Seeing Is Believing – Guess I’m Screwed

Writing in my last blog post, I bragged about the gorgeous new shoes I bought for the Rangers’ (Golf) Dinner Dance held once a year. Everyone gets all dolled up in their finery, eats a great meal of Salad, Beef, Chicken, Pasta, and Tiramisu, get awarded prizes for the golf tournament winners in each of the three Classes, best player, etc., along with some pretty good gifts for the individual draws and 50/50 Cash draw. Nat managed to eke in a cash prize for third place in the Class C Division, which was better than he expected. He’s been having some bad years, but the new clubs have at least improved his game somewhat. He’s still working on that.

After all is said and done, there’s lots of dancing. The ladies (and some gentlemen) love to do their line dancing every year to The River of Babylon song, and it’s so much fun to watch. With that dance finished, everyone else is up and running for the other old and sometimes new rock tunes to dance to. The D.J. slips in a few romantic tunes to slow things down every once in awhile. Naturally, those are the only tunes Nat and I can manage to dance to and we did, in fact, dance a couple of times. Proving rightly so, that my new shoes were the perfect purchase. They worked out great on the dance floor giving me the stability I needed in my legs so I wouldn’t go ass over teakettle on the dance floor.

One change this year. As we walked into the hall and found for our table, we realized that two of Nat’s friends (Jim and Cathy) wouldn’t be attending. According to Nat’s ex-brother-in-law, they were going to Quiz Night at their favourite pub. We could both tell that something was up between these two couples who normally do everything together, including travel. It seems no explanations were given for their preference of Quiz Night and John and his wife, Anne (Nat’s former sister-in-law) took it in stride and figured things would work out somehow.

So as it went, I ended up sitting beside Anne. A woman with a heavy Scottish brogue accent (Glasgow) and extremely hard for me to understand. She has a good heart but can be domineering (as she showed at my wedding reception, which is another story). I shook my head and laughed whenever she did, looked at Nat a few times for confirmation and as the evening wore on, the silence became unnerving between the two of us. Neither one of us had anything in common to talk about. At least in previous years, our buddy, Cathy, would sit between us and keep the conversation going as she liked to talk and could keep any room alive with conversation. She, too, has a heavy Scottish accent, but has softened over the years, so I can at least understand half of what she’s saying. Plus she takes an interest in a lot of our family matters.

The night was quiet, but Nat and I still had a good time. We left earlier than usual but it was a 40 minute drive home and we were both tired. I had at least taped the Toronto Maple Leaf game for Nat to watch when we got home. I go straight to bed and Nat stays up later.

This past week we both had a few appointments that were going to fill some time. Me, the hair dresser and the Optometrist for a pre-op before Cataract surgery. Nat would have the car dealership to contend with, as we received a recall notice to replace some sort of thing-a-ma-jig in the computer part of the Buick Encore.

Not knowing what to expect for the pre-op, we headed for the Doc’s office with some trepidation. We soon found out that we would be there for a couple of hours. This guy was that busy. He takes patients from all around the Niagara District and is extremely well recommended. Shortly after arriving, I was called in for initial questions and answers by the Doc’s assistant, drops were put into my eyes – 3 sets of them – and then told we would have at least a 45 minute wait.

Noon hour soon came along so Nat drove out to the nearest Tim Horton’s for coffee and donuts where we were able to eat at a small dining area just outside of the Doc’s office. Well strategized, I’d say. This outfit knew how to take care of patients waiting for their turn. Nice touch.

About an hour after the initial visit, we were taken by the Doc, who was very nice, young, well-informed and friendly. More drops, again!! Along with an eye scan followed by a flash of blue streak, my eyes now felt like they were floating in their sockets. He advised that it was up to me whether I wanted the cataracts removed now or perhaps in a year’s time. He advised that I was at the stage where I could actually wait for a little while, if I felt the need. No, not I, let’s get this thing done and over with. My body and mind are psyched up so let’s do it! I really didn’t want to go through all of this again. I was also tired of wearing my eye-glasses for distance but still not seeing completely clear. (Yes, I clean my glasses every time I put them on!). I was tired of looking through blurry eyeballs, as if I’d had a few too  many.

A day later and my eyeballs are still as big as the Black Hole which surprises Nat and myself. Go figure, only me!! Hope it dissipates by tomorrow – I want to bake – and if I have to use a magnifying glass to read the recipe, I’ll scream!!

So now I sit and wait until March, 2017 when the surgery is scheduled. The Left eye in early March followed by the Right eye at the end of the month. Sounds like there’s going to be a lot more drops (which will be Nat’s job), along with dark glasses which cover the entire eyes – very cloak and dagger – and more visits to the Doc before all is right with the world again.