Fri, June 11, 2010: A bit depressing......a bit depressed.

The 1st Lady was up first this morning......shortly after 6AM!!!!! OMG....I thought....what the hell is wrong....did I not hear the phone ring?......is she ill?......what the hell???

Well.....seems she woke up in the wee hours and could not return to sleep, so....after laying there for a couple of hours, she finally got up and went to the laptop to beging the day....ohhhh-soooo-early!!!

Sooo, I got up not too long afterwards........made some of my Fr Roast coffee.....oh yeah, I STILL drink it daily. Then after reading the papers, and after the 1st Lady had showered, I jumped in the shower and took care of the usual morning rituals. After I made the bed, I made toasted a ciabatta bun, spread some real butter on it, and then slavered some blackberry jam all over it.....and WOW!!!! Sooooo damn good!!

Got myself ready.....and left a bit after 10am for Cape Girardeau. Arriving there, I went straight to the Lenscrafters store in the Mall. Walking in, I told them I needed some help....badly. Explained that neither pair of my glasses would allow me to see or read or drive or everything......they just were not made correctly. Sooooo, after they took my "numbers" from the computer....and then they took both pair of my glasses....and finally the took me back to the optometrist to talk with him.

We talked in detail about my problems with the glasses....I put them on and showed him.....well, he had to believe what I was telling him......that I could not read the letters on the chart that he uses.......that I couldn't tell the difference between the c and the o, or between the F and the P...etc, etc. So, with some instrument, he looked into my eyes.....and then pulling away, he paused and then he said that he thought I should see an opthalmologist, as it might be necessary to remove the cataracts now. We discussed the procedure, we discussed who I should see, and then we discussed the possible "surgery" for this and the time frame involved with it.

I left there not jumping with joy!!! Depressing news! I walked down the hall, talked to the 1st Lady by phone, and then returned to the shop to make certain that they had input this info onto my records since I have just received this glasses and if I have the surgery, then these glasses will be no damn good....I HOPE!!! Soooo, the did enter that info into my records so I can get credit for having paid for these glasses which do not work!

I did a bit of shopping as my mind ran many ways all at the same time.......dates of our schedule for the summer and fall, the time necessary for all of this procedure and the recovery period and checkup schedules..........and I became more and more depressed......and I still am........

I drove over to the Doctor's Park, located the proper building and the Eye Consultants's office. Went inside and talked with the receptionist and asked about setting up an appointment, giving my reason for the request. She managed to find one opening.....July 2nd....and then they will be closed for a couple of weeks after that. Soooo, I grabbed that appt.......and will now have to wait until that date with this shadow over my head and my eyes not being able to see correctly with these glasses........and, I feel I am slowly going blind as I just can't see with these glasses. Letters and words run together, are fuzzy, and often it makes me believe I am under water trying to see ahead of me.......NOT GOOD!!!

OK.......I have to be prepared to make drastic changes in my summer travel schedule due to this....and I have been thinking about all of this. IF....repeat, IF I have to have both eyes done as the optometrist said I would.....then this will take 2-3 months, at the least.....or, so it seems to me with the outline the optometrist gave me for the procedure and the checkup times for the month following that procedure......and then, it will have to be done for the other eye.

I can kiss a lot of our plans goodbye, if this is the way it works out. I will not know until I have that first appointment, so hopefully I am worrying about nothing......right????? Any readers who have had this procedure....?????????

Returning home after a couple of more stops, including a light lunch, I realized how depressed I have become..........not used to negative news........

Been reading this afternoon since I returned.....and then the 1st Lady and I was outside working on a few bushes....my crape myrtle bushes have frozen over the winter and all I have left are 8-9 foot naked branches coming up from the ground....and many new 2-3 foot shoots with leaves on them.....the suckers, I'm afraid. Anyway....we cut back the dead wood, and tied up the "suckers" to see if we can get them to grow and return our bushes to the beauty like they were last year..........WHEN.........

A horrible crash occurred, then an explosion, and lots of loud popping....and so I ran around to the north side of the house and saw that a tree had split apart and half of it was laying across the entire street, live electric wires were popping, sparking, buzzing, and smoke was coming out of them....in front of the second house up the street from our property.. The wires were all over the ground/street.....and so I suppose some neighbor had called the police, as the sirens began to blow as they came up the hill to where we live.....I pointed to the area of the problem, and then the cop asked me to stop traffic from coming down Robinson street, which I did.....as several cars attempted to turn onto Robinson until I showed them the problem of being electrocuted, as well as the tree laying on the street. Soon....VERY soon, more sirens and the Fire Dept arrive with three trucks....and tons of fire fighters!

Well......that was the end of the excitement....as the next hour was all reactions to that action of the crashing tree. We lost our electricity for about an hour as they cut the tree apart, and then repaired the electric problems, working much, much quicker than I thought they could do.....not a sarcastic remark, but I was just surprised that they could get it all done so quickly.

And so.......my day is done, my post here is done, and now I will return to my thoughts and my internal thinking about what I can juggle in our schedule for the next few months, IF I have to do so.........Be Prepared, and I will be, I hope!!! As I see it now, our two month trip to Wyoming might not materialize....depending on the outcome of the appt. on July 2nd. Hmmmmm........and I sink just a bit more into the depths of my mind.......

LIFE IS GOOD........and, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!!