eyes

Home again

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, I’m actually glad the installers couldn’t make it in to do the front door today.

The rains stopped some time before sunrise this morning. It was still super wet when I went out to feed the cats at about 7:30am There was no rain in the forecast, but while driving today, we got hit by rain several times! Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow.

Before I get into more stuff, though, I just have to share this bit of fluffy adorableness.

There was one litter with four grey tabbies. Two of them are getting fluffier as they get older, and they look almost identical! This is one of them. The other two are short haired and one of them sometimes allows pets, but they are also almost identical. Which means that when I reach out to pet, I’m never sure if it’s the friendlier one that will allow it, or the skittish sibling.

Must. Socialize. The babies.

So they can get fixed and adopted out!

Meanwhile…

My daughter and I headed out to my appointment ridiculously early. I had a budget for lunch, and we could take our time with it.

Not long after we’d passed through my mother’s town, my cell phone started ringing. My daughter answered, and it was an automated call from Life Line. It was to notify that my mother’s pendant seems to no longer be connected, and recommended doing a test.

When the call was done, I pulled over to phone my mother. It went straight to machine, so I left her a detailed message about it, telling her to test her pendant and see if anyone answered. If they did, to just tell them it was a test. If there was no answer, I would be there tomorrow to deal with it, and would call her after I got back from my eye appointment.

Doing this didn’t take very long, but enough time that I was glad we left as early as we did!

Once in town, my daughter and I had lunch, then went to the eye clinic. We got there about half an hour early but, after about 15 minutes, I was take in for stuff they do before the actual appointment with the doctor. This time, it was just the glaucoma test. Taking photos of inside my eyes would be done after I got the drops and the field of vision test.

For the field of vision test, I just had to wait for another patient to be done and the usual sanitization, and was called in quickly. She did the eye drops first, which meant tilting my head back.

This is the first time I got the dilation drops in this room. Usually, it’s been done in the examination room. When I tipped my head back to get the drops, I found myself looking directly into a couple of bright lights! Very hard to keep my eye open for the drops! After the first one, I let her know and she shut the lights off to do the next eye. With the door open, she had enough light but, until I told her, she didn’t realize that doing the drops there meant getting blinded by the ceiling lights!

The field of vision test could be done right away, without having to wait for the drops, since it is all close up. By the time that was done, enough time had passed that I could go straight to getting the photos of the inside of my eyes.

There’s nothing like being told not to blink to suddenly want to blink like crazy! 😄

Those done, it was back to the waiting room until the doctor could see me.

I didn’t have to wait long.

The first thing she did was go over the photos with me, and compare from my last appointment. I’ve got the tiniest of hemorrhages that are being monitored. One slightly larger one – just large enough for me to easily see from the eye exam chair – was no longer there. Overall, nothing had really changed, so there’s nothing to treat. I’ll be back in 6 months for continued monitoring.

Then she did the physical exam with the bright light to see directly in my eyes.

Fun stuff.

Not.

The whole thing was done nice and fast. Being there so early meant we were out early, too!

I made my next appointment for April, and then my daughter started driving me home. Next time, I won’t be getting the eye dilation drops, so she won’t need to come with me.

In my mother’s town, there are two gas stations along the main road. One is a co-op, and we no longer go there for gas. Turns out they can pay dividends because they use old, cheaper gas. I found that out when we had to replace an expensive part in our previous vehicle that had gotten clogged up. Even our lawn mower got clogged up after only one summer’s use, and we only use premium for the mowers!

On the way out, both stations were at $1.199/L

On the way back, the co-op was at $1.310/L

!!!

We turned around and went to the other station that was still at $1.199 to put some gas in before they got the call to increase their prices! I mentioned the other station’s new price and it had changed so recently, she didn’t know about it yet (the two stations are close enough that they can see each other’s price signs).

We didn’t put a lot in, but it was enough to fill the tank at that price. Which is good, because I will be back tomorrow and probably would have needed to put more gas in by the time I was ready to go home from my mother’s. If all goes well, I won’t need to get more gas until our first city shopping trip next week.

Once we got home, it was later than I would normally have fed the outside cats, so taking care of that was my first priority. They were very hungry!

I’ve been keeping an eye out for Pinky. This morning, I didn’t see her until I was getting the truck ready to leave, and she was by the garage. I saw her again while doing the later feeding, and she was again near the garage. I’ve seen her sleeping – alone – in the catio, but since we took her babies in to the rescue, she has been alone.

She won’t let me get a closer look at that injured toe, but it no longer looks bright red, she isn’t favouring it, and there’s no sign of infection, so I think she’s okay. Still something to monitor.

I so wish we could bring her in to her babies! Of course, her “babies” are the cat equivalent of teenagers now, but they were the only ones I ever saw her with. She doesn’t get along with any of the other cats, and now she’s alone. She barely even lets me pet her anymore.

💔💔

Hopefully, we can bring her in soon – and can get her friendly enough again to get her into a carrier!

Once settled inside, I called my mother. She never noticed that there was a message waiting for her, even though I could hear that she was in her TV watching chair, which is right next to her answering machine. I told her about the call I got and had her test her Life Line pendant while on the phone with me.

There was no response.

So, I will have to deal with it tomorrow. I had planned to come earlier, so I could do her shopping while she was having her Meals on Wheels lunch, but she suggested I do the shopping after, so I wouldn’t have to be at her place for too long.

This being my mother, it makes me wonder what she has planned for the morning that she doesn’t want me to know about.

So I’ll be there for early in the afternoon. The appointment might take an hour or so, since the home care coordinator will be reassessing my mother for the nursing home panel, too. I pray my mother finally gets approved! She has been wanting this for over a year now, and her mobility is getting a lot worse. At the very least, she needs to accept increased home care for things she’s been insisting on doing herself, when she shouldn’t be.

We’ll see how that works out.

By the time I’m done at my mother’s, I should be coming home to a new front door!

As for now, the rest of my day is pretty much toast. Aside from it being too wet to get anything done outside, my eyes are still aching from the dilation drops and blinding tests. If it wouldn’t mess me up entirely, I’d be going to bed right now, just so I could keep my eyes closed!

I also need to stop looking at a monitor. Ouch.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, eye tests, and oops! I missed one!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Gotta start out with the cuteness!

When I came out this morning, I found all four of the feral kittens in the grass around the catio area, like they were coming towards the house. The little orange one does come to the kibble tray under the water bowl shelter, and I’ve even seen it a bit closer to the sun room, but the others are much shier, so it’s great to see them inching closer.

