

Yesterday, I came close to missing my first POTD since last year. I was sorely tempted to not take any pictures because I felt so poorly – either a cold or I’ve gotten allergies for the first time in my life at age 65. I forced myself outside and drove to Hudson. I ended up enjoying the evening weather that was actually cool; refreshing after the hot weather of late. I also didn’t do much on Saturday, just a still life of my spectacles. I first started wearing glasses in second grade. After that I had to wear glasses every waking moment except when swimming or taking a shower. By the time I was in college I was so nearsighted that I flunked the physical for the army’s draft. About two years ago I had cataract surgery on each eye. I was stunned to find out that the surgery would leave me with 20/20 vision in each eye. For the first time in almost sixty years I would not have to wear glasses except for reading and working at the computer. During the last couple of decades of wearing glasses, my lenses had gotten so thick that I could wear only lenses with a small diameter, so I ended up with wireframes with noticeable thick lenses. When, all of a sudden I no longer faced such a limitation, I had fun choosing somewhat funky glasses for reading, for sunglasses, and some trifocals for the computer. My POTD on Saturday was of my current collection of spectacles.
Since I have felt so poorly, I’ve done a lot of reading over the last few days. I finished another Easy Rawlins mystery.
8:40 PM
I’ve been searching for a state wildlife reserve on the St. Croix in Wisconsin. I had been there before but not for at least a decade and had forgotten how to get there. I finally got a large-scale atlas, and today, after trying a few dead ends without success, I found it. I parked by the road side and walked a few hundred yards to the edge of a backwater of the river. I had to get my feet wet and muddy to get where I was going, but it was worthwhile.
The last part of the walk was a steep, heavily weeded bank leading down to the edge of the water. The entire bank for hundreds of feet was oozing and leaking water from, I assume, a permeable rock layer. Heavy weeds grow along the wet slope. Among the waist-high weeds were a clump of the beautiful, tiny blue forget-me-nots.
I was crouching in running water when taking the picture with my macro.
Below are some other photos from my excursion.