Foggy

[Riley Smith]

Everything has been foggy lately. Even inside   Yep, cataracts. Thank goodness for medical technology as the repair has good reviews according to my decidedly unscientific sample. That isn't so bad but the glaucoma might be a problem! Nobody every told me that gradually, as you get older, systems start to shut down!!! I mean, it should have been in the handbook! My son has likened me to a sniper with my vision before, and now I can't see. Is it just me or does anyone else not get the humor in the things Life throws at you?

Which brings me to a second point. Make sure ONE of the kids will let you live with them when you get old. And don't get one that'll lead a blind man through a puddle when they're mad 

[Jim B., CD-25]

I've had that talk with my daughter.  She said to me, "Dad, you know how you took care of Grandma when she had different medical situations?  Yeah, well I'm not going to do that."

To which I generally reply: "You know that Viking funeral I want?  Could you at least let me die first?"

And then we chuckle.

Just over two years ago, we moved from my beloved Texas Gulf Coast to the desert.  To be near/with our daughter and son-in-law.  When our daughter got Joan onboard with the idea of moving to Arizona, my fate was sealed.  I had concerns about what Joan would do when my time comes (I can read an actuarial table) - we had no family anywhere close where we lived in Texas.

So, the four of us agreed on a "NextGen" home... kinda like a duplex, where we share a wall, but each have our own home.  With an adjoining door.  We can check in on each other.  And we can go days without seeing each other.

I feel good with this arrangement.

Getting old means different challenges.  I'm the only one who doesn't need glasses among my 70-something musician friends.  But we all have different aging situations.  I have a medical appointment this morning to "have a conversation" with a specialist that my primary doctor recommended.  Probably not for the fun of it.

[Timm R Oday25]

I had four surgeries in the last year .
I thought a hip replacement was also on the calender before retirement .
Thankfully ,it turned out to only be bursitis
My last eye exam exposed me to a future with cataract surgery.
With Bobbie being 15 years younger , my demise should be 20 years before hers .
I fully expect her to sell our house and move someplace newer and bigger .

[Wayne Howard]

My daughter built a house and one of the rooms on the ground floor is dedicated to Connie and I when we need it. So far, so good. We haven't moved back to "Stinkadena". When I was growing up, I could tell the wind direction without going outside. Paper mill to the north, Rats ass chemical plant to the south.

Anyway, this same daughter has instructions to grab my cell phone and text everybody who shows up with "Thanks for coming." and a little later "It's really dark here. Did someone forget to pay the electric bill?"

[Riley Smith]

We remodeled the bathroom about...maybe ten years ago. I asked my wife then if she wanted to put grab bars up and she ridiculed me. HA! I've never said "I told you so!"

[Frank B.]

Feel blessed at how you are, it may be the best you will be.  I just finished my salvage radiation a week ago, and my wife has to have kind of an emergency eye surgery next week to graft a repair over a shunt tube.  Mostly healthy her eyes are her weak point, having glaucoma and macular degeneration, she's had three laser procedures, three shunts installed at different times, and has to have injections about every ten weeks.

We were going to Colorado mid march but that as been cancelled, at least for her. If she can't go and needs help while I'm gone, her sister volunteered.  I have a bit of sunk cost in the trip, but may cancel myself.

We have no current plan to move in with any of the kids, but could be in the future.  My Mother in Ocean Springs is 102 and lives with my sister.  Her mother lived to 102 and lived with her. Her brother lived to 103 and never went into a home.  I think it is partly responsible for the long lives along with a genetic predisposition and attitude.

LOL, when I had my cataracts done, I went into the docs office the next week and expressed my displeasure.  He said what is wrong. I replied that everything was just fine before but now I walk through the house and see that every wall needs to be painted, carpet needs to be cleaned or replaced.  And I thought I had the right look with three day stubble, I mean isn't that what's currently in?  But no, I just look like a homeless bum with that look.

[Riley Smith]

Cold drops in the eye and we're looking closer at the cataracts. We'll see....hopefully.
 I'll be glad to get something back if I can. Even with all this going on I managed to see some white pelicans, super high in the sky and very far off. At least that's what I thought it was, migrating out on the stiff south wind, headed north. For years I have been able to SEE such things and now I wasn't even sure I was seeing birds (but Sonya saw them too). I tried to get the glass on them but they were traveling pretty fast on the blustery wind and that was a no-go with the spotting scope I had available. Too many days watching that little tungsten sun, time for a rebuild!

[Frank B.]

The biggest plus to my cataract surgery was being more comfortable driving at night.  However, that positive has been somewhat diminished by the proliferation of 6000 kelvin LED head lamps. Or at least I think they are 6K they are more white than daylight.

[Doug SC]

The biggest plus to my cataract surgery was being more comfortable driving at night.  However, that positive has been somewhat diminished by the proliferation of 6000 kelvin LED head lamps. Or at least I think they are 6K they are more white than daylight.

Yes, and jacked up trucks where their low beams act like high beams! Don't they know if they blind an oncoming car, they also put their life in jeopardy?