Our neighbor who is the mayor of the village we live in gave me some sad news a couple of days ago. Her daughter has passed away. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. She was not a smoker. Then the cancer spread to her brain and she had a stroke. She was in her early 50s and has left behind her husband and three children, the eldest about 20 years old. I met her a few times over the years but didn't really know her. She lived about three hours from Saint-Aignan. Her mother and father who live here have spent a lot of time on the road driving there from here and then back for months. They are both nearing age 80 and are exhausted, I'm sure.
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A few weeks ago, I had a collision with our mailbox. It was mounted on one of the posts that frame our front gate. I was taking the car and the dog out for a ride in the vineyard early one morning (long story...), and was turning right coming through the gate. Usually I turn left, which is the way down the hill we live on and to places like Saint-Aignan, Montrichard, and Blois, Anyway, I misjudged the space I needed to make that right turn. The result was a long but not very deep scratch on both of the car's passenger-side doors. I hope it doesn't start rusting. The mailbox didn't survive. We bought a new mailbox at the local hardware store and our landscape contractor was good enough to mount the new box on the fence post for us. All in all, the incident was a five or six day ordeal. I'm sad about the car, which is nearly 20 years old and is only now starting to show its age.
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Meanwhile, I've been having a lot of problems with my eyes and eyesight since the beginning of the year. I have spent a lot of time worrying and complaining that I can't figure out what the problem is. Does it have to do with the cataract operations I had in 2024? Or am I just suffering because of pollen allergies? We had a few months of rain nearly every day in the spring, and that weather pattern has changed only recently. I spent a lot of time trying to get my eye doctor on the telephone. When I had the cataract surgery in 2024, the doctor told me I would need to contact him again in two years' time for a follow-up appointment to see how my eyesight has evolved and which would probably lead to a laser procedure to make sure lens implants I have had since then are doing to job. I asked him if his office would notify me that it was time for the check-up, because I might forget. He looked at me like I was crazy and just said Non! So when my vision went blurry earlier this year, I figured it was time to make an appointment. But I couldn't get anyone on the phone. On some days my vision was better than on others, so I couldn't be sure if allergies were the problem, or something else. I finally got somebody on the phone last week. She located my file and quickly told me that the follow-up appointment would be scheduled for the month of October. I'll need to call back for an appointment in July, not before. I hope I don't have to live with blurry vision until October.
I had cataract surgery a few years ago. On my last checkup, I have some sort of film on my eyes that's causing a little problem focusing, blurring, and whole lot of blinking to try and clear it. I have an appointment next month to have some kind of laser procedure to clear it up. I asked the doctor if I would need a driver and he said no, so I guess it's nothing but a common procedure with a problem that can occur after cataract surgery. I have a yearly eye exam since I had cataract surgery. I have prescription glasses, but all I really need to read is drugstore readers. When I had the cataract surgery, I chose the distant lens rather than the multifocal lens. As a former contact lens wearer, the multifocal lens never worked very well for me.
ReplyDeleteI had to go to your old stomping grounds in Morehead City this past week to a doctor's appointment. The traffic was unbelievable from Swansboro right on to Morehead City. I can remember many days when I wanted to go shopping and I would go to Morehead to the old Belk's store rather than Jacksonville. It's not even tourist season yet. I guess the traffic will really start up after this holiday weekend and schools are out for summer vacation.. Your place in France is looking mighty idyllic vice the over populated coast of NC.
Wanda aka Galestorm
Thank you, Wanda. You have confirmed what I thought was going to happen here with my eyes next October. One of my big questions to ask here has to do whether or not I'll need a driver to get back home after the laser procedure is done. And that Morehead traffic! What's the solution? Nobody knows.One of my cousins said to me recently that "we are being invaded and overwhelmed by Raleighites. And new, gigantic houses everywhere. The next hurricane will be a big test...
DeleteThat was me, Ken, of course...
DeleteI live in the Bear Creek area of Hubert. Housing developments are going up left and right here. I recently said we need a building moratorium in the area. The roads can't handle so much traffic and the schools are going to be overwhelmed. The Queens Creek bridge is scheduled to be demolished and a new one built. I don't know how that's going to turn out. You are right about a hurricane. We haven't had one since Bertha and Fran that did very much damage. It will be a test. Wanda aka Galestorm :)
DeleteI was born in Morehead at the old hospital near the Promise Land. My mother's house on Evans Street, a few blocks away, was built in 1910, they said. We never had any hurricane damage there. I think they knew how to build storm-resistant houses back then. We also never had any flooding. They knew where to build.
