Reby's Weight Loss and Breast Cancer Journey: Good check up at the opthamologist

Monday, January 23, 2017

Good check up at the opthamologist

I had my annual eye exam today by the macula specialist. All is well. I have healed completely from the torn retina in 2012, which I had been told by him before. He didn't see anything else in there the the didn't like. The small cataracts are still small, no visible change since last year, so I don't have to come back until next January. Ta da!

That took two and a half hours because clearly they were overbooked today. We went to Jiffy Lube for Mark's car afterward, and then we had lunch at Perkins because we were starving by 2:20 (my eye appointment was at 11 and we left the house at 10:15) and because today was National Pie Day, and Perkins always gives you a free slice of pie on Mondays. So why not?

That was followed by shopping at Publix for just a few things for dinner the next two nights. We are leaving Wednesday morning for Miami for the family cruise. That meant we got home at 5:30. Mark put the groceries away and headed up to the gym. UGH. I had no energy for that.

So that was my day. It was a good one, but I'm tired.

Here are some more cruise pictures.

Belize is a tender port because there is a huge reef around it. It's the largest reef on the Western Hemisphere and dwarfed only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. These are some little boats coming out to tender us to shore. It was pretty far!

The Prime Minister's residence.

Caroline, a Mayan lady, was our guide at the ruins of Altun Ha.

Mark climbed to the top of this one. That's me in red sitting on the bottom step at the lower right of the picture.

This is the biggest one here, 54 feet high. Mark climbed this one also.

That's me looking little from Mark's vantage point at the top of the highest ruin.

Checking out the museum there.

The Dream is at anchor near us. It's a sister ship to the Magic.

We got back in time to play mini golf.

Always a towel animal at night.

The morning of the sixth day! Let there be towel creations all over the Lido Deck!

We went to Cozumel on day six.

I gave Mark a shore excursion to a Mayan ball game which also included lots of Mayan cultural exhibits. This lady spoke at length in Mayan to give us a blessing for our journey.

Entering the Mayan Ball Game court.

He is super excited to be here.

The ball was surprisingly heavy and bouncy, made from local tree resins.

The object was to get the ball through that hoop without using your hands or head. There are points for getting it across the end line, too, and they played until there was some number of points earned that way, but even if a team has the most points that way, they don't win if they don't also get the most times through that hoop.

There would be two teams. Each team had between 2-8 players, but the teams did not have to be even.

They played for hours. This game was part of their religious rituals and took place five times a year. The winning team was taken to the top of a temple and beheaded. The losing team went home in disgrace.

After the game, they demonstrated two Mayan dances. This one was called Dance of Death. It was an antelope by itself first and then the hunters came out, tracked it, and killed it.

The second dance was the Dance of Fire. It was shocking. They put their feet in it!

They also ate it!

And passed it from person to person. Wild and crazy dance.

Posing with the dancers, who were also the ball game players.

Then we moved through the jungle to various stations to learn about Mayan culture. Here they showed us how to make tortillas.

We all ate a fresh tortilla with a paste of ground pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, and spices. It was very tasty.

Cacao was grown. Here are three types of Mayan chocolate that we got to taste.

Our guide showed us one of the little household gods.

Then we had lunch and had a Mexican dance presentation.

Gorgeous costumes.

Tequila tasting followed the dances.

After all that, they took us to a beach, but there wasn't enough time to even change into a bathing suit. We just sat and enjoyed the view and the breeze until it was time to go.