THE OLD WOMAN AT THE PIANO

Shame on me for laughing at grey haired ladies with hats playing old 600 pound upright pianos in little churches. Why, because in order to see the notes of the old time gospel hymns, they tilted their heads back and looked through the close up part of their bi-focal. To me, someone who did not wear glasses at the time, I vowed I would never be in that position.

Now most of you know, my Sweet Thomas is in the eye glass business. What you may not know is he is silent about me going to have my eyes checked lest he get caught in the cross hairs of my wicked, wicked side. Perhaps it is all about preservation, maybe it is about denial but I don't need an eye doctor to tell me I need glasses; I need to tell the eye doctor there has been a change. It isn't one of those one, twice a year visits unless there is a problem beyond simply, tilting head back to see notes.

My VTM, (formerly called video terminal monitor), now simply called computer screen is bigger than our first television screen yet, of late, I am the little old lady at the piano. I have put a cloth under it to move it towards me. If there is anything that will tell you one's eyes are screwy, it is long hours at a monitor.

And so about a week ago, my neck hurt. It was from looking through the bottom of my blended lenses. Again, since Tom is in the eye glass business, I have:

Goggle like sunglasses called Cocoons because in the little boat the wind is a problem for me.

sunglasses

TV glasses

Glasses to use when I have the laptop in my lap

The regulars, which are not used to sleep in--generally.

etc, etc.

I have anti scratch, anti glare, Polaroid, and everything else one can get on a high quality, top of the line lens. Nothing worked, pulling the wash cloth based screen still worked the best.

The other day we had a conversation:

"Do I pay for the eye exam or is it reciprocity"?

"Oh, are you finally going to have your eyes check"?

"Yes, I want to go back to __________".

"Well, _______, is very good".

"That may be true but I like _________".

"Shall I make an appointment for you"?

"Sure, mid morning or mid afternoon sometime next week"

"I can get you in earlier".

"No, next week is fine".

"What brought you to this decision"?

"I think I have a cataract starting".

"What are you seeing"? Plus a barrage of additional questions beyond my grasp of human eyes, how they are constructed, why I may need surgery instead of another pair of glasses and MORE! (This is when the man with so much knowledge starts to come over the line into my comfort zone).

"Let's do this, let's have an eye exam and go from there. Let's not be thinking about surgery until after we find out what is going on. A cataract starting and a cataract ready for surgery may be two different things yet".

How do I know I have one starting? Doc shines light during physical. It isn't like I woke up one morning and decided to make a diagnosis.

Therefore, until next week, I will be the old woman at the piano.

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