The garage kittens, I notice, have been spending more of their time hanging out outside. Still right up against the garage, where there are things they can hide behind, but they seem to prefer being outside of the garage rather than inside it, now.

While doing my morning rounds I did my usual check of the garden beds. When I got to the potato bed, I spotted something strange. I guess a cat or something had been digging in the loose soil, and uncovered something I missed!

A single potato! A pretty big one, too! I don’t know how I missed that! 😄

Today I had my eye appointment booked. I was going to be getting the dilation drops, so my daughter came along to do the driving afterwards. Plans for after my appointment included possibly going to my brother’s to pick up her computer, that was supposed to be delivered today.

It wasn’t.

As I write this, and the tracking information still says it’s “in transit” and expected to be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm today.

It’s just past 10pm right now.

My daughter and I left early as I wanted to stop at a gas station before my appointment. I was going to go to one in the town my eye doctor is in, but when we got close to the gas station I saw it was mostly blocked off by the truck refilling their tanks.

So we kept on going and got to the eye clinic almost an hour early.

As we drove into the parking lot, though, we noticed a new ice cream store had opened in the same building. When I checked in, and was told that not only was I very early, but the doctor as behind and hadn’t even had her lunch yet, we decided to go for ice cream.

The place was so new, they weren’t finished setting up yet. The menu boards were dark and there was no seating inside, though they did have picnic tables outside. They did, however, have many varieties of ice cream for us to check out, and we got a couple of waffle cones. The tables outside were occupies, so we cross the street to a tiny park where we could sit on some large rocks in the shade. It was very pleasent.

By the time we got back, they took me in very quickly, for the initial photographs of my eyes they needed to take, first. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that the doctor is monitoring. I didn’t have to wait long before the doctor called me in. We started out by looking at the images, comparing back to when I first started seeing her, in 2023. There are slightly more of these tiny hemorrhages, but nothing has gotten worse, so we are still in “monitoring” mode.

Then she tested my vision. Much to my surprise, there is almost no change in my prescription. The tiny big of change in my left eye is so minor, there’s no reason to get new glasses.

Then it was time to dilate my eyes.

Those drops really burn!

After the drops were done, I was sent to the waiting room for a while to give my eyes time to dilate before being called back in. Then I got to get that bright light flashed into my eyes while she examined inside them. Of all the tests, that’s the one that bothers me the most. Not even the puff test bothers me much. I mentioned that and she told me that with some people, it’s the field of vision test that bothers them the most, while others have issues with the puff test. I told her about my mother and her macular degeneration, and how she got the eye injection. I told her, my mother handled them like a champ, but I honestly don’t think I could get that done! She asked me who the doctor at the special eye clinic in the city was that saw my mother. I told her, and she said she had heard very good things about him. She’s read some of his papers, and was quite impressed by them. I told her, he’s really excellent – and has a great “bedside manner”. He was always very sweet with my mother. I was happy to have a chance to share how good he was; if she ever found herself with a patient with newly developed eye issues beyond what she can do in her clinic, it’s that clinic in the city she’d be referring people to, and she would know that this particular doctor is highly recommended for more than his very impressive credentials.

Those tests done, the doctor wanted me to get one of the sets of pictures taken earlier done again, while my eyes were still dilated, since they’d be able to get more detail. After that, she wanted me to book another appointment for 6 months from not. That would put us in January, though. After talking about it, and our issues with travel in winter, which I try to avoid if I can, we decided that I will come back in October for a field of vision test – but no eye dilation! – and then come back for the dilation test again in 6 months after that. This way, my appointments will be spring and fall instead of summer and winter.

While at the counter, settling my bill (a whole $5.50, after the insurance coverage was deducted), there was a guy trying to book an appointment during a certain week. The other receptionist kept telling him they were going to be up north. Somehow, he understood that to mean they were fully booked, which they are – but the staff will all literally be up north. The receptionist I was with told me, she was the one who got them doing this. She mentioned having a lot of First Nations friends up north, and I completely understood. They just don’t have these sorts of clinics up there. They’d have to go south to the city. She said, that’s exactly it. It’s easier for a few staff at the eye clinic to be flown up north and see 200 patients, then to fly 200 patients to the city! And that’s just from one place. They now go up to visit 9 different northern communities throughout the year. It’s fantastic that they can do that!

By the time I was done, we’d heard from my brother that my daughter’s computer was not delivered. She and her sister had their own shopping list, though, which meant a Walmart trip. It would have been on the way home from my brother’s, but we went straight there, instead – after getting some gas, since the station was no longer blocked by a giant tanker truck! Since we were at the Walmart anyhow, I picked up a few little things as well, to tide us over until we do our first stock up shop, next week.

By the time we got home, it was past 5pm, and we were greeted by some very hungry kitties! My daughter took care of putting everything away, then making a heat-and-eat supper, while I quickly took care of the kitties.

The next two days are supposed to get really hot, so when things started cooling down this evening, I went out to give the garden a thorough watering. I plan to water twice a day, when it gets really hope. I am still holding out home that at last some things will start growing again, instead of just stagnating. It’s starting to look like all the red noodle beans are not only stagnating, but starting to die. I did spot one new sprout – a late germinating bean – and it’s all nice and green, like all the others were when they first sprouted. Now, they seem to be getting yellower, every day.

I wish I knew why. Even the extra seeds I had that got planted in the gaps among the peas that didn’t germinate, they’re looking yellow, so it’s not something specific to the beds. I’m at a total loss about it.

The winter squash, at least, seem to be recovering, though it’s unlikely there’s enough season left for them to develop fruit, even if they had an explosive growth spurt. The melons are just… not happening.

So furstrating!

I’m still tending them, just in case they recover. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of months.

Aside from all this, I have something good to share, and that’s how good I’ve been feeling. It’s only been a couple of days on the anti-inflammatories, and I can’t believe how pain free I’ve been. I haven’t even been taking the max dose I can “take as needed”. In fact, I even reduced how many capsules I cat at a time; I can take 2 capsules up to 3 times a day. I’ve taken 2 capsules, twice a day. This evening, I took just one. We’ll see how I feel overnight before I decide if I’ll take 1 or 2 in the morning.

I still have various pains, but the last couple of days have been the closest to being completely pain free as I can remember being in a very long time. Particularly when it comes to how much my body stiffens up if I’ve been sitting for a while, such as while driving, or sitting at my computer. I’m just blown away by how much difference I’m feeling, in such a short time!

Things are now winding down and I’ll be heading to bed soon. It should be interesting to see if half the dose will still be enough for me to be able to sleep without various joints keeping me awake with pain during the night.

I am so happy I thought to ask about trying the anti-inflammatories! What a difference they are making!

