Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]
3/15/25
Aloha!
I see on my weather app that it has been in the 70's this week in the Midwest! Wow, talk about a spring thaw! Back in the days when we owned our apple orchard in Ohio, I got nervous if we had an early spring warm up. If the trees were in full bloom when a cold snap hit, a frost could wipe out most if not all of the year's crop. Our roller-coaster spring weather in Ohio made this a real possibility. We didn't breathe easy until after the frost-free date, which these days us in late April, but back 30 years ago it was mid-May.
My Geezer Gazette news this week is mixed. On Monday I saw my optometrist and got a new prescription for glasses. My current uncorrected acuity tested fairly good (well, compared to my
previous tests), 20/60 in my worst eye and 20/40+2 in my best eye. However, a comparison of my eyesight with and without the new correction prescription showed just a little difference. In other words, my vision can't be totally corrected with lenses that just refocus the light. I'm sure this must be hard to understand for those of you who wear glasses with good results. But my problem is something far deeper, and as the optometrist verified yet again, it's not due to refraction errors, cataracts. glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinal edema. or any obvious problem with my optic nerve. I will certainly order the new glasses, though, because they will help a smidge, and these days I'll take every smidge I can get. You'll be glad to know I'm also going to shut up about my problem until I have something definite to report.
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| Good Luck! |
The other piece of Gazette news is actually good. I had my 6-month skin exam on Thursday and my skin passed with flying colors (except of course for the sags, bags, wrinkles, bruises, and age spots). Usually I have to have several pre-cancerous thingies frozen with liquid nitrogen, the legacy of growing up in Colorado and poo-pooing sunscreen. But this time my dermatologist couldn't find anything to zap, and believe me she looked hard everywhere. I'm still on a 6-month schedule because of my past history, but I'm ok with that.
Staying with the good news, Karen and I played golf on Wednesday and we both did great, with very little fantasizing or applying Kon-a-Lago rules. In fact, it was one of my best rounds ever. I got a total of five bogeys and one par! I don't have any explanation for this stellar performance, and I doubt if I can keep it going, but the moment was very sweet. Before you ask, let me remind you that we don't keep a total score because we often don't play all 18 holes. However, we do keep track of strokes on each hole so that we can compare this round with previous ones. My eyesight is good enough to see the ball as I hit it, but then I have to rely on Karen to spot where it goes. On long shots I can usually feel when I connect well, and there is also a certain sound that goes along with a good whack. Both the feeling and the sound are very satisfying. We saw quite a few peacocks but not as many Nenes as we usually do. This might just be because they are now nesting out of sight. We'll look for them again next time.
Ok, enjoy the warmth. And remember that honesty, integrity, and compassion are still admirable qualities, despite their absence in prominent people. And reality, truth, and facts really do matter. Take care.
5 comments:
Smooth sailing with the peepers.
I have my own eye problems, so I find it interesting to hear about yours. I too am followed closely by a dermatologist because I am fair-skinned and have a lot of sun damage from childhood. But I have managed to stay out of the sun as an adult. Sunscreen has been a must even in winter for about the last 20 years. So far so good. Keep us posted. I don’t golf, but sometimes I bowl without my glasses and honestly, not much difference in my scores.
at this point in life our bodies seem to gang up and determine who will "attack" next! With Hardy its a toss up with heart,kidneys or hip issues with me its skin-yup years sailing-asthma and neuropathy...but so far we are lucky! Each day is truly a gift although while watching news one wonders.....hang in there and we are due for 31o tomorrow-i do worry about the fruit orchards about....
Of course, staying out of the sun entirely here in Hawai'i would be difficult and counter to why we moved here, BUT we always grease up before going outside with SPF 50 and we always wear hats. Still, those nasty UV rays get through a little bit. The life lesson from my eye problems is that I never expected that *they* would be a major challenge in geezerhood. Same with the heart issues. In other words, don't take anything for granted.
I heartily agree about each day being a gift -- these days I try to enjoy the gift as much as I can by limiting my brain's exposure to the idiocy around us.......
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