I suffer from these – I have done since I was a kid. Of course, they only really annoy you if you notice them, and then the trick is to forget they’re there again. I do that by looking at a complicated texture like a paisley shirt or a pub carpet – something swirly the floaters can get lost in. However, when I’m in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico visiting Linda’s folks the floaters come out with a vengeance. When driving there there’s nothing to look at except a bowl of sky and featureless land stretching out towards the distant horizon. A trip to Lubbock can have me scratching my eyes out.
When in Texas, instead of staring at an unending landscape, watch for tornadoes, rattlesnakes, and tumbleweeds. If you spot one, I promise the floaters will vanish.
For a different view of Texas, head up to Amarillo to view Palo Duro Canyon. You can drive right down into it and it’s incredibly beautiful. Watch the water crossings for the tracks of all sorts of animals, including wild turkeys, deer, coyotes, raccoons, mountain lions, and others. Bears have been spotted at the far end of the canyon, but not in the public areas. I promise you there’s so much more to Texas than the flatlands.
By the way, are you SURE Smith and Jones are Siamese? They look far too fluffy. I’d guess they were Himalayan. Either way, they’re the very essence of cats. I can tell you know them well.
I’ve been to Palo Duro Canyon, it’s lovely. I’ve seen the open-air musical they perform there as well – there’s a scene about fighting a wildfire that they had to do in one of those sudden five-minute rainstorms that West Texas does so well. Audience and performers got soaked to the skin. Then the sun came out and by the time the show was over we had dried out again.
The cats have got fluffier over the years – when I started drawing them at school they were much smoother but nowhere near as cute.