The Re-Farmer

Finally home, and waiting for word…

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Oy, what a day this turned out to be!

First up, my daughter and I left quite early for her appointment, and I’m glad we did!

The outside cats seemed quite confused that they were getting fed while it was still dark out.

While we were not supposed to get more snow in our area, today, we were expected to get high winds, and we sure had that! Since we did get some light snow yesterday and overnight, that meant a lot of blowing snow reducing visibility on top of being buffeted on the highway. I had considered stopping at the gas station at my mother’s town along the way, just to grab some sort of road snack since I hadn’t had breakfast yet, but I skipped that. The clinic we were going to has a grocery store right next to it, and I figured I could wait!

We got there maybe 20 minutes early. I headed to the grocery store while my daughter went to the clinic, only to discover the doors were locked. So we both waited in the truck while I ate my sandwich until we saw the doors open 15 minutes before her appointment. Once she got called in, things went rather quickly. She had another round of bloodwork to do after that appointment, so I went to the truck while she got that done.

Which is when the messages started coming in.

My older daughter was letting me know to call my mother back… then to call home care. She couldn’t quite make much out of the message that had been left, but was eventually able to tell me that home care was still with my mother.

So I called my mother and the health care aid answered.

The first thing she told me was that she had just managed to get through to my sister. Which is good. I’m the first person to call, since I’m the closest. Then my sister, then my brother, who still lives the furthest away. My sister had said she would be coming to see my mother.

My mother was complaining of chest pains (again), shortness of breath (again) and clamminess.

The clamminess was a new one.

The health care aid was offering to call an ambulance, but my mother was refusing.

Her chest pains were most likely the usual heartburn, and the shortness of breath has become a regular complaint. From what I can observe, the previous doctors suggestion that it is conditioning is most likely correct. My mother is 93, had busted up knees and is getting out of shape with age, but she doesn’t know how to slow down. I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with her once she gets going with her walker. Then she gets out of breath and can’t understand why.

The clamminess, though… I don’t know what to make of that.

As we were talking, my sister tried to call. I dismissed that call, finished up with the health care aid, then phoned my sister while the health care aid was going to call home care next.

In talking to my sister, I told her where we were and why. She started saying they hadn’t have breakfast yet, but if I were in the area, maybe I could check on Mom instead.

…

I told her again, why we were where we were (which is NOT “in the area”). We were going to be in this town for most of the day. My sister wasn’t happy to hear that, but said she would go to Mom’s after they had breakfast.

I don’t know how long it was going to be before she was on the road, but by the time I was done with the phone calls, the weather had gotten worse. It would not be a fun drive, though I don’t know of the worsened weather reached as far as where she lives. Her route wouldn’t take her through this town, anyhow, so it’s possible she wouldn’t see the bad weather at all. Other than the high winds. Those never died down at all today. Even now, as I write this, I can see the trees swaying out my window.

That call done, I messaged my brother to keep him in the loop. Then my daughter and I went to get an actual breakfast. Not much was open that early in the morning, so we ended up going to a Tim Hortons.

We had some time between appointments, so I took advantage of it and went to a branch of my bank with some questions I had. The postal strike is causing some issues, and I needed to clear some things up. From there, we went to a Red Apple, where my daughter was able to get some clothing necessities, and I snagged a high density foam mat to keep in the truck. If we need to climb into the truck box with the tailgate open, it’s something we can lay down to protect our knees. Or, if we have a situation like when my brother wanted to lie on the ground to look under the truck, it can be a nicely insulated, clean surface to lie on.

After taking our time there, we then went to a Home Hardware that was kitty corner from the eye clinic. While there, I picked up a new sump pump hose. Not for our sump pump, though, but for our washing machine drain. We’re still running the hose out the front door, and the current one has started to leak.

At some point, we need to use that drain auger on the pipes, but I’m not going to do it until I am sure we can seal it up again without leaking. My brother keeps telling me how easy it is, but I honestly can’t even see how to open the thing. We also don’t have the sealant needed for when it gets closed up again. It’s also in a very awkward space, plus it’s directly above the sump pump reservoir. Just getting the auger close enough to use it is going to be difficult.

I really hate the plumbing in this place. 😄😄

Anyhow.

It was shortly past noon when we finished at the hardware store, so we popped across to the eye clinic and I checked in.

Thankfully, they were not busy.

I first got called in for the eye images, then the puff test. Then the tech checked to see if the field of vision machine was ready. It was, so she was able to take me straight over for that.

The field of vision test takes about five minutes per eye. Once that was done, the data was sent for the eye doctor to look at, and she would call me in when she was done. When I sat down with my daughter in the waiting room, I checked my phone and it had just turned 1pm – a full hour before my appointment!

Then my phone rang. 😄

It was my brother, calling me in between meetings, about Mom. We spoke for a short time, but there really wasn’t anything to say. Our sister had not sent any messages to update us.

It wasn’t too much longer before the eye doctor called me in. After looking at the images and comparing them from the last two, each 6 months apart, there was very little change. She took a direct look as well, and it was decided to not do the eye dilation tests this time. We would do it next time.

I mentioned to her that we were going to try and not book appointments in the winter, due to transportation and road condition concerns. The next appointment would have been in June, but she was okay if we changed it to July or August.

So that’s what I did. For the next appointment, I’m booked in the second half of July. If she wants me to do another “6 month” test, I would book it for March or April, slowly shifting the appointments to spring and fall instead of summer and winter.

Since we didn’t need to do the eye dilation test, I got to drive us home. My daughter’s dizzy spells have improved, but not gone away completely yet, so me driving was better, anyhow.

Since we were in town, we then made a short stop at a grocery store. I won’t be able to do our Costco shop until Friday at the earliest, so there were a few fresh things that we needed to get. We also picked up some road food for the trip home.

By this time, conditions had improved considerably. It was still very windy and the truck was being buffeted, but we also had bright sunshine. There was only one area that got dicey. The windward side in that area was all open fields and so much snow was being blown across, driving into it was like driving into a fog bank! At one point, as I checked my rear view mirror, the car behind me looked like it was driving on a cloud. No sign of the road or ditches at all! Just blowing snow.

Thankfully, the further north we go, the more trees there are to block the blowing snow.

We were both very glad to be home, that’s for sure!

Once everything was brought in, it was getting late enough that I left my daughter to put most of the stuff away while I went to feed the outside cats and top up their warm water before it got dark. I wanted to make sure they all had a chance to finish the food off before night time. It’s the only way we can get the outside cats that are going to be spayed tomorrow to fast.

