What I done and done learned recently!

[jedishampoo]

Hello! This week is almost over, yay!

What I done and done learned recently:

1) It is cold here in Indiana in the winter. Yeah, like I forgot. Sheesh, what is up with freezing your butt off as you go outside in the dark to string holiday lights for your aging parents? When the light-strands only lit halfway, I just left them where I'd put them, because it's just too cold to stand there trying to figure out which light is broken. :)

2) My new eye-doctor had a couple of revelations for me: (a) my eyes are actually a little less nearsighted than they were a couple of years ago; she gave me a lower contact-lens prescription, and it's amazing how the world looks when things are clear. I can read street-signs and everything now! But (b) I have the beginnings of cataracts. I sort of suspected, given that I can't see very well in the dark anymore. The doc pooh-poohed my claim of cataracts because I was much too young-- until she actually looked at my eyes. My dad had cataract surgery in his late 30s, though, so I'm guessing it's genetics. I won't have to have surgery right away, but eventually I'll have to have the darned things lasered out. Sigh.

3) I keep being told that rather than buy all my books, I should go to the library and read them for free. Except... I went to the library tonight, and it closed at 6:00! SIX! Apparently, the Indianapolis library system had its funding cut, and they had to drastically shorten their hours. And yet the city is paying millions to keep the Pacers here. It seems unfair that literacy and education is always going to take last place to everything else. I have lots of friends who are teachers, and what they're paid is criminally low. Grrrr!

Hugs to everyone reading this. ♥ I hope you are all awesome.

Comments

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

Yeah, *sigh* knowing what public libraries have gone through in the last twelve years or so, between the economy, and the impact of the internet and cell phones (think about it), is one of the few things that makes me not so sad about losing my career. I get used books (the DIRT CHEEP ones) from places like betterworld and amazon myself, and call it a day, I am embarrassed to say.

That's a shame about the cataracts, but the good news is the laser surgery these days is no big deal - my mom had hers done and it was like nothing. No biggie at all. I am SUPER nearsighted, too, and the thing with them getting less nearsighted is funny isn't it? It's weird after all those years of your eyes getting steadily worse and worse, and now, what, they are... better? Huh? But then comes the point - if you are like me, that they get better enough that you actually need bifocals to do the near-far thing. It's so messed up. Now, if I wear my contacts (they don't make bifocal ones in my strength, of course, and even if they did, they would be heinously expensive) I have to wear drug-store reading glasses to read anything! Argghh!! Can't win for losing.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

You know, we could take just a few percentage points of what we spend on the military and spend it on books and schools... but that's just my inner leftie talking. ;)

Yeah, I hear that cataract surgery is nothing-- my mom had her eyes done and was fine! And it's so weird about them getting better... but I'm glad, because I was seriously afraid I'd go blind from nearsightedness, heh. (My contacts were -5.75 and -6.00, which is pretty bad-- now I'm -4.25 and -4.50.

I'm sure I'll need the reading glasses, too-- because even though mom had the eye surgery, she can't read without them. It's just part of being us, I guess.

::hugs::

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

Your inner leftie and mine would get along just fine! *lol*

When I was a kid, I got glasses when I was seven, and really needed them way before that. They got so much worse each year, with my kid's brain magical power of extrapolation, I was certain I would be blind by the time I reached adulthood. My nearsightedness is so extreme now I am at some real risk, ironically, my retinas could easily detach, my eyes are so misshapen and they are stretched much more than they should be. But so far so good, and we just hope they will hang tight (and that the diabetes I now have will leave them alone as well.)

I got you WAAAAAY beat in the nearsightedness numbers - my contacts are -10.00 and -12.00, with a heaping dose of astigmatism, to boot.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP. You win in the bad eye department. Wow, I didn't know they made contacts that high! :)

::hugs:: I'm just glad what we have is correctable, you know? If I'd been born in the far past, I'd have been screwed because I'd not see anything coming for me.

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

They didn't make anything but hard ones for ages and ages, which is why I didn't have contacts for a long time, because the hard ones were thick and uncomfortable.

