Wake Up to Find Out That You are the Eyes of the World

 According to Hunter/Garcia.

Today is the third week anniversary of the second retina detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye, and as promised, I'm updating this as a guide for others going through this ordeal.

I'm at week three of the perfluorpropane bubble that supposed to last about six weeks, so presumably that bubble is about half gone (although, at six weeks last time, I still had some residual bubble). Looking straight out, the line of the bubble is near the center of my vision, so it has quite a ways to drop. If I look down, I can barely make out the edges of the bubble around perimeter.

Last Monday I predicted that I would get a glimpse of the mostly focused world through that eye again in a few days. I was right. I started seeing the thin line of sight that was actually passing through fluid and back to the retina on Wednesday. Every day since, the band has grown a little wider. It's still above the center of vision in that eye though, so I'm not really sure how close it is to a decent focus, and at what distance it will really focus. The eye surgeon told me that the eye would be more nearsighted than it was due to the effect of the rubber band (excuse me, scleral buckle) they put around the eye elongating the eye slightly. It should only be a few more days until the band includes the center of vision, and I can really see what it's going to be like. I can already see that it still slants right (my Fox News eye), but I'm not sure how distorted it might be.

Speaking of the rubber band, I continue to adjust to it. I can alway tell something is a little off, like having a bit of grit in the back of the eye, but it's not really painful. I've cut my pain regimen down to 1 or 2 doses of acetaminophen a day; the eye feels pretty decent when I get up, but through the day, occasional eye movements elicit a twinge of pain, not horrible, but something I'd rather avoid. Bending down too far might cause pain too. Eventually, by later afternoon, the acetaminophen is called for and then one for bed, more for arthritis than eyes. 

Today the eye drop routine declines to once per day, a steroid to suppress inflammation, and another drop to counteract the steroids tendency to raise eye pressure. I continue to goop on the antibiotic salve they added to the mix. It seems to help some. The white of the eye is still somewhat red and tender.

My prediction for next week is that I'll be able to see text clearly in the widening band of better vision. I hope that it will be good enough (and close enough to my old prescription) that I can actually read with it.

RIP: Bobby

 Rolling Stone, Bob Weir, Grateful Dead Co-Founder and Guitarist, Dead at 78

Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, whose songs about sunshine daydreams and truckin’ helped turn the jam band into a 60-year musical empire, has died at age 78.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” Weir’s family wrote in a statement. A date of death was not immediately available. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”

A pretty decent biography follows. 

True story, I once got in Bobby's way briefly at Dead concert at Nissan Pavilion in 2004. 

A quintessential Bobby song:

I notice he messed up, and did the second verse twice....

Now, About Those "Dire Wolves"

One of Colossal Biosciences’ dire wolves, possibly “Khaleesi.”

There have been lot of articles on the recent announcement that Colossal BioSciences has recreated the long extinct Dire Wolf. One at Reason, Colossal Biosciences Resurrects Long-Extinct Dire Wolf

Dire wolves went extinct around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Weighing around 150 pounds, they were about twice the size of today's gray wolves. Dire wolves roamed both North and South America, preying on ancient horses, camels, sloths, and bison.

Colossal Biosciences, the private company aiming to bring back from extinction the woolly mammoth, announced today that it had produced three dire wolf pups using genetic editing and cloning. The researchers at the company extracted and sequenced the genomes of dire wolves from a 13,000-year-old tooth from Ohio and a 72,000-year-old skull from Idaho. The researchers then made 15 key edits in gray wolf genomes to more closely match the genomes of dire wolves. The nuclei of the edited cells were then inserted into the enucleated dog eggs that were installed in the wombs of surrogate mother dogs. The result was the birth of four dire wolf pups (one died 10 days after birth).

The two six-month-old male pups are named Romulus and Remus, after the founders of Rome who were raised by wolves. The two-month-old female is Khaleesi, a title from Game of Thrones. The new dire wolves have thick white coat and are bigger than gray wolves, with more powerful shoulders, wider heads, larger teeth and jaws, and more muscular legs.

Currently, the wolves are living on a private 2,000-acre facility at an undisclosed location in the northern United States. Some native nations have expressed interest in eventually providing land where dire wolves can once again roam freely.