I need to be on the road by 7am with the cats tomorrow, giving myself extra time for bad road conditions, for the 8am drop off. We’ll still be at our overnight low of -18C/0F at that time, based on the current forecast. It’s supposed to be slightly colder tomorrow, but without the high winds, so that will make a huge difference.

After the cats get dropped off at the vet, I’ll be hanging around the area until they call me to pick them up. So I will be gone all morning, at the very least. Last time, I was able to nap in the truck, but it’ll probably be too cold to do that, this time!

Oh, I just got word from my sister. By the time she got to my mother’s, she was feeling fine. No longer clammy. There’s a cold going through her building that she might be catching, so she got my mother some vitamin D, echinacea and immunity boosting tea.

Hopefully, that will do it.

I still plan to phone my mother, right after I finish posting this!

Then we need to get some carriers ready for the cats tomorrow. We won’t have any problem getting Kohl, as she’s become nice and social. The adult females may be another story. If we can’t get them, we should at least be able to snag Magda, who is also very social, but it would be much better if we could manage to get one of the adults! I’m not even sure Magda is 2 pounds yet, but she should be close.

We shall see.

Once the carriers are prepped, it’s going to be an early bedtime for me!

Time to go phone my mother now…

The Re-Farmer

What a long day!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s not even 8:30pm as I start this, but it feels so much later – and not just because the days are shorter and it’s full dark outside!

Today was my mother’s appointment with the eye specialist in the city, but there were things I needed to do before getting to her place.

Which meant, of course, I got almost zero sleep last night. It seems the more I need to actually get sleep before scheduled activities, the harder it is for me to actually fall asleep!

Meanwhile, my daughters took care of all my usual outdoor routines today, which was a huge help.

The first thing I had to do that had me leaving quite a bit earlier than I would have needed to get to my mother’s, was to stop at the home care office. They needed a couple of signatures from me related to the hospital bed they provide for my husband. I also had a copy of the Power of Attorney paperwork for my brother that they needed in order to process my mother’s file for long term care. This was the last thing they needed as far as the paperwork goes. I spoke to the coordinator for a while. He had already talked to the next coordinator about long term care placement. Physically, my mother would only qualify for supportive living, which would be great for her, but behaviorally, they would not be able to provide her the support she needs. Her racism certainly would make it more difficult, too – the home care aids have already reported some unfortunate things my mother has said. Since they were there for only a few minutes, to help her take her medications, there isn’t a lot of time for her to really get bad with any of them. They do have instructions, though, on how to deflect and, if necessary, simply get out of the situation if it’s particularly bad.

As for the care facilities, her paperwork will first go to the supportive living coordinator, where it will be rejected. Then it will go to the long term care coordinator, who is already aware of my mother’s circumstances, and a decision will be made. If she does qualify for long term care, though, this will get her on a waiting list, unless something happens that puts her under urgent placement. Like if she fell and broke a hip, she would go straight from the hospital into long term care.

Or if she got herself evicted, though that’s a grey area.

We spoke about the meal assist, too. We’ll be trying it out at every two weeks, first. They have only 2 hours to do the meal preparation. We would have to make sure they have all the ingredients, any recipes needed, and containers for the meals to go into the fridge or freezer.

After finishing at the office, I was going to pick up fried chicken and potato wedges at our favorite place – the gas station! 😄 It was too early for their chicken to be ready, though, so I stopped at the grocery store to get drinks. There weren’t any that my mother would be willing to drink, so I went to the gas station and just parked until I was sure their first batches of chicken would be ready. I actually found appropriate drinks there, too!

I also made sure to pick up a couple of 5 Hour Energy bottles, and drank one of them right away.

My mother was very happy when I arrived with the food! She keeps saying, she shouldn’t eat fried chicken, because she has made associations with it and various physical complaints, but she really loves their fried chicken was wedges!

We had enough time that we could have a nice, relaxed lunch, and I could tell her about how things went at the home care office. We talked about her bubble packs, and how she needs to not take anything except when the home care aides come in. She told me how, this morning, the aide took the prescriptions out of the blister and set them in front of her in a pile, but when my mother spread them out and counted them, one was missing! The aide, on hearing that, said that she would need to make a report, but my mom knew it had been in the blister. After looking around, they did find it. It may have just stuck to her hand or the packaging as she got it out for my mother.

I told my mother that when I take my supplements, etc. I have a small bowl I put them into first, then take them all at once from the bowl. She liked that idea, so I went digging around her cupboards and found the smallest bowl she had – an absolutely delightful vintage glass dessert bowl with three handles and a pattern of grape clusters and leaves. I’m totally in love with it!

It’s still pretty big for the job, though, so when I told her I collect tiny bowls and how handy they are, she asked if I could bring her one.

I now have a mini tagine wrapped up and in my purse to bring to her. I think she’ll find it adorable!

We talked about the meal assist, and she’s not happy with it, and says that she can do meals on wheels. They deliver 5 days a week. It’s certainly an option, if this doesn’t work out, but we’ll try meal assist first.

We started to talk about the exterminator coming to her place tomorrow, and that I would be there early to try and move as many things away from the walls as can be done. She started to get very angry about it again. She’s convinced they have singled her out for abuse, and that they just want to go through her stuff and steal things. Frankly, I no longer have patience for her behaviour on this. She is very much at risk of getting evicted, and she doesn’t take it seriously. This has all dragged on far longer than it should have, because she would not let them do their jobs. So many people are bending over backwards to try and help her, and she just refuses to accept that she might be the one that’s causing the problem, not everyone else.

I was able to redirect that conversation more than a few times today!

When we left, we had what turned out to be a very easy and uneventful drive. The location of this clinic may be on the opposite end of the city from us, but it is very easy to get to from my mother’s town. The only unfortunate thing about the drive was that I was feeling myself start to fall asleep. I’m glad I got two of those 5 Hour Energy things. My mother even helped open the bottle for me while I was driving!

Once there, I got her checked in and then we sat in the waiting room. We were early, so I told her I was going to close my eyes for a bit.

I think I actually fell asleep for a bit!

Whether I did nor didn’t, by the time my mother’s name was called, I felt so much better.

The first stage of her appointment was for an assistant to ask various questions, check her current medications list, and try to get an idea of just how long my mother has been having issues. It was not easy. My mother’s sense of time has gotten pretty bad, but for all her complaints about her vision, she insisted the problem was her glasses, and didn’t even realize that her right eye was going blind!

He did a quick eye test with her, with the left eye covered, then again with the right eye covered. Her left eye can still see pretty darn good. With her right eye, she couldn’t even see a single large letter C. All she could tell was that there was a roundish shape. She also had some issues when he held up different numbers of fingers at different distances. Sometimes she got it right, sometimes not. At one point, she couldn’t even see him waving his hand back and forth in front of her right eye.

