Happy 2026! Thoughts and dry eye

Happy 2026! I hope that your year has started off well.

Where I am, we had a record snowstorm on Sunday. Toronto Pearson International Airport got 46 cm of snow. Those closest to Lake Ontario got 60 cm, including my old neighbourhood of the Beaches.

I live in the suburbs. I got a lot of snow. I don't think it was 60 cm. It was a lot.

Last year wasn't the best. I ended up with a stomach ulcer, which required some medication, yogurt, probiotics, and Gravol. The medication made me gag, which explains the Gravol. Since then, I do feel like I gag more when I see something that triggers that feeling.

Weird.

I keep on saying that I have a lot to say. I truly do. I have a lot to post about my mom's recovery from her broken arm and my difficult relationship with my dad.

I will start off with December and work my way backwards in 2025.

I get my eyes examined every two years in December. Earlier in the year, I noticed that my eyes were getting dry wearing contacts. My eyes felt gritty and I'd often take my contact lenses out.

For most of 2025, I wore my glasses instead. My eyeballs felt better. I'd be putting in eye drops whenever I needed them.

My eye doctor said that my eyes were in great shape and that my prescription hadn't changed. She did notice that the pores were clogged under my eyelids by natural oils. It explains my dry eye.

She recommended putting warm compresses over my eyelids to melt the oils. I did that by heating up a mask in the microwave. It felt great over my eyelids, but the heat would die down after ten minutes.

I bought a plug-in eye mask instead for more consistent heat. I use it every day over my eyelids for twenty minutes. It's me time. I like how relaxing the heat is.

I feel that this eye mask procedure has helped. I wore contacts lenses for the first time in months last week. I had them on for three hours. They were comfortable. I didn't feel any grit. 

I haven't tried wearing them to work. Baby steps. I'll probably wear them this Saturday when I run errands for a few hours and see how I feel.

I still use eye drops. I lubricate my eyeballs twice a day. It has been easy. I have eye drops in the washroom. I remember applying them after washing my face in the morning.

Just before bed, I apply eye drops before I fall asleep.

Time to use my eye mask. I'll try writing another post before January is over. I need to ease into writing more regularly again.

My manager and a moisturizing mask

My manager has been away all week. He mentioned on Monday and Tuesday that he wasn't feeling well, and that what he has is not COVID-related.

As much as it has been great to not have a cluttered inbox at work, I'm concerned. Here's hoping that he feels better soon from whatever he is recovering from.

I spent the last hour caring for my face. I put a moisturizing mask on my face. It felt good. I can't remember when I last did it. I should focus on caring for my face more often.

Rules and guidelines on masking in the US

The hotel in which I stayed in the United States is a part of a large chain. The official wording on its clean policy is that for guests staying at its US hotels, you do not need to wear a mask at the hotel if you are fully vaccinated. Staff are required to wear face masks.

As a cautious Canadian, I threw that guest policy out the window. I am fully vaccinated. I got my booster shot on Thursday. All is well. I have a sore arm. That's it. I'm boring that way. I'll take boring any day!

Whether I was heading downstairs to the kitchen area to fetch breakfast to take up to my room or doing laundry, I wore a mask. Heading to and from my room? I had a mask on.

As for staff, housekeeping never had masks on. When I headed to my room to check in back in late November of last year, I had to walk by two housekeeping staff without their masks. Luckily, I had mine on.

I'd say that 50% of the time, staff at this hotel had face masks on. The front desk was much better at it.

What I am trying to get at is that there are rules and guidelines on wearing masks, but they aren't enforced. We are still in a pandemic. Not wearing a mask in a public area is ridiculous these days, vaccinated or not.

The moral of this story is to mask up, to protect yourself and others from the various COVID-19 variants that are out there.

Travelling when the recommendation is to avoid travel

The recommendation by the Canadian government is to avoid travel outside of Canada. According to a doctor on the news last night, he recommends that folks with travel plans go ahead with them, but exercise caution.

I feel that it's what I want to do. I have been careful during this entire pandemic. Despite rules stateside in my hotel that I could roam around without my mask on if I'm fully vaccinated, I had my mask on in public areas.

