As I was stepping outside, Tugboat was walking past. That made three days in a row that I’ve seen him.

He was on his way to the vet.

What a coincidence, said I. So am I. After seeing his confusion, I clarified. I was on my way to the eye doctor.

But Tugboat was taking along a stool sample, could I match that? I had to admit that I could not.

We wished each other well and went our separate ways.

I try to make my doctor appointments early to keep wait time to a minimum, and this time it seemed to work. There was no one in the waiting room and I was called within a minute or two. The technician, a new woman, was friendly and efficient and went through the preliminaries, taking photos of my eyes, testing my vision, etc., and shortly she ushered me into the doctor’s examining room, where once again the wait was relatively brief.

In reply to the doctor’s query, I said there’s been no change to my eyes, which he said was a good thing, and after he made a few tests, he seemed to agree with my assessment. See you again in six months, but we need to keep an eye on the cataracts and macular degeneration.

And I was on my way home, but wearing the dark sunglasses to protect my eyes from the dilated effects of the eye drops. They will only take about six hours to wear off.