Next, he took her to a machine to take photos and video of the inside of her eye.

It was not easy.

The typical instruction is “focus on the green X in the middle.” To which my mother would say, “there is no X.”

After that went back and forth a bit, I told her to just look straight ahead. He went with that for the rest of the testing on that eye.

The assistant was so very sweet and awesome. He treated her so nicely, with such a gentle mannerism. I found myself wanting to give him a great big hug! 😄

It took quite a while to get the images he needed. It’s hard enough to stare straight ahead and not blink for several seconds at the best of times. It’s even harder for my mother, who had nothing she could focus on.

That done, it was back to an examination room, and for the doctor to see her.

It turns out her eye is really bad, and he was pretty alarmed about it. She’s had blood pooling in her eye for quite some time, but we just can’t get a handle on when she started to have problems. The only thing I could confirm is that I took my mother for her regular eye exam in February, and there was nothing of concern at the time. I was there and saw the photos of my mother’s eye. This damage was not there.

The doctor spent quite a bit of time explaining things to her and making sure she understood what was going on, as best she could, and to ensure she was able to give informed consent for the treatment.

She had to get drops to dilate her pupils, antibacterial drops, a needle to freeze the eye, and finally the needle for her first treatment.

All of which my mother put up with extremely well. When he was telling her what had to be done and made sure to get her verbal and written consent, her response was simply, “do what you have to do.”

Personally, I think I’d rather go blind than have injections directly into my eyeball!

She was pretty amazing about it.

Along with all that, he took the time to give me information booklets, a grid test for her left eye that she’s supposed to do daily, and a bottle of artificial tears. He really stressed with my mother, how important it is to NOT rub her eyes, touch them in any way, or even touch her face near that right eye. If her eye starts to itch, she is to take an eye drop.

If she starts to feel severe pain, though, she is to immediately return to the clinic to see him or, if it’s the weekend, to a nearby hospital that has a specialty in eye care.

When we finished and I was getting her next appointment in 4 weeks, and helping her pay for some of the tests not covered by our system, my mother just sat on her walker seat with her eyes closed, because she couldn’t really see. Once everything was taken care of and she was in the truck, I gave her my husband’s driving glasses – sunglasses designed to fit over regular glasses.

She really, really loved how much that helped!

Also, she looked adorable in camo print driving glasses. 😄

By this time, I was getting really hungry, and I figured my mother would be, too. When she started talking about getting me to heat up a can of soup for her supper when we got to her place, I was not about to leave it that way! I wanted to get gas in the city, where it’s a lot cheaper right now, and the gas station I stopped at had a Burger King attached to it. I ended up getting chicken fry meals for both of us, as that was something easy to eat while driving.

My mother said that the food could wait until we got to her place but I told her, when I get hungry, I start to become dizzy and ill, so I needed to eat. I set my food out on the console, and hers stayed in the bag.

As we were driving, I saw in my peripheral vision, as she reached out to take a fry!

“Temptation!” she said. 😄😄

I told her she could help herself! She had only a few, though.

Once we got to her place, though, I brought the food out for her to have right away. The home care worker would have come and gone while we were out, so I made sure she had her supper time pills with food.

She was quite happy with this.

She still wanted me to open up a can of soup for her, though, for later.

I took the time to explain some of what we brought home from the clinic, but only briefly. I’ll be back tomorrow and I will stay with her for the 6 hours she has to stay out of her apartment, if that’s what it takes! That will give us plenty of time to sit down with the information and I can explain things to her in ways she could understand.

When we first got to my mother’s place, though, I did a quick check on my messages and found my daughter had sent me photos.

It was very windy today.

We lost a tree.

When I got home, I just had to check it out and get some photos of my own, too.

That is one of the big trees!

In the second photo of the slide show above, I just had to get a picture of how perfectly it fell in between to other trees, without getting caught on them!

The crab apple tree in the third photo was not so fortunate.

The spruce landed right in the middle, breaking off about a third of it.

Well, this is one of the sick trees we were needing to remove, anyhow!

We should be able to use the trunk of that spruce, though. This is one of trees too big to use as a raised garden bed. We should be able to take the bottom, widest, 10 ft and set it aside for the outdoor kitchen we will be building. Part of the trunk is cracked, though, so I’m not sure we we’ll get a full 10 feet that isn’t damaged, or what we can salvage from the rest of it.

We shall see. It’s way too windy to even consider breaking it down and cleaning it up.

Once again, it will be up to my daughters to take care of the outside stuff, as I will be with my mother tomorrow.

I’m not sure what we can do for such a long time. There aren’t places to just hang out in her town, and I don’t think she’d be up to any outings. Plus, we want to go over the information the doctor gave her. We could stay in the common room of her building, but it might not be easy to have a private conversation in such a public space.

Well, we’ll figure it out!

Until then, I need to get myself to bed and, hopefully, get a solid night’s sleep this time!

On that note…

Have a good night, my friends!

The Re-Farmer

Still there, and thinking warm thoughts

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, it stayed cold enough that the snow we got is still there – with a bit more. We might get more flurries later today, and then the wind is supposed to pick up.

It’ll all be gone by tomorrow.

I counted 33 yard cats this morning – but I didn’t see Sad Face anywhere! Which means there’s another new one in the bunch.

I plugged the heat lamp in the sun room back in. They had really enjoyed the warmer temperatures and only a few continued to hang out in the sun room, but now that the temperatures have dropped again and the snow is back, every time I look out the bathroom window, there’s a crowd. Several crowds, actually, on and under the platform.

They will not be happy when they loose their platform so I can set up for my plants. 😁

Breakfast in the snow!

I got a good shot of the cat with the damaged eye. The hematoma doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller, that I can tell, but he seems to have no vision issues. He’s certainly more lively and active now, after having spent several days being quite lethargic and shivering in the sun room. I’m glad he sought out the warmth and shelter when he was feeling sick. Now that he’s improving, the down side is, he’s no longer letting me touch him. I managed to sneak pet his back while I was petting Driver (on the far right of the photo), but he quickly moved away. He is less skittish then he used to be, at least. The cats were all very hungry this morning, so I let him be rather than interrupt his breakfast.

With the chill and snow out there, I wanted to share something more spring like, so here is a video from MI Gardener to enjoy.

