Trabecular meshwork

I suspect that few boating blogs will have ever used the title of this post. It's not part of the system for filtering out diesel bug, nor does it refer to silencer insulation or the screen over the side-hatch. It's found in your eye, facilitating the draining of fluid from the front part into Schlemm's Canal. Let no one tell you this blog isn't educational.

Now, as it happens, long-sighted people (like yours truly), with our slightly shortened eye-balls, have a sharper angle between the iris and the cornea, just where said meshwork sits. That means it has a propensity for clogging up, especially (ahem!) in those no longer in the first flush of manhood. And that can lead to acute glaucoma, which sounds distinctly unpleasant. This was all explained to me by the ophthalmic consultant in Christchurch hospital this morning, and our mutual conclusion was that I should undergo a procedure to fire a laser at my iris(es), creating a small hole which will allow the fluid to drain away from the front part of the eye, should my trabecular meshworks ever get clogged.

This has little to do with Erin Mae, of course, except in the circumstance that I be struck by an episode of acute glaucoma in the middle of Harecastle tunnel, or when encountering an ex-working barge coming through a narrow bridge round a blind corner. Under such conditions I'd regret not having had the laser treatment.

So that's done with the penultimate appointment currently keeping us from boating. The last (something to do with my best beloved's canals or roots or something) is tomorrow. Then we shall be free to head out into the wild for a while to see whether all my 12 volt machinations on Erin Mae enable me to sleep at night, content in the sure and certain knowledge that my batteries are having no greater demands made of them than is right and proper. I see that Halfie has been moving in a similar direction.