We have not had any flies here yet. And we won’t. A handful may land on a pile of poop in a month or so, but we keep the pen really clean, so this isn’t a problem. Mosquitos are another story. I saw a few buzzing around Tyra’s head. They may have been going for the discharge that trickled down her eye after it was flushed yesterday. But no, this is more of a fly thing.

I am continuing to work on Shelf Life, now midmorning. Must be that this is an optimal writing time for me because I don’t write at night if I can help it. It’s now going far more slowly than before because I’d already revised the VCRS/Recycling Center section. I’d previously done less work on the Meeting House portion, and very little on the hotel portion.

It’s a good thing that I wrote what I wrote before, because it was then fresh in my mind. I am hoping that I although I have done little on the hotel section, that because it was so recent, that the details will come back to mind.

There it is again, that word hope. It should be what is, is, but it’s never this way.

Dogs hope. Every morning Shadow gets a piece of crust or two or three from my toast – she definitely hopes for this. Ryder is not hopeless, but she’s now hoping less. She’s in the moment most of the time now, dreaming of dog knows what.

Shadow is Pete’s shadow. She’s always with him. I looked up and saw him wheeling the fish cart down the driveway. Shadow was inside, sitting, enjoying the ride. If Tinni was still around, I’d take her for a ride on his back. The mares are not as patient about carrying a dog as he was.

I didn’t get any horses out today. Instead I sort of assisted Pete in planting the greenhouse tomatoes. He didn’t need any help. I just handed him plants. This was okay because I was extremely tired.

We both went to the eye doctors today. My vision is much the same. Pete’s vision is deteriorating. The eye doctor is going assist him in staving off glaucoma.

Hearing this, I began to think about what it would be like if Pete was to go blind. I said after my exam that it looked like I would not be getting a seeing eye dog.

He would not be able to drive. The up side of this is that he would not be able to criticize my driving because he would not be able to tell what I was doing. He’d still be able to cook but he would not be able to do a good job cleaning up afterwards. In this respect, life would be no different around here.

The advances they’ve made in treating glaucoma are really remarkable.

This is why what I’m saying is speculative.

Next: 141. 5/23/25: Let’s Go