Some of these “hacks” are things I’ve already been doing, or trying to do. The first one is to have hose guards on his raised bed corners. That’s something I’ve appreciated about the higher raised beds, as the beds themselves are the hose guards. The only problem is that I typically have several hoses joined together, and the couplings tend to get caught on things. I’ve seen people use curtain rods they picked up at thrift stores; the round kind, where one half slides over the other to adjust the width. Setting them so the outside half is on the top allows it to rotate as the hose is pulled around it, which keeps things from getting stuck.

In the comments under the video, someone described how they’ve put permanent hose guards in their beds, made from small fence posts – then topped them with tennis balls for safety, so their grand kids are less likely to hurt themselves on them. What a great idea!

Using a board across the beds is something else I do, though I don’t have the knees to get right on one and squat to reach the soil! Mostly, I use them to lean against and support myself with one hand, while using the other to do what I need to do. Handily, we’ve got quite a bit of scrap boards that can be used for that, though they tend to be pretty rotten and damaged, and I’ve had more than a few of them crack and break up!

I’ll have to remember the “using the pot to make a transplant hole the right size”, tip.

With the carrots, I’ve used scrap boards to cover the seeds until they germinate. Only because I tend to have plenty of those, but not cardboard! What’s fun is to move them aside to check for germination – and finding frogs sheltering under them! Slug eating frogs must always be encouraged. 😁

I like his pretty dibbler tool. Since mobility is an issue for me, I tend to use something longer. Some days, I’ve used 4′ long support stakes as dibblers. Those are handy to mark out shallow trenches for smaller seeds, too. If I need larger holes to plant in, we’ve got lots of sticks or tree branches that will do!

Another commenter mentioned a tip I’ve heard of before that I definitely want to try, for the low raised beds. Get a piece of PVC pipe and use it to drop seeds in place. That would solve both mobility/pain issues, and short-people-like-me reach issues!

Just a side note, when it comes to reach; the lower the bed, the harder the reach. So for a low raised bed, accessible from both sides, like what he has, I’d recommend going no more than 3′ wide, but with a high raised bed, 4′ wide works just fine.

I’m really looking forward to winter finally being done with us!

The Re-Farmer

Shifting plans

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

This morning, my husband had if first eye appointment in many years.

He also took an appointment time just 15 minutes after they opened. I normally book for the afternoons, because of travel time and… well… I’m just not a morning person!

We left early, in case road conditions were still slippery. They were not, so we got there half an hour before they opened. Which neither of us minded. It was a painful drive for my husband, so sitting in comfortable seat while it wasn’t moving was a good thing for him! He also decided to leave the walker at home, since he only intended to walk from truck to door and back again. We were planning to swing by a grocery store afterwards, but he was intending to stay in the truck while I picked things up.

He ended up getting the dilation test as well, which meant spending some time in the waiting area while the drops did their work, then back to finish the testing. By the time he had everything done, and they processed the direct billing on his insurance, with our provincial health care covering any diabetic testing 100%, the final bill was a whole $5! Which was less than my first tests! They also said he could come back in a year, instead of 6 months, with me. It seems I have more damage to my eyes to monitor than he does.

He did not get glasses, though.

He talked to the eye doctor about various options, including contact lenses, which he’s interested in trying again. Personally, I’m not a fan of using something you have to buy over and over, anywhere from every few weeks to every 6 months. Not when a pair of glasses can last many years. To get glasses, though, is going to be a large initial outlay. Aside from needing things like prisms, he needs some of the more extreme concave prescription lenses. The super thick ones would be cheaper, but heavier. They can do thinner ones, but that jumps the cost significantly. The woman helping us (she also helped my mother, and was fabulous with her) has extreme lenses in the opposite direction – hers are convex rather than concave. She also gets the thinnest possible lenses to reduce the weight, plus photo-sensitivity and so on. Her lenses alone cost her $1100. When lenses are that extreme, the types of frames that will hold them becomes more limited, and at that level, start at around $200-$300.

Which we don’t have.

Since he needs to talk to them some more about his options, we’ll come back another time to talk about contact lens options. They can then order some testers for him, and he can see how that goes.

When we were done, he wanted to grab something to eat, but nothing was open yet. We ended up driving to my mother’s town, but the place we wanted to go to, there, wasn’t open yet, either! It was finally past 11am, though, so there was one fried chicken place I knew for sure was open.

It wasn’t until we were driving to the highway to do that, when my husband remembered we were supposed to hit the grocery store. I wasn’t about to turn around, though. Instead, I decided that, after we ate, I’d drop my husband off at home, then go to the town nearest us. One of the things on my list was a pharmacy item, anyhow, and if I was going to the pharmacy there, I could get prescription refills, too.

Once settled in the restaurant, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to order. I have given up sugar and simply carbs again for Lent, and the meals all included carb heavy sides. I asked and found that I could order just chicken or just shrimp, with no sides. They still had a bread crumb coating, but for the amount on them, it was not really an issue. So I ordered a some fried shrimp while my husband got fries and chicken – it was the fries he was really craving!

During all this time, of course, his eyes were quite uncomfortable, and he was wearing his sunglasses over his regular glasses – we have several pairs of sunglasses designed to fit over regular glasses! When he asked me to check his eyes, I just had to take a picture, so he could see for himself!

This is about an hour after getting the drops! 😂 He was quite happy to put the sunglasses back on while he ate!

Also, my husband has the most gorgeous eyes. *melt*

That done, we headed home, I dropped him off then left immediately for town. After getting a few groceries – a bit more than intended, as there were some really good sales on – I went to the pharmacy. We actually had his bubble packs delivered yesterday, but he forgot to call them back to add on his insulin. While getting that done, I asked what the status of his Ozempic was, more because they have had such a hard time getting it in the dose he needs, since it became so popular as a weight loss drug. I’m glad I asked about it, as it turned out his prescription renewal had run out. So the pharmacy sent a fax to his new doctor and, once they get the new prescription, they’ll have his refill delivered next week. Then there was my one prescription. I still have almost half a month at home, but since I was there, I figured I’d take care of it, too. I was able to refill it, but that was the last of my refills on file, so they sent a fax to my interim doctor, who is also now my mother’s new doctor. So in the end, it’s a good thing we forgot to go to the grocery store after the eye appointment!

By the time all the running around was done, it was far later than I expected to be home! In fact, in a few minutes, I’ll get heading out to feed the yard cats so they can finish eating before it gets dark and the raccoons come out.

I am really appreciating the longer days, that’s for sure.

I’ve made sure to tell my husband, though; the next time he makes an appointment, book it for the afternoon, if at all possible! 😂🤣

The Re-Farmer

Long day

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I managed to get a few things done before I had to head out to my mother’s. This is what I was greeted with, when I started getting the kibble for the outside cats.

