SEEING CLEARLY

 

I won't say what I really think - - but the "sizzling" earth seems to be cooling down.

Several nights ago, it was minus two below zero here in rural Tennessee. Below zero! That's cold enough to over-freeze the moonshine. Frost bite on the possum's tails.

I'm admittedly worried about my fragile rural house which is unattended in the Arctic wilderness. The negative possibilities are endless.

I had an appointment with the optometrist yesterday (Wednesday, 2). Coldest day of the year - - I think it was 12 degrees. I had to wear crappy second-hand borrowed clothes, because my new clothes were "lost" or "misplaced." Hhhmmm....

The second-hand clothes are all black. I looked like the Grim Reaper....in a wheelchair. I was accompanied by my faithful nurse Henny, who is near 80 and nearly deaf. She shouts everything, but has a distinct hillbilly charm.

Do you remember the good ol' days when you visited an optometrist? You read an eye chart and get a prescription for glasses. A simple procedure.

Nothing is simple nowadays.

After a forty minute wait, I finally had to consult with half a dozen people - - who took tests on me and my eyes, diagnostic tests, scans, and procedures. Questions, questions, analyzations of what my eyes were like when I was ten.

After an hour, I finally saw the doctor. He was incredibly goodlooking. I'm intimidated by goodlooking doctors.

Well, he went over every aspect of my eyes. I'm profoundly near sighted (as if I didn't know). My severe astigmatism improved (!) over the years. My retinas look good - - considering I had emergency retina surgery on both eyes years ago (that's another horrifying story I could tell).

He suddenly slipped into the bad news mode. I have cataracts in both eyes. Will get worse, of course. Surgery is recomended. He said that new glasses won't help me. The surgery will improve my vision so drastically that I most likely won't need glasses.

I'm skeptical. Never heard of such a thing. Tempting, but.....is this a scam? Everyone I know has had cataract surgery. Was everyone talked into it??

I listened carefully to his pitch.

He was hustling me like a two bit barker at Coney Island.

He was persuasive. He was damn cute. He could have sold me beach front property in Kansas.

I acquiesed. I submitted myself to him completely.

(I'm being funny...?)

I'll get the surgery. Against my better judgement.

I don't know how the hell I get into these things. Why why why isn't life simple anymore??

Presently, I have no clue when or where the surgery will take place. Definitely out of town. Possibly in Cookeville.

So what else is new?

I have too many ailments to mention. My back, hip, legs. The edema has nearly vanished. Blood pressure is good. My blood work fluxuates. I'm supposedly dehydrated. I am extremely anemic. I'll skip the other things. 

I finally received the new charger for my cell phone after two weeks. I desperately needed it.

I plan to order some new clothes so I won't look like the grim reaper next time I go out. If I ever go out.

Jon, never exactly seeing clearly

❤️