Taking Things for Granted

   

    We all do it. We get up expecting our electricity to work, the water to be clean and our bodies, to well, work.  But the past two years have taught me not to take any of these things for granted.  Since moving to a different home, my husband and I have lost electricity, and had neighborhood broken water lines that shut down our water, happen not just once but several times. In fact it has happened more often since we've moved to our house two years ago than it ever happened at our old house in which we lived for thirty years!

   So when I went for a normal eye check up I was not expecting anything new. I was going to ask about getting multi focal contact lenses because I've been getting very tired of carting around readers every where I go.  I wear gas permeable lenses which are like hard lenses.  I have worn these type of lenses for over 40 years. I love them, I can see very clearly, well distance at least, and don't have the expense of soft lenses which cost a lot because they are so disposable.  But when I pull out my knitting or crocheting I have to also pull out the readers. And since I still work full time and don't get a lot of yarn time I cannot steal five minutes to knit at my desk as easily as I used to when my eyes didn't need extra focus appliances.

   So when I was sitting in the eye doctor's office and the doctor was doing all the normal test, I was not expecting my doctor to say, "Oh my." while she was staring into my eye.  "Hmm...that is gross."

  Now, if 'oh my' wasn't bad enough to hear from your doctor, then the words, "that is gross," really wasn't helping me feel any better.  

   "What is wrong?" I pulled my head out of the device that cups your chin and makes you stare into a pinpoint light.

   "That shouldn't be there. Tilt your head back and look up." she squeezed something liquid from a dropper into my left eye. "Okay and put your chin back in here." 

     I went back to resting my chin in the pinpoint light device.

   "You have an abrasion on your cornea.  It looks like your contact lens has been rubbing it but that shouldn't happen."

   And turns out, she could not figure out why it had happened. I had not broken a lens, or done anything weird to it. She was stymied but what she told me next was worse. 

  "You cannot wear your contacts for two weeks. We need to let that heal."

  My jaw dropped, two weeks?  But I don't wear my glasses anywhere outside of my house. Granted I had just bought a brand new pair last year, just in case I was desperate on vacation driving at night in the pouring rain and my contacts were totally dried out and I had to be able to see the road.  I never wear glasses outside my home. It wasn't a pride thing, I just hated the feel of glasses on my face. I don't even wear my sunglasses all that often. It was why I was there to ask about different contacts because even my readers were annoying on my face.  Two weeks?!!

   To make matters worse, I told her I wasn't sure I could drive in my glasses, while the prescription was the same as my contacts, they just weren't as vision perfect for car driving as I wanted them to be. I cannot see a mile down the road in my glasses like I can in my contacts.  

   "Well, put your glasses on and let's make sure you are legal to drive." was her solution.

  She deemed it safe for me to venture forth and set up another appointment to check my eye in two weeks.  So carrying a prescription for an antibiotic drop, three boxes of complimentary drops that had to be applied EVERY HOUR of the day for two weeks she wishes me good luck driving and adds that if I woke in the middle of night I should put the drops in then too, I tried to find my way to my car and go back to work.

   My life was already at a very high stress level before this visit, two very serious family medical issues were on my mind hourly for the last year, and now this. So of course when I got inside my car I broke down and cried.  A regular pity party.  Then I drove back to work. 

    So here I sit, wondering how I am going to see my computer for the next two weeks.   My glasses are bifocal, not multi focal so I can see distance and my hands but not my computer screen.  Sigh...I will not take my sight for granted from now on. It's a hard lesson to learn. Here goes...  

 At least I don't have to wear my readers to see my knitting now...

 

Stoplights and Sanity

     I don't mind sitting at stoplights, at least not on a cold but sunny day when I can bask in the warm rays of sun coming through my windshield.  Of course it needs to be during February, at lunchtime when the sun is more overhead and not blinding me in the eyes like it does on my morning commute to work. Ah, the only thing that could make this better was if the light was long enough to get out my knitting needles and get in a stitch or two while waiting.  Now I know this would be a dangerous alternative to getting impatient with the light, or yelling at other stupid drivers. Those needles are not exactly car friendly, unless you are a passenger.  When I have thought about pulling out  my little number 5 dpns and stitching I look up and see someone coming down the hill behind me, not yet braking and think, well I don't need a needle impaled into my chest along with a steering wheel.  The things I have to give up....

     But you have to admit, knitting while you drive may be a good solution to shaking a fist, yelling and getting your blood pressure up.  If I didn't know better, I would blame other people knitting while they are driving on their poor driving performances, but I know better. Knitting can only make you a better person, a more patient and gentle person... and that definitely is not what I face in traffic. 

     In the old days, the very, very old days, you could knit while you drove, a horse that is...sitting with the reins between your knees and the horse plodding down a road it already knew, you could pull out your knitting and enjoy the breeze through your hair. You had plenty of time to see stops or turns ahead to pull up the reins or gee or ha the horse, at least I think you gee and ha a horse as well as a mule?  No matter, you had time to drop the knitting in your lap and direct the horsepower in front of you.

Yes, knitting while riding in a wagon would be so relaxing. Maybe part of the driver's test should be having the nerve to knit and drive at the same time. That would at least make you put down your phone, or course it does take your eyes off the road like a phone does, so maybe on second thought, it's not such a good idea. Unless you can knit blindfolded, but I think that is how a lot of people are driving already.