This kitten has moved right into the shelter area! He runs away from me, but waits until I’m fairly close before he does. For example, I was able to walk past him while he was on this rail, and all he did was tuck himself further under the rose bush.

After feeding the cats and doing my morning rounds, I got out the extended pole pruner and cut away some of the problem branches from Chinese elms near the chain link fence. We’ve been pruning them back pretty much every year since we’ve moved here, but the branches grow back very quickly. Pruning one tree now allows for more light to reach where the peas are planted, but the branch that’s casting the most shade is too high for the pruner, even at maximum height. I dragged off the one branch I did get down, to add it to the pile by the fire pit. I really should have broken it down to smaller pieces, first! Elm is a very heavy wood, and once it was on the ground, I realized the branch was quite a bit bigger than I thought.

I also worked on the elm near the vehicle gate into the inner yard, next to the asparagus patch. This is another tree we’ve cut back before, but when the septic truck came out, it was hitting branches again! I got a couple of the problem branches down but started running out of time, so I just broke them down quickly with the mini-chainsaw pruner and piled them for the girls to haul away later. Some of the branches that need to be taken down will probably have to wait until fall, as they would end up falling right on the asparagus and strawberries. If I wait until they are mulched for the winter, they will protected enough.

Then it was time to change and head out to get some gas, then pick up my mother. We then drove to the next major town, about half way to the city from her place, for her eye appointment. I wanted to get her there early, since she was a first time patient. I explained to her that they would need her health care card and do the “paperwork” to get her into their system, and that they would need to take her glasses to measure her current prescription and do some pre-tests. When we got there, though, she actually seemed surprised when they actually did all the things I explained to her. It was as if she didn’t believe me or something! The timing worked out just right, though; all the pre-stuff was done just before her appointment time, and the eye doctor called her in, right on schedule!

There were a few tests she did with my mother that she didn’t do with me when I had my appointment, like checking my mother’s peripheral vision. My mother will have a fairly minor change in her prescription. She mentioned having headaches, mostly when reading, so we hope the change will make those go away. If the headaches turn out to be caused by something else, she’ll at least be seeing better!

Then the doctor went over the photos taken of the inside of my mother’s eyes. She is showing early signs of macular degeneration, but it is still dry, so there is no treatment for it. She was given a booklet about a specific multivitamin that can help slow down further degradation, that also has a grid eye test on the back page. The doctor got her to use it as instructed, looking at a center dot with one eye covered, and what to look for. It turns out that, with one of her eyes, the grid lines look wavy. For now, the thing to watch out for is if it starts to get worse and, if it does, to get back to her right away.

The one odd thing was when she asked if we had any other questions, and my mother started asking about why an eye might turn all red. The doctor said there could be many reasons and, as my mother continued, I realized she was talking about what that happened to her, four or five years ago. After having a sneezing or coughing fit (I can’t remember which, right now), she popped a blood vessel in her eye. I drove her to the hospital in this town every day for a week, so she could get a blood thinning injection, to help it heal faster. And it did.

Turns out, she either doesn’t remember why it happened, or doesn’t believe that her sneezing/coughing fit actually caused it, anymore. It looks like she’s rewriting her memory about it, too. When I realized what she was talking about and mentioned driving her to the hospital for the injection daily like that, she gave me this death glare for saying something. *sigh*

But, the appointment went well, and she got her prescription. She had brought up with me earlier about the possibility of going to Walmart to get her glasses, because one of the people in her building suggested it. I told her that she could probably get cheaper glasses there, but recommended getting them here, because she’d get better care. After her appointment, when she was told she could look at frames to get her new glasses if she wanted, she started hemming and hawing. I again recommended doing it right away here, if only to get it over and done with, and she sort of agrees. But first, I took her to the counter to pay for the appointment. That confused her and, for some reason, she thought they wanted her health care card again. She had the money for the payment already set aside in an envelope in her purse. She was told she could pay for it together with her new glasses, but that confused her even more, so I told them to just process the payment for the appointment on its own.

With her knees being an issue, my mother wasn’t up to wandering around to look at frames, so one of the staff asked her some questions, then went looking for frames that were sort of like what my mother already had. She ended up bringing two metal and two plastic frames. One of the metal frames were a bright red that matched the shirt my mother happened to be wearing, but my mother would not consider such a bright colour! What was funny about that is that the frames she did choose were a plastic pair with blues, browns and greys, and very trendy! 😄 They look good on her, though, and she liked them, so that’s all that mattered – though I know my mother well enough that she chose them more because she was overwhelmed by having to choose at all.

Then they started asking her about what coatings she wanted, and that was almost more than she could handle. She basically told the woman that was helping her at this point to just give her good glasses, and that she would trust her! 😄 They checked her current glasses and basically matched what she already had.

As we were talking, my mother kept asking questions about the chain and how long they were here, etc. They didn’t quite understand what she meant at first, and told her about other franchise locations, but she was really trying to ask if they’d been located anywhere else. She was still convinced that there was only one eye clinic in this town. They told her there was another one, and where it was located, so she figures that’s what she was remembering. I don’t know when she was last taken to this town to get her eyes tested, but considering she says she was taken to it by her niece, it had to have been well over 10 years ago!

I’m amused that it took them telling her there was another eye clinic for her to finally believe it. We even drove past it later one.

The main thing is, her glasses are ordered. They’ll call me when they are in, and I’ll bring my mother in to pick them up.

That done, even though she was clearly tired, my mother wasn’t ready to go home. So we ended up going to a chicken place for a late lunch/early supper. This is a place she normally goes to in this town, but I don’t know that she’ll be willing to go back again, even though the food was excellent, and so was the service. There seems to have been a change in ownership since we were last there, the the people running it are *gasp* not white. We heard another customer talking to the guy that seated us (well; my mother ignored him and walked right to the table she wanted, so… tried to seat us) and he said he was from Pakistan, so when the waitress came by towards the end of the meal, my started asking her where she was from and how long she’s been in Canada…

She was born here. Second generation Canadian, it turned out.

Thankfully, my mother behaved, and didn’t make any rude comments.

Oh, that reminds me. During conversation, she brought up not going back to the Chinese restaurant that’s right next to her building. Why? Because she’s been seeing so many strange cats lately. *sigh* I think one of the people in her building told her this, but when I asked, my mother said there was something in the news about a Chinese restaurant in the city, where they were caught serving cat meat. The problem is, she could have seen something about this years ago, and who knows in what context it was in. Now, very suddenly, she has decided that because she once saw a strange cat in the field outside her window, it means the Chinese restaurant next to her place is using cat meat…

*sigh*

Anyhow…

When it came time to take care of the bill, I made sure to pay it, because my mother doesn’t believe in tips. Before we left, though, she took the receipt from me. When I got her home and she looked at it, she was really shocked by the amount. I told her that included the tip, and she was all “why did you give a tip? She just did her job. She should be happy to have a job…” The usual.

