The ship in the photograph is the USS GUARDIAN, a minesweeper, hard aground on a reef in the Philippine Islands that happens to be--or was--so pristine that it is a World Heritage site.  The U.S. government has officially apologized to the Philippines for messing up their reef. 

        How, I wondered, in this age is it possible for a Navy ship to go aground.  Today I learned the Navy’s tentative answer, the old reliable:  blame the chart.

        Chart errors or not, I expect careers have come to an end.

        And I don’t think my question has been answered.

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        In full realization that the two news stories most on the world’s collective mind are the confession of a lying bicycle rider and the state of my right eye, I report that said eye will next be invaded on February 4, when the buckle inserted during the retina detachment repair which is now cutting into the eye--the medical term used is extruded--will be removed.

        This will be the fifth surgery on that eye in two years and cannot be assumed to be the last.  It is a sick eye, a failing organ whose medical history is now so extensive that it caused comments by the three specialists who saw me yesterday. 

        I lobbied to have the eye removed, but in the absence of severe pain, which I do not have and reject faking, surgeons are unwilling to do so.  As to whether I will have problems at sea far beyond the reach of medical assistance, they think not, but of course can make no guarantees.

        My right eye is one of those gifts that just keeps on giving.

        I may have to take pain killers with me on future voyages, something I have not done in the past.  Or, more happily, find space for several additional bottles of Laphroaig.

        In the scale of things, removing the extruded buckle is relatively minor, as is the cursed eye itself, and I may be on GANNET by March 1.