Heating oil price mysteries
I've been checking oil prices daily on my usual go-to heating oil delivery company website. When temps are warmer, prices drop, and vice versa. The worst possible time to order heating oil is when it's exceptionally cold.

I've got about a quarter tank left; this is when I like to reorder, because there's usually a lag time of at least 3 days before they can deliver. So this week I've been waiting for the extreme cold temps to pass and was hoping to snag a lower price today, as temps will rise to 50. (They will drop again tomorrow to more seasonal temps, so today was my slim window of opportunity.)

The price did fall yesterday, but today remained the same. The advertised price on their website Was $2.83 a gallon, considerably higher than this time a year ago when it was $2.05 a gallon. (Yes, I track oil prices all year long, looking for patterns.)

Once, over a year ago, I came to them with a lower price from another company, and so they gave me a .05 "price match" discount. I thought this was a one-time deal, but surprisingly, they haven given me this .05 discount ever since.

Yet for some reason, today they gave me a price of $2.75, which is .08 cheaper than their standard offer. I didn't want to question it in case they got it wrong!

And then I learned that if I paid by check, I'd save another .05 a gallon, or $7.50. Hey, it's something. So I will get my 150 gallons for $2.70 a gallon. Note to self: Always pay by check.

My eye issues
The pain from my scratched retina has eased somewhat as the antibiotic drops have kicked in, but it's still feeling uncomfortable since my doctor inserted a "shield," much like a contact lense, to protect the eye. I can feel the edges of this thing in my eye, and I have to sleep with it and keep it in my eye til I return to the doctor's on Monday.

I wasn't even sure I'd be able to sleep with it in last night, but thankfully, I did.

So when I went to see doc yesterday morning, he had another doctor, a dry eye specialist, look at my eye. I asked her if it was a very deep scratch and she said no, it was not, but it was fairly large, and that's why I was feeling as uncomfortable as I was. Yet I am not allowed to keep doing the eye drops for pain that my regular doctor gave me.

On top of that, the shield thing they inserted in my eye causes my vision to be blurry. You can imagine how difficult it is to perform my job as a one-eyed editor. I had a good laugh about that with someone I work with at the office.

I sure will be glad to put all this behind me, soon. It's amazing how much we take simple things like our vision for granted, until something goes wrong.

We're expecting lots of rain today. Instead of my morning walk before work, I may go out there with a shovel instead and try to shovel away snow from my foundation to avoid a wet basement.

TGIF!