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May. 3rd, 2026 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allekhaSpring felt like it came on very suddenly this year - one week the grass turned green, the next the trees started putting out buds, and now there's dandelions everywhere. Not quite warm enough yet to start putting my plants in the ground, though.
Yesterday, Z drove me 2.5 hours to the Graf fitter, to whom I had shipped my skates for more adjustments. The plus side is that they did fit better. The negative side is that they needed yet more tweaking - the fitter was very apologetic about not being able to give me the skates back yet. Apparently, he took them off the stretcher because he was worried they would stretch too much, and on seeing me try them on, he realized that no, I do need as much space in the front as they can get me. He also told me that I wasn't lacing them right (not tightening the front), which affects how well the heel gets locked back, and gave me some tips to break them in even further on my feet once he ships them back. It was a bit disappointing to leave without them, but I'm glad he's putting so much time/effort into getting me the best fit possible.
On the ride, I read most of the way through Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks, which is one part travelogue to remote Pacific islands, one part description of disorders that are highly prevalent in the isolated island populations he visited. I had heard of achromatopsia before, though I didn't realize it also came with other visual issues, and I liked that while Sacks didn't downplay the disabling effects of poor visual acuity and light sensitivity, he emphasizes how the people describing their achromatopsia enjoyed visual beauty in their way and seemed to be better at seeing things in some circumstances (such as stargazing). The travelogue sections get a bit more personal than the usual 'descriptions of beautiful places I traveled to during my research' you see in a lot of nonfiction books, and they're fun for the most part, except for when e.g. Sacks relates his Chamorro guide talking about how it's difficult for locals to visit their own family graves because they're on land occupied by a military base. He really delighted in the ecology of the places he visited, and I also liked the section where he very carefully describes taking kava.
I have also been reading a Japanese book I received for my birthday. There's a section early on where the author describes a trip she took to another country. This was in the late 60s, and she says it was not typical for Japanese women to travel abroad at the time. Not only that, but her students, friends, and relatives were imagining what terrible foreign dangers she might face and worried that she wouldn't return. She was going to Denmark.
Yesterday, Z drove me 2.5 hours to the Graf fitter, to whom I had shipped my skates for more adjustments. The plus side is that they did fit better. The negative side is that they needed yet more tweaking - the fitter was very apologetic about not being able to give me the skates back yet. Apparently, he took them off the stretcher because he was worried they would stretch too much, and on seeing me try them on, he realized that no, I do need as much space in the front as they can get me. He also told me that I wasn't lacing them right (not tightening the front), which affects how well the heel gets locked back, and gave me some tips to break them in even further on my feet once he ships them back. It was a bit disappointing to leave without them, but I'm glad he's putting so much time/effort into getting me the best fit possible.
On the ride, I read most of the way through Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks, which is one part travelogue to remote Pacific islands, one part description of disorders that are highly prevalent in the isolated island populations he visited. I had heard of achromatopsia before, though I didn't realize it also came with other visual issues, and I liked that while Sacks didn't downplay the disabling effects of poor visual acuity and light sensitivity, he emphasizes how the people describing their achromatopsia enjoyed visual beauty in their way and seemed to be better at seeing things in some circumstances (such as stargazing). The travelogue sections get a bit more personal than the usual 'descriptions of beautiful places I traveled to during my research' you see in a lot of nonfiction books, and they're fun for the most part, except for when e.g. Sacks relates his Chamorro guide talking about how it's difficult for locals to visit their own family graves because they're on land occupied by a military base. He really delighted in the ecology of the places he visited, and I also liked the section where he very carefully describes taking kava.
I have also been reading a Japanese book I received for my birthday. There's a section early on where the author describes a trip she took to another country. This was in the late 60s, and she says it was not typical for Japanese women to travel abroad at the time. Not only that, but her students, friends, and relatives were imagining what terrible foreign dangers she might face and worried that she wouldn't return. She was going to Denmark.