I told her, I tipped her because she gave us really good service. I know the tipping expectation has gotten pretty extreme these days, but some people will always get tips from me. Wait staff is one of them (especially if my mother’s behaviour has been particularly bad!). Our septic guy is another. 😄

By the time I got my mother home and was getting ready to head home myself, I realized I’d been out for 6 hours already. Almost 5 1/2 of those were with my mother. No wonder I was feeling so tired!

One the way home, though, I swung by the post office. I wasn’t expecting anything, but I did want to see if the tomatoes and peppers were gone. The peppers were all gone, as well all the Black Beauty tomatoes, but there were still a few Spoon and Romas left. I hope someone will take them, but if they’re still there the next time I check, I’ll take them back and try to find someplace to plant them!

Once at home, I went straight back out again to do my evening routine with, today, included giving the Korean Pine in the outer yard a deep watering.

I was watched the entire time by cows. 🐮🐮🐮🐮

I thought I had been hearing them for the past couple of days! I love it when the renter’s cows are here!

I was planning to go to bed early tonight, and get and early start working outside, but it’s already 9pm as I finish writing this, and I still need to update my siblings about how things went with my mother!

Then, it’s bed time. Hopefully, I’ll actually fall asleep instead of suddenly becoming wide awake once my head hits the pillow! 😄😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Blinded

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I wasn’t able to get more work done in the garden this morning, though my daughter was able to water the newest transplants for me. We were still getting thunderstorm warnings, and hoped to at least get some rain while I was out.

My younger daughter and I headed out early for my eye appointment. It was my first appointment in this province, never mind the eye clinic, so I wanted time for the initial paperwork. Even with a stop along the way, we got there about 45 minutes early, which I’m quite alright with.

Before the main appointment, the staff took care of things like reading the prescription from my current glasses (which are not my newest glasses), and I had to warn them that the arms don’t close, just in case! Then I was taken in for some pre-tests, including the puff test and getting photos of the inside of my eyes. Then I had a while to wait until my actual appointment.

Once I got in, the optometrist asked me if my appointment had actually been at 1, not 2. I assured her that it was at 2; I was just really, really early. She was relieved! Seeing me come in so early, she thought there might have been a mistake in times made.

The appointment took quite a while. One difficult thing was trying to give some sort of accurate time from of when I last had my eyes checked (I think it was 8 years ago, give or take), or how old my glasses ere (more than 10 years. Maybe 15?) and why I was wearing those instead of my newer ones.

My prescription ended up changing exactly as I expected it to; my distance vision has improved, but my near vision has gotten worse. It’s going to be a pretty major change, so she warned me that once I have my new prescription, it’ll take as much as 2 weeks to get used to them, and that my depth perception might be quite off.

As we talked about the different tests, I mentioned that I brought another driver, just in case it was necessary. Once she found that out, she asked if I were up to getting the dilation drops for the last test. If I had not had someone to drive me, she would have tried to to the test without the drops. It can take a long time for the eyes to recover, and driving would not be safe.

Since it takes about 15 minutes for the drops to do their job, I sat in the waiting room for a while, as she saw other patients before getting back to me. The test itself wasn’t too bad, but I sure was glad to have my daughter to do the driving!

When it came time to pay, they couldn’t find my husband’s account with the insurance company. We’ve had this problem before, with our pharmacy, as they changed things up a few times over the years. The account number hasn’t changed, but where the clinic is supposed to look to find it has. The cost was only $45 (it was partially covered by our province’s health care system), so I just paid it and got the receipt for my husband to submit for reimbursement, which he was able to do right away, by email. I also got a printout of my prescription. As much as I would have liked to buy new glasses there, I was looking at the cost of frames while my daughter had her appointment, and it was hard to find any that didn’t use up at least half of the amount our insurance will cover. Most cost more than our coverage. Heck, my lenses alone would probably cost more than the coverage. The amount covered (once every two years) has only gone up about $40 or $50 since the last time I got glasses.

After paying the bill, I was feeling well enough for us to make a quick run at a nearby grocery store, though I had to get my daughter to read labels for me. Mind you, I have to do that anyway, but usually just for the small print! 😄 Once I got home, I started looking at the Zenni website. While setting up a new account, I got my daughter to help take a picture of my face without glasses, then measure the distance between my pupils.

I probably should have washed the sweat off first. My face is SO shiny in the pictures, but who cares?

Then I uploaded the pictures and took a good look at them, to choose which one would be best for “trying on” glasses.

This was several hours after I got the dilation drops.

No wonder they are feeling so strained! Wow!

Anyhow, I got all set up, then started looking at frames. I got feed back from the family on which ones they thought looked best on my picture, because I’m terrible at judging such things. Then I had to do it again, because it turned out most of the ones I liked the best didn’t come in the size I need. I had assumed the different frames could come in their ranges from XS to XL, but it turns out that each style came in one size.

Ultimately, though, I was able to afford two pairs. Both metal frames. I haven’t done plastic frames since I was in junior high. They kept breaking in half. I figure modern plastic frames are better made, but even with two pairs of glasses, I don’t want to take a chance!

It’s going to be so good to have new glasses again. And to have two pairs! I’ve never had two pairs of glasses in the same prescription before!

With both pairs of glasses with progressive lenses, the total came out to just over $200. I printed off the receipt for my husband to submit to the insurance company for reimbursement, too. That will certainly be a help to the budget.

As you can imagine, going outside to get work done was not an option this evening! Too hard on the eyes. Even writing this post, after waiting so many hours, is still putting quite a bit of strain on them. As for not getting work done outside, it worked out okay, I guess. We didn’t get the predicted thunderstorms, though we certainly heard some going by. Looking at the weather radar, the system had lots of tiny storms in it, scattered all over. We did get some rain, though. I would have been happy with more, with the heat we’ve been having, but am thankful for every little bit we get.

Tomorrow, I hope to get some good progress outside, because I’m going to be making a second Costco trip the day after. In the process, I’ll be swinging by the egg lady’s homestead and dropping off some Black Beauty and Spoon tomatoes for her! They are taking 6 of each, which still leaves me others to give away. I offered them to my family members, but they all have plenty of their own tomatoes already!

Meanwhile, I need to get to bed, and give my eyes more time to recover in darkness!

The Re-Farmer