Colossal Biosciences continues its work to bring woolly mammoths, dodos, and the Tasmanian wolves back from extinction.

Don't get me wrong, this is a major achievement in genetic manipulation, but it is absolutely not the recreation of the infamous dire wolves of the American Ice Ages. Dire wolves, contrary to common opinions, were not just large wolves, they were a totally different branch of the canine family, and a handful of gene edits are not going to change one species into another. What they have produced are GMO wolves, bigger than the original. Wikipedia actually has a pretty thorough (and likely fairly accurate, as the topic in not political and noncontroversial) article on Dire Wolves (there were more than one species), and they actually overlapped in size with the largest American wolves.

All of which reminds me of one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Fresh From The Shower up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain on time and under budget.

God Rest Ye

Wednesday Wetness - Let it be Known There is a Fountain

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Gwen Verdon up and awaiting your digital pleasure.

Election 2020: Sitting Here in Limbo

Da Hill seems moderately pissed to inform us that the Pennsylvania GOP authorizes subpoenas in election probe. And from Arizona, Sundance at CTH has another Arizona Audit Update, Maricopa County and State Senate Enter Agreement – Wendy Rogers Confirms Audit Report and Hearing for Friday September 24th

BREAKING: Our NATIONWIDE petition to #Decertify the 2020 President Election has reached 934,954 signatures. The audit results are coming on next Friday. I want to have AT LEAST 1 million signatures by then. Share & sign to help us reach our goal: https://t.co/VgClJjWTwn

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) September 17, 2021

An Hawaiian judge from North Carolina? AP, North Carolina judges strike down state’s voter ID law. Legislating from the bench. I assume it will be appealed. From Sophie Mann at JTN, Trump continues to push Georgia's Raffensperger, Kemp to decertify 2020 election results. 

On Friday, Trump sent a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that included a report of 43,000 Absentee Ballot Votes counted in DeKalb County that violated the chain of custody rules implemented to ensure fraud is minimized.

Less well noticed fallout from Woodward's book BI, McConnell's final remark to Trump was 'you lost the election' as the defeated president railed at him for not embracing the Big Lie: You can tell what side they're on from the "Big Lie." And from across da pond at Da Mail,  Bill Barr warned Trump that independent voters thought he was 'f**king a*****e' and he needed to 'dial back' outrageous behavior or he'd lose election - then chided him for 'wheeling out clown car of lawyers' to contest results.

Haut Hair cites the LA Times in Schwarzenegger says voters were right to retain Newsom, calls GOP field "disastrous", not like rejecting a governor for a former body builder and shirt-tail Kennedy. At Mediaite, GOP Strategist on Larry Elder’s Recall Strategy: ‘Greatest Self-Own In 20 Years Of California Politics That I’ve Ever Seen’ Thinks accusing the other side of cheating before the election depresses your own turn out, but then doing it after the election is deemed moot. 

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.17.21, Don Surber says It’s Trump’s Party. Get Over It. Breitbart, Poll: Donald Trump Dominates Hypothetical 2024 GOP Primary Trump really gave bulk of GOP voters what they wanted; I'm not sure the GOP-e get that yet. Speaking of the GOO-e, Insty, TIN EAR: A Cheney imperiled. She thinks she owns the seat by divine right.

“Since her vote to impeach Trump and her appointment by Speaker Pelosi to the January 6 Committee, she has, to my knowledge, made no publicized visits to the state, save to attend the funeral of former senator Mike Enzi a couple of months ago. Word has it that she does fly occasionally into Jackson (which is to Wyoming what the Hamptons are to upstate New York), where she spends her time with friends, benefactors and perhaps a Republican politician or two while sedulously avoiding the rest of the state, 70 percent of which voted for Donald Trump last November.”

At Wa Ex, Trump gloats over retirement of pro-impeachment House Republican,  Wa T, Trump celebrates Gonzalez’s exit: ‘1 down, 9 to go!’ and Sundance, President Trump Releases a Statement After Ohio Rep Anthony Gonzalez Announces He Will Not Run For Reelection. Unsurprisingly one of the Bulwark Girlz, Tim Miller sees a Dark Omen in Rep. Anthony Gonzalez’s Retirement

Also rom the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.17.21, Weasel Zippers notices Facebook Lets The Cartels Recruit Hitmen & Prostitutes On Their Platform, Does Nothing To Stop Them while banning Donald Trump. It fits their community standards. 