Entering a restaurant? Mask on. Huge hockey arena? I wore a mask. The largest mall in the States? I definitely wore a mask.

Booster shots are finally being rolled out to folks 18 years of age and older on Monday. I will need to wait till I return and hope that my being cautious, like I have for month, will serve me well. I doubt that I can get my booster shot before I fly off.

Tires, masks, and long weekend

Well, my appointment to pick up my new nightguard at the dental office is now on Thursday at 10 am. Yesterday, I only had my car maintenance appointment to go to.

It was pretty straightforward. I got there, checked in, waited for my car, and it was done in roughly an hour. I have all-season tires on my car again.

The only downside was seeing a customer take down his mask twice. The duration was minutes each time. I stared him down both times, but he was too stupid to understand why I was annoyed. The signs clearly say to wear a mask at all times indoors. What a jerk!

My long weekend is now over. At least my workweek is three days in length.

Rest and a charcoal face mask

Yesterday, I took half the day off as a sick day. I felt exhausted at around noon. The rainy, gloomy weather outside affected me indoors.

I'm glad that I did. I ended up napping and reading. I felt a lot better with some rest.

I am currently using a charcoal face mask. My facial muscles are so relaxed right now. I look scary in a black mask, though.

Waving

On Wednesday night, I visited my local post office to pick up some parcels. I was waiting in line. There was a mother-daughter duo ahead of me.

The daughter turned around and looked at me. I looked at her. It's tough to gauge others with masks on.

My hands were a bit full. I still managed to shift whatever I was holding in my left hand over to my right. I waved at her. She waved right back.

Humans are cool, especially young ones.

Verdict on using a tissue to eliminate eyeglasses from fogging up

I decided to skip a day posting here. Friday was pretty busy that I ended up taking a nap at around 22:30, woke up, brushed my teeth, and went to bed for another 7 hours!

My appointment with my ophthalmologist went well. He says that my eyes are healthy such that I don't need to see him for another six months. It's good that I don't need an eye injection. Here's hoping that this trend continues.

As for my eyeglasses fogging up, I tried the tissue technique where I had it folded as a strip at the top of my mask. At first, it did fog up, but not as badly as if I didn't have the tissue. Within a minute, there was no fogging at all. It was nice to do the eye test and not apologize for not being able to read the chart due to fog.

Another tip that I got was to wash your lenses with baby shampoo. You then let your eyeglasses air-dry. I haven't tried it, but I'm curious.

Foggy glasses when wearing a mask

I have an appointment with my ophthalmologist today. Last time I was there, I had to read the eye chart with my glasses and mask on. My glasses fogged up, so this task was difficult to achieve.

I just learned to use a tissue inside your mask, at the top, to prevent fogging. I'm going to try it and see how things go.

Years ago, I had anti-fogging spray that I used on my lenses. Perhaps I should get something similar again.

Wear a mask! An older couple were amazing enforcers

As of Friday, July 17, it's a bylaw where I live to wear a mask in public indoor areas. I realize that it's tough switching over, but it depends on the store and whether wearing a mask is being reinforced.

At Shoppers Drug Mart, a man asked me if I was in the lineup for the self-checkout. Nope, I was in the human checkout instead.

He had no mask. I wanted to say something. Obviously, everyone else was masked. He didn't get the hint. Shoppers Drug Mart wasn't spending time enforcing the bylaw.

An older woman behind me said loudly, "Isn't it a bylaw to wear a mask?" I turned around and said yes. She thanked me for answering back. Her husband joined her in the lineup and they both went on about it.

Another man came in and clearly was not wear a mask. These two folks gave him quite the talk that he went out to his truck, got his mask, wore it, and came back into the store.

I loved this couple. Great job!

Masks

In Toronto, it is mandatory to wear a mask in indoor public areas, such as grocery stores. In my area, this bylaw takes in effect next Friday.

I have eased into wearing a mask, even when we didn't have a bylaw. I find that when I'm in a store that has one-way arrows on the floor to let you know in which direction you should be walking, most folks don't follow them. I'd rather have a mask on in such circumstances.

I own a total of four masks. Three have the same pattern. All four are cotton and have small flowers. I definitely stand out in a crowd. Everyone either has solid black cloth or the blue disposable ones.

