First, I am finally having the much needed and much anticipated cataract surgery. First eye is next week, and the second eye the week after that. I had put off the doctor visit until after the holidays. Then I learned the bad news that I had to wait three to four months while wearing glasses and no contacts because I had worn hard or gas-permeable lenses for over 50 years. I followed orders and wore only glasses. But it was tougher than I thought it would be. In the bad eye, I now see only light shapes and dim colors -- glasses offer no help. With the remaining good eye, glasses definitely help, but as the shape of the cornea changes, so does my vision. I am left with pretty poor vision at this point. I'm okay to drive, but I stick to short trips on back roads. Any fears I may have had early on about the surgery are far outweighed now by my desire to see well once again. The other bad news is that I am not an ideal candidate for the multifocal lenses due to a slight malformation in my eyes. This means they may not be able to correct perfectly for reading and I may sometimes need reading glasses. The doctor seems to believe, however, that in good light and with rested, hydrated eyes, I won't need the glasses. The cost of the multifocal lenses is thousands of dollars more than the single focal lenses. But after much thought and a bit of angst, I decided to go with multifocal anyway. It's a gamble and I may end up disappointed. But I had set aside the money for this long ago, and with some hope of success, I am willing to take the chance. I will update more after the surgeries.
This week is the last week of school for the grandkids and the last week of elementary school for the youngest grandson. This means I will no longer be needed to help get him off to school in the mornings. Next year in junior high, he and his mother will leave the house at about the same time. And the boys are old enough now they don't need supervision in the afternoon for the hour till their dad gets home. Frankie and I will miss many aspects of being so involved in the grandkids' lives. But I won't miss needing to wake up at 4:30 every day. Or needing to shovel snow before I leave the house in those early hours. And possibly most of all, I won't miss the school parking lot and drop off circle -- one of the nightmares of modern America. I could write a whole post on this (but I won't), but 95% of parents are considerate, thoughtful, careful drivers. The other 5%? Just be on your toes every second.
Yesterday I had a party at my house to celebrate my oldest granddaughter's graduation from Salt Lake Community College. And incidentally, I'm quite proud of her for doing it all on her own and working and paying her tuition and costs as she went. As I was talking with the grandsons, I commented that I didn't imagine they would want to spend as much time at my house this summer. On the contrary, they said they loved to come to my house and looked forward to those summer days. I was surprised, since they are getting older and I don't have the fun games and electronics they have at home. But I think they like that we have great lunches and talks together and then we DO things. We read, we do music, we go on field trips. Following on last year's successful year of music, we will continue to play our instruments every day, and I will give the boys a piano lesson once a week. But this year they want to make it the year of cooking lessons. So that's what it will be. And even Brittany, the new graduate will join us on the cooking days. So this will be fun! I will modify the schedule this year a bit, however. I will spend a couple of hours at home in the mornings taking care of things in the yard and house while the boys get their own breakfasts at home, get ready for the day, and do things they need to do. I will show up at 11 a.m. and we'll go from there. It will be very good for me as I continue to take more of the maintenance responsibility in my yard.
And that brings me to THE YARD. Some of my friends keep telling me it's time to sell the house if the yard has become so difficult for me. But, when I see a new sunset, or I watch the little birds that always return to the feeders, including the little chickadee family that produces a new brood every year from the little blue birdhouse, I know I'm not ready yet. I have worked hard in my yard this spring and got a lot of cleanup done myself. With my son's help, I tested the sprinklers. I replaced a couple of spray heads and tweaked some drip lines. There is a certain Zen-ness in working in the yard. Even pulling weeds. But this week, the guy who mowed my lawn last year stopped by and asked if I needed help to finish the cleanup. Since I had the party coming up, I hired his crew for a day. And since I had done so much already, the cost to me was not so much. It allowed me time to get some of my patio pots planted. This crew, honestly, did not do as great a job as the old Alberto crowd, but they at least did not pull up any perennials. And such nice, personable guys, too. I will not need to do as much planting this year, but will continue to tweak here and there. I have plants that need to be moved. I want to add some more ornamental grasses. I'll continue tweaking the drip irrigation to make it even more efficient. Octavio's guys will mow and trim every other week for me. I will mow the in between week. With my electric mower, it's pretty easy for me now, and I'd like to stay in practice. I honestly feel I can manage the yard now with just that much assistance. And I feel so much better having such micro control over everything in the yard.
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| A new sunset, very like the others, but always just as wonderful |
So, that's the big stuff. I'm still alive and kicking, though less inclined to blog at the moment (partly due to vision issues). Life holds many challenges big and small and I can't write about them all. But despite the difficulties with my eyes this year, I feel far more upbeat about things and feel more on top of my responsibilities than I did last year. And that's progress of sorts.
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