AllahPundit at Haut Hair roots for a riot in Trump: Tomorrow's Justice for J6 rally in Washington is a "set-up". So are other lefties, at the Daily Dot, Far-right conspiracy theorists believe their own rally is about to become a false flag, "I don’t know a single person in the MAGA movement who is going. It’s a setup." Insty, Also: “Conspiracy theory of the day: Democrats are planning to provoke a riot at the coming protest over the 1/6 detainees, and Bush is trying to protect himself.” 

At Da Wire, Eight Months After January 6, Prosecutors Make Aggressive Maneuvers As Defendant Attempts Suicide, Another Beaten In Jail

On or about March 21, 2021, Mr. Samsel was viciously assaulted while in the custody of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, and while detained in ‘administrative segregation’—the latest euphemism for solitary confinement. He was taken to Howard University Hospital the next day, on March 22, 2021, where he was admitted and treated for injuries including… bilateral nasal bone fracture… as a result of the brutal assault, Mr. Samsel lost vision in his right eye…. CVRJ Medical Records make clear that medical orders and referrals have been ignored.”

Dan McLaughlin at NR asks  Are Mobs Still Bad When Their Target Is Brett Kavanaugh? and Capt/ Ed at Haut Hair wonders about Precedents: Will Biden override Trump on executive-privilege claims on January 6 records? What comes around, goes around, remember Hunter's laptop and Afghanistan.

At some point, every president has to leave office, and usually every president has episodes they’d prefer to keep mostly to themselves and their closest advisers. Setting the precedent that former adversaries will expose them to partisan file-raiding sets up a very dangerous post-presidential environment for any president.

And given the catastrophic and cowardly debacle just executed by Joe Biden in Afghanistan, perhaps this one in particular. Or does Biden relish the idea of having a Republican-controlled congressional committee getting the green light from a Republican president to strip away all of his privilege requests to get to the bottom of how Biden abandoned thousands of Americans to the Taliban?

To paraphrase Breyer, karma will be a real beeyotch under those conditions, and not just for Biden. It might end up burning some of Biden’s advisers who can expect a longer time living with what the betrayal they perpetrated in Afghanistan. Even if Biden can be expected to indulge his desire for revenge against Trump, at least some of his advisers don’t follow Biden’s lead in playing checkers in a 3-D chess world. They know what the risks are if they set this precedent.

The madness over Gen. 'Righteous Strike' Milley's China phone calls (there's no longer any doubt they happened, but what was said is still debatable) has calmed down a bit. Also rom the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.17.21,  This Ain’t Hell  Milley Defends Calls To Red Chinese As “Perfectly Acceptable”. At NYPo, Gen. Milley claims China calls ‘perfectly within’ duties of his role.  I would say a promise of a warning is not acceptable, but let's wait and see what he testifies to the Senate. Howie Carr at the BH, Gen. Milley is now the Democrats’ latest crush and right on time, Tom Nichols at the Slantic, Trump Put Milley in an Impossible Position. Well then, he should have resigned. 

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.

His Words Did Glow With Gold of Sunshine

Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead Collaborator and Lyricist, Dead at 78

Robert Hunter, the poet and writer who provided the Grateful Dead with many of their vivid and enduring lyrics, died Monday night. He was 78. No cause of death was provided.

“It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night,” Hunter’s family announced in a statement. “He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand. For his fans that have loved and supported him all these years, take comfort in knowing that his words are all around us, and in that way his is never truly gone. In this time of grief please celebrate him the way you all know how, by being together and listening to the music. Let there be songs to fill the air.”

It would be hard to name my favorite song that he wrote the lyrics for, but this one is up there:

There is a road, no simple highway

Between the dawn and the dark of night

And if you go no one may follow

That path is for your steps alone

Midnight Music - "Hell in a Bucket"

I'd never seen this before!



Thanks to Shouting Thomas!

The Wombat has Rule 5 Monday: Michelle Malkin ready and waiting for your digital pleasure.