DeleteOh, what sad news for your mayor and her family, and I know you've mentioned your mayor many times.
ReplyDeleteSorry, too, to hear about the big scratch on the car :(
I wish that the doctor had just gone ahead and scheduled you to come in now, since you're having vision problems, darn it. I hope things clear up (no pun intended).
I agree that I think they should go ahead and schedule my appointment now, but they say that's not the way they do things. The doctor doesn't share his list of upcoming appointments, or whatever, until three months before they have been scheduled, or some thing like that. I feel sorry for our mayor and her husband. She is really driven, and he wants to be retired.
DeleteWe just finished the cataract slog and I had no problems but my husband had the film over one eye which evidently about 40% of people get. He got right in to get it zapped and yes, I had to be the driver. Then they wouldn't give him a prescription right away as they wait a few weeks for the eye to completely heal or something.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of news! Maybe you can find someone to buff out the scratch - be sure and forgive yourself!
ReplyDeleteWhen things like that happened to us, Lewis would say, "it's only going to get worse" lol. He was great that way.
Opthamologists are hard to get appointments with here, also. My distance sight isn't blurry but reading is. I had the laser and drove afterwards. I think your doctor would want to see you every year just to check your pressure which is so important.
Lewis was surely right about "it" getting worse. I feel like I have to be so careful all the time now. Driving on our local narrow roads and the old bridge is almost dangerous.
DeleteMore and more people seem to be dying of unrelated smoking deaths from cancer. Your mayor has been a good friend to you and Walt and I can imagine how her sadness can be shared by you, two, as well. Painful times. Your scratch if the metal is revealed and the scratch is narrow can definitely be rubbed out with the proper liquid. The paint will cover up the scratch when liquified by the chemicals in the solution. Check online and then you can probably order a small bottle. Any clean cloth will work. It will resolve your concerns about rust. Since you paintjob and car, otherwise, are in excellent condition, I wouldn't hesitate to get the product. I have had experience of a similar problem and the man who had a business fixing up BMW's in his shop on his property helped me out and then gave me the bottle for any future events! It does work, unfortunately, the bottle he gave me has no label on it, he must order in bulk and then repackage it for usage.
ReplyDeleteYour eye dr.'s scheduling is exactly like the ones here. I have to wait until 3 months prior to my desired date for the scheduling app to accept my order.
If you are experiencing blurry vision all the time, can you ask for a referral to another doctor that might be available before October? Maybe more rest is the answer. I need to schedule with an eye doctor and with us being in that baby boom, I better not put it off any longer, as I will probably be in for a long wait time, too. No eye problems, here, though. (Mary, again!)
ReplyDeleteHi Ken - if you know your exact paint color name or code, you can get a small tube of touch-up paint for your specific make of car from Amazon or from a dealer for your brand. It will match the paint exactly and be quite camouflaging. I am sorry to hear about the mayor's daughter!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all of you for so much good information and advice. About the eyes, my distance vision is fine. I can drive and watch TV, no problem. I have a hard time reading small print though, including text on my computer screen. And labels on things. Sometimes I take pictures of labels with my smart phone and view them on my laptop, where I can enlarge the fonts.
DeleteI’m so sorry to hear about your neighbor’s daughter. That’s such a heartbreaking situation, especially for her parents having to go back and forth so often at their age. And then on top of that, dealing with the mailbox accident and the worries about your eyesight — it really feels like life has been giving you a lot all at once lately. I hope things become a little easier soon, especially with your vision. Thank you for sharing these little pieces of daily life so honestly.
ReplyDeleteCould you look for an earlier appointment with another ophthalmologist? It’s fairly certain that you only need laser treatment for posterior capsular thickening which is a very quick procedure. The blurring may have contributed to the scratch on your car by making it harder to judge distances and position. It can also cause difficulties with navigating steps and stairs and cause a person to fall. The sooner you get it done the better. I would suggest not driving after the procedure, better safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very good:
https://www.hdft.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Ophthalmology-YAG-Laser-Capsulotomy-1.pdf