rhinelander clinic. The main facility is sixty miles away in Wausau.

Unbelievable.

Germs, or the lack of them, seem to be the central theme at the large eye clinic. I've never been disinfected and scrubbed so many times in my life. Previous to the shot, I laid down on an operating type table in a sterile room and had my face and area around my eye washed repeatedly. The doctor said the biggest threat to anything going wrong is the risk of infection. 

He need not have worried. The tech about scrubbed my face from my head, let alone the eye and area around it.

People ask how it feels to have a shot in the eye. Other than making a person feel like a badass to tolerate such a procedure, it doesn't really hurt, it just feels awful. 

Think of a grape that's fallen on the floor and stepped on, yet able to escape just before bursting open. 

Believe me when I say that the procedure is more of a mental thing. No joke. It makes me feel as though I've been violated in the most public place on my body. 

Make sense? Doesn't to me either, but that's how it feels.

I once again heard stories yesterday of people opting to go blind rather than receive monthly injections. I think they're foolish. Sacrificing one day out of thirty each month is a cheap enough price to pay for one's sight and mobility. I know what it's like to almost lose my sight. If it's within my power, I'm not going to do it again.

I'm in it for the long haul.

Oh, and one last thing. I had to be the youngest patient in residence yesterday. The place was like the Sturgis Bikers Rally for walkers and canes.

Sargie shopped while I was at the clinic. Picking me up at after, we made a swing through Walmart and another through Aldi Foods, before she drove our chariot home.

The rain had stopped. I strapped on my shoes and walked a quick three miles. 

The loons aren't the only birds to be winging north. The air was alive with flocks and flocks of geese heading in the same direction.

I crashed hard last night and enjoyed over eight hours of deep sleep. 

Time to head out for my walk before high tailing it to the shop. I hear Cheeks' sign calling my name.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Yooper Brother Mark had company yesterday while enjoying a quick jaunt on the walking trail in town.