And hells yeah, I always said, if not for glasses, if I lived in the medieval times or something, I would have gotten run over by an ox cart or something by age eight. No question.

[anirt.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to agree with your inner leftie. ;-)

I hope that when you do need the cataract surgery everything goes just fine.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

My inner leftie is not so inner... except on LJ, where I try and keep it to a minimum. ;) My poor parents have to hear it all the time, now that I'm back in the more conservative Indiana. :)

Thank you-- I just need the money for all this. ♥

Hugs!!

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

I"ve got horrible eyes (I suspect it's something in Indiana's water supply, hahah) I've had one retina detachment surgery, had that rk surgery on one eye but didn't have the money to get it on the other, and I had to shell out a fortune to a specialist to find out I have cataracts forming on both eyes (Which I knew) the eye that had the RK surgery on it had developed some wierd new form of astigmatism, and the retina in my left eye has pinholes and weak points in and I need laser surgery to tack it into place.

Happy fucking new year. Well, it's still better than going blind, the first doctor I went to see upset me so much I threw up in his parking lot from the panic attack.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Eeek, I remember reading about your traumatic eye-doctor visits! Man, what's up with us? :)

And yeah, I'd rather be badly-sighted than not sighted at all. ::Hugs::

[beellegee.livejournal.com]

Which is worse? Getting attacked by bees, fire ants, and biting gnats while you're putting up Christmas lights or freezing your butt off? At least it only comes once a year right?

It is a good thing to be able to see clear. My prescription is way overdue and presently I have a hard time seeing up close and far away. Maybe by the time you need the cataract surgery they will have discovered some new, easier way of correcting them.

And, I totally agree with you about education and literacy taking a backseat to sports. It's ridiculous. This country's priorities are really screwed up!

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Eee, bees! I hate those darned yellowjackets that hang around in the fall (and probably later where you are). But man, I do miss the warm winter weather.

::hugs::

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

My parents have both had cataract surgery in the past year and both wish they'd done it sooner.

So as soon as they think it's time, go for it. Plus, you get the added benefit of having vision correction at the same time. So yay.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Both this year? Shooot, that's funny-- my mom had cataract surgery last year, when she had breast cancer, and-- man, oh man.

So you're probably looking at 60s for your cataracts, then. :)

::hugs::

[caeseria.livejournal.com]

At least you'll be able to find the light string again in the snow and cold when you light them back up (if they are not buried under snow!)

Wow. That's... I hope you are okay. Still, laser surgery isn't too bad these day from what I hear, so I hope things go well for you. *hugs*

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Well, we haven't yet gotten the predicted snow (we were threatened with four inches) so I can still see the lights. Damn, it's cold, though. Seriously, though, it's only low 30s, but I'm such a weenie-- so thin-blooded from warmth and dryness and altitude-- that anything below 60 makes me want to weep and shiver.

HUGS!

[caeseria.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I know what you mean! It took me about six years of freezing my ass off and wearing a duvet coat before I got used to the weather here. I feel badly for you until you get used to things again!!

*hugs*

[seshats-prodigy.livejournal.com]

You're sweet to do the lights for your parents like that. ♥ And yeah...I nearly died when I saw snow last week. It made me sad... -_-;

Sorry to hear about your eyes, but I guess it's good that they know so that they can catch it and deal with it before it gets bad? ♥

PS-Would you be willing to PM me your addy so that I can send you a Christmas card? ♥

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Yup, it sucks to know I'm going to have to have eye surgery some day... but I might as well know now. And have Lasik at the same time!

And of course you can have it! I've just been too lazy to make a post or reply to all the people I'd want a card from, heh. :) I IMed you-- ♥♥

[ditch-gospel.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's too bad about your eyes, but it sounds like everything is under control so it probaby won't be too bad.

Christmas lights! They're so pretty, but my family could never be bothered to string any up.

*hugs*

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Well, I just threw some on our barely-there bushes and the ground cover. I'm not good enough to climb up and put them on the gutters! But yep, they're so pretty, I'm glad we have something.

::hugs::