Here's the thing about double vision: it drives you nuts. The patch helps but it just aint the same as seeing like I used to. One of the things I have learned to love is the dark. In the dark I can have both eyes open. lids relaxed and I won't get seesick. In the dark I don't have to hold one eye closed. In the dark I don't have to wear the patch and the rubberband around my head. In the dark I am as likely to bang my head on something to the right as on the left.

I went up and camped at our property last weekend so I could be there for the delivery of two 20' shipping containers that will eventually be a woodshop. It'll give us a place to store some stuff while we move. It was a great drive up just after the sunrise in my rearview. I cranked up the bluetooth and practiced singing the songs I need to record next for four hours or so. A lazy winding drive along the river, past the waterfall, dragging a trailer full of railroad ties, chains, jacks and hammers. They are tools of the trade of my old railroad days.

I got there early and pounded lag bolts into a few of the ties so I could drag them easily with a chain. For others I only had to slam the claw of my hammer into one end and used it like a handle to pick them up and set them in place. Well-practiced moves from the old days as muscle memory takes over.

One box landed on the old slab and the other spanned an old set of foundation stem walls. The railroad ties were to go under that one and I had to place them one at a time. We set one, then as he backed up and the can slid down the bed of the truck I would spin a tie into place. I laid them lengthwise, hooked the chain and could grab the chain on one and swivel it into place. BaBAM! Oh, that sound when the first one landed on the slab, gloriously echoing in the hills far away. The driver and I managed to land them within inches of where I wanted them. My 4x4 and a chain did the rest. They each weigh 5030 lbs. We did it while eight feet apart and I was barefoot half the time. To give you an idea of the forces, I bent the hook straight on a brand-new chain that I normally use as a safety chain on my heavy trailers.

Once we got it done I worked on gutting the shop for a while and then camped out in my little camper for the night. At some point I stepped out to enjoy the dark. I had my headlamp on my head but I turned it off. The nearest big city is 40 miles away. The light pollution is minimal. It is dark and there are tons of stars. Twice as many without the eyepatch but it doesn't make you dizzy. It just looks like more stars. I stood there for a few minutes and then flipped on my lamp and, as I turned to go back to the camper, I saw what looked like two green eyes staring at me by the well about 60 or 70 feet away. At first I thought it was just a reflection and then... it blinked. It was taller than a cat, not as tall as a dog and it stared right at me, not blinking for moments after the first one. It finally blinked again and looked slowly here or there but back to me until it turned and silently moved up the hill into the weeds. Once it turned all I saw was a shadow and the tall grass moving. It looked like a hole closing as I could see what was behind it reveal as it moved, lit by my far-away headlamp. Moments later there was bird sound again and the night went back to normal. Silly night birds knew what was up. I climbed into my camper again and slept my second night on the property as they sang me to sleep. In the dark.