R e n d r a g

It’s been a hell of a week.
Friday I was in Sydney for Boky’s memorial.. The Funeral was up in Warwick, QLD on the 6th of Jan, which I couldn’t make due to work commitments. WHile I was there, I FINALLY got to meet Cat, who I’ve spoken to on IRC pretty much forever. She’s only 5 foot tall, but she’s the bubbliest happy person I’ve ever met.
Sunday, I rode up to Sydney for a bit of a get-together bbq at Tim and J5’s place.. Monday morning we were up with the sun to assemble at Road warriors Cafe on the Old Pacific Highway for an hour and a bit ride to the Crematorium where Maddy’s Funeral was to be held.. Maddy died in an accident on the way back from Boky’s funeral in Warwick. The wake back at Road Warriors turned out really good. South (Maddy’s Husband of 3 months) was smiling towards the end and looking close to his usual self, so being surrounded by friends and family was doing its job.
Now you remember me mentioning Cat above? I logged onto usenet Yesterday (Wenesday) morning, to find news that Cat was killed in a car accident in Tasmania on Tusday night.. Apparently a 75yo had a heart attack and somehow managed to come down the wrong way on the freeway and hit the car that she was driving. So she’s now dead 🙁
What the hell is going on?!

Got back from Melbourne this evening – very cold ride down, and a somewhat wet one coming back!
Was good to be down though – spend Saturday with mum and dad (it was dad’s birthday) – went to a train show, worked on mum and dad’s computers, and sync’d the carbies on the bike..
Sunday headed down to Hastings and caught up with Gav & Simone. Little Ethan is crawling around and trying to stand up and stuff now – he’s suuuuuch a little cutey 🙂
Glasses worked well – think they’re a keeper!

Almost dropped the bike last night! Heading home from seeing The Day After Tomorrow with Kel, Sim, and Josh – Coming around the fold-back from Monaro Hwy onto Lanyon Drive, turned out the road was iced over (couldn’t see it!), so as I get into the point where I normally lean the bike over and open the throttle around the apex of the turn, both wheels start sliding!
OH CRAP thinks I, and shoves my foot down to catch the bike. Only a) I’m doing 30k/h, and b) the road’s iced over, so I can’t get any purchase, and instead i’m bearing the weight of the bike, without being able to actually get a grip on the road to throw it back upgright… Then finally my foot caught on the road and threw the bike back upright. ‘Woohoo’ thinks I. Then the pain hit.. eeeeek. Actually didn’t turn out as bad as I thought – this morning it’s rather stiff and aching, but doesn’t actually hurt (though granted getting on/off the bike isn’t fun as I’m having trouble putting all of my weight on the one leg.)
Ahh well, at least I didn’t actually bin it! Hmm, gonna be a *censored* of a winter 🙁

Well, went back to OPSM, and apparently there’s actually some big differences between my current glasses and the new ones.. So they’ve sent off for MORE new lenses which will be closer to what I have now..
Fingers Crossed…

Well I got my new glasses back on Thursday afternoon.. They seemed a heap better when i first tried them on.. Then once i’d got used to them friday, i realised they were actually worse – now instead of crystal clear vision in my left eye for about 30% of the lense, and then tapering off to extreme fuzzyness not far off that 30%, it’s now crystal clear at the EXACT centre of the lense, slightly fuzzy for about 60% of the lense, and really really fuzzy for the outer 30% of the lense.. And of course, the right eye is identical to my previous glasses.
So I’ve gone back to my old glasses, and I’ll go into OPSM on Monday morning and get a refund. I’d rather have only-slightly-fuzzy vision in both eyes, where i have exactly the same fuzziness at all points on the lenses, than get constant migraines from changing fuzziness as i look away from centre..
Will probably have to fight to get my refund – the optician lady that messed with the new frames when i put them on and they were still fuzzy was making grumbles about how I must have obviously not answered questions right when I was in with the optometrist, and if these lenses were no good, i’d have to get another optometrist appointment.. *censored* THAT. – Unless they’re planning on paying me for my time, I’ve had enough.
I find it hard to believe that I’ve had so much trouble.. Growing up, I went through a LOT of different pairs of glasses.. Now sure, every time I got new glasses, I had trouble judging height/distance/etc for a couple of days, but I NEVER had a varying fuzziness problem. This morning, I pulled my last five pairs of glasses out of their cases and tried them on. now sure, they get fuzzier as I go further and further back in time, but up/down, left/right around the lenses, i have exactly the same amount of fuzziness. It really makes you wonder – while growing up, I was getting healthcare-card-funded glasses, and never had a problem with them.. Now I’m paying for them myself (and at $600 they’re bloody expensive), OPSM have had two goes, and haven’t got them right yet!