For some reason, I can't see myself getting disposable ones. I am good washing my mask and reusing it after every use.

Eye update and relaxes after decluttering

On Friday, I visited my ophthalmologist. I haven't seen him for five months, which is a good sign.

I called earlier in the week to find out whether my appointment was still on. In a pandemic, sitting in a waiting room to get an injection in my eye is not the ideal situation. The woman at the clinic speaking to me over the phone indicated that safety precautions were top priority.

I asked about seating in the waiting room. Each row has four seats. I told her that I didn't feel comfortable if someone sat next to me. She said that they have measures to space people out. She also said that only patients who needed injections or were emergencies were being accepted. I felt better and went with it.

I was asked to wear a mask when I dropped by the clinic. I let her know that I didn't have one (I have since ordered one, which came in the mail after my appointment), and used a scarf instead. It worked well.

Sure enough, staff were great making sure that everything was sanitized. My regular diagnostic tests were streamlined down to my right eye, which had the issue.

My ophthalmologist was in good spirits. He said that he'd evaluate my eye in another five months and will likely stop injections. So, it is possible that last Friday was my last injection, which I am grateful.

I am fortunate that my blood vessel burst hasn't recurred. I bounced back nicely and my eyesight is practically back to what is used to be.

Switching gears a bit, I have been reorganizing my bedroom and decluttering. It's therapeutic. I feel relaxed and accomplished.

Fifty Shades of Hay

I love guinea pigs. I used to have them as pets. Part of me wants to get a guinea pig as a pet again.

I saw this photo the other day on Facebook. I don't know who to give this pic credit to, but it made me smile.

What a cute guinea pig! I love the mask and handcuffs on the bed.

Offloading items and being sweet

My guy and I had this conversation before I started my vacation:

"Do you have any extra training manuals that I can take off you? I need the beginner-level ones," I asked.
"Sure. I like when you take them off me. I like offloading things, as you put it," he teased.
"You know that I like when you give me stuff. I still have the sleeping mask that you gave me. I remember wearing it and you kissed me," I said, fondly.
"Yes, I always love kissing you, with or without the blindfold," he remarked.

As usual, he's sweet.

Experiments with being tied up and wearing an eye mask are coming up

This post contains tidbits of information from two separate days on my vacation. They do tie in with each other nicely. I just made an unintentional pun, too.

When my guy and I were travelling to the Midwest, we finally sat next to each other on our final flight segment. He was telling me about a number of things that he wanted to do to me sexually. We have talked about tying me up in the past, but this topic has been dormant for a bit. He brought it up in a scenario, and it made us both intrigued and aroused.

I have only been playfully tied up once by the ex-husband. We used his necktie. He tied my hands loosely with it and spanked me. I did like it, but I tend to be incredibly obedient during a spanking. I don't squirm, or try to get away. I take it because I want to be spanked.

My guy has always liked the idea of having me helpless in some way such that he can get his way with me. It would be consensual, of course. It takes a lot of booze to get me drunk, for instance. We know that liquoring me up is not the best method. He likes when I am exceptionally dopey after multiple orgasms. I know what is happening to me, but I am too dopey to do much.

We were talking in bed that night. He entertained the thought of tying me to the bed and pleasuring me. As always, I am game. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to tie me up with. I need to do some research.

A couple of days later, my guy had purchased a new rolling computer bag and was emptying out his old one. He was giving me various items from the latter. I asked if he was offloading his crap in a teasing way. He said no, but he had a huge grin on his face.

My guy travels a lot. On an Air Canada flight, he got a couple of eye masks and gave one to me. I put it on. It worked well. I sat on the bed, talking to him with the eye mask on. I didn't hear him walking towards me. He passionately kissed me. It was nice. A few minutes later, he tickled me, which made me squirm.

He hinted that I should wear the eye mask when we are intimate. It sounds like a decent plan.

He told me on the plane that I give the impression to others that I am conservative. However, he knows the other side of me. He likes that balance. I have always loved the fact that he is willing to experiment behind closed doors. He feels the same away about me.

So, here's to being tied up and being blindfolded in the near future. We keep things exciting. There has never been a dull moment with him.