They told me it would be so simple.  It’s so routine that in a couple of weeks I would have both cataract surgeries behind me and be well on the way to perfect vision!  Yeah, right!  (Why am I increasingly becoming more suspicious of all the “trust us” type of claims from health care providers?

Long story short?  The first cataract surgery happens, and almost immediately I’m seeing double vision so pronounced that frankly I should have not been allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle.  (It’s disconcerting to be driving to a doc appointment and have to be constantly tilting my head and squinting to find out which of those two lanes in front of me is real and which one will put me on the guardrail!) (This pic below is pretty close to what I’ve been seeing since July 8th.)

What followed has been a stressful roller coaster.  Postponing the 2nd cataract surgery from July 22nd (which, since the doc is “so booked” is now scheduled for late October, as that was the “earliest” opening), being told that a consult with a “neuro ophthalmologist” is necessary to “rule out brain involvement” (that means tests to see if, in essentially the following order, this is coming from a brain tumor, something like miastinia gravis, graves disease, or thyroid cancer)… then being told that consult may take months because these “specialists” are “busy” (it didn’t, as it turns out)… to finally hearing the somewhat dubious “good news” that this is – more than likely – a muscle issue with one eye that has resulted in “binocular diplopia” that is treated, at least short term, with “prism” glasses.

So, I now have one pair of sunglasses with a temporary fresnel lens in the right eye to provide a “2.0 down” prism correction that actually allows me to see again! (granted, with the fresnel lines glaring at certain angles of sunlight).  These will be “tweaked” in a few days to probably a 2.25 down prism to dial in my vision.  The good news is these temporary lenses can be applied to my existing glasses and are only $50 each.  I plan to get two or three more pairs of these, for reading, nighttime distance, and working in the shop, etc., so I’ll be able to function again while waiting on the 2nd cataract surgery – which will undoubtedly change my vision again.

The down side?  When it’s time to order permanent, ground prism lenses, I’ll be ponying up anywhere from $700 to $1,000 for EACH pair of lenses!  (And no… insurance doesn’t cover a dime of this!

Turns out that this is probably a preexisting condition that I didn’t notice all that much until the cataract removal and new IOC (lens implant) cleared up my vision so significantly.  The cause?  More than likely the concussions I had playing football and lacrosse in high school and college, or perhaps the damage to my cornea in 4th grade when my brother accidentally stabbed me in the eye with a straightened coat hanger. (A VERY long story!)  Moral of the story?  Playing “hero” in high school and college sports always – ALWAYS – carries a price!

Is this just me?  Or do others respond to this same annoyance like I do?

I have been shopping at local warehouse type stores for decades.  I imagine you all know the type I’m talking about; Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s Warehouse.  And I find it beyond annoying that on such a regular basis, I park and walk into one of these stores, looking for a specific item or group of items… only to find the entire store layout has been changed and I have to spend an irritated 30 minutes or more “hunting” for the specific item that I once would have been able to walk to, pick up, check out, and be back in the parking lot within 5 – 7 minutes!

Do these corporations have “marketing experts” who really believe the idiotic theory that this will cause us to spend more money in their store?  Newsflash folks:  It doesn’t work!  It doesn’t cause us to spend more money in your store.  It just pisses us off and makes it likely – assuming there is an alternative nearby – that we will take our business elsewhere. (This is why I no longer have a Sam’s Club card, avoid Lowe’s or Home Depot even if the local Ace Hardware is more expensive, and won’t even entertain the thought of shopping at grocery stores that let this craziness happen in their stores on a regular basis. (Publix or Harris Teeter?  Are you listening?)

Again, this may just be me.  Maybe I’m becoming more and more like Otto Anderson. (The Tom Hank’s character in the Movie “A Man called Otto”)  But I would be genuinely interested if anyone else has the same, visceral reaction to such a moronic marketing fail like this.

So… Three days into getting a toric lens implant in my right eye – one that not only corrects both close and distant vision but also corrects the astigmatism that I’ve had in that eye since I was about 10 years old – and I’m still learning how to see again.

Makes me wonder; what the world will look like in a couple of weeks then the other eye receives it’s multi-focus bionic lens!

And the coolest thing of all?  I found out last night, for the first time, what the Holosun “red-dot” optics we have on several rifles actually looks like!  I pulled one out of the safe and instead of seeing 4 “stars” in a fishhook pattern, I actually saw only one actual “dot” for the first time!  (It’s been quite a chore at the range to pick which “star” to put on the target.)  Now I can’t wait for this “no lifting 10 pounds or bending over” nonsense to be done with.  Who knows what the world will look like once again?

This is why you never want to speed on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Coming around a curve to find a mama bear and her 3 cubs just wandering across the road.  Mama and 2 cubs paraded within 10 feet of Judy’s right window for this pic. Cub 3 was trying his best to wander under the truck’s front bumper… until Mom got a little stern with him!

The sunset from Mount Mitchell (highest point east of the Mississippi River) on July 5th.

July 4th sunset from the Caney Fork Overlook about 80 miles south on the Blue Ridge Parkway was a washout – but we got to see a really impressive lightning storm happening BELOW us towards Brevard, NC.

But even with the clouds, seeing the sun slip below us and the mountains to the west of Mitchell – with the temp. hovering around 64 degrees?  And not another sound but birds chirping, bugs clicking, and the sigh of the wind?  Yep… Happy July 5th everyone!

I posted this video online over a decade ago, but frankly I think it’s well worth watching again – especially since law enforcement will be stepped up all over the nation this coming holiday weekend.

Remember, if you are stopped this weekend at a DUI check point; for as long as you are there, no cop is your friend.  Something really worth remembering.

We will be marking the 4th of July quietly this week, camping up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Hopefully we’ll get a break from the week’s murderous heat wave, do a little bit of hiking perhaps, take a drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and perhaps watch the sunset from the summit of Stone Mountain.  (I mean the REAL stone mountain here in North Carolina, not that confederate blasphemy just east of Atlanta.)

There’s one thing we will NOT be doing later this week:  We won’t be participating in the ongoing nonsense of proving our patriotism by… flying more (or larger) flags than anyone else, parroting the ever-increasing hate speech coming out of Washington anymore, where the only way to “prove” you are a good, Patriotic American is to show how you hate every thing outside the cultic boundaries of the MAGA universe, or succumbing to the ludicrous notion that the only way to be truly “American” anymore is by swallowing whole whatever the Republican party and Donald Trump are selling us at any given moment.  (Which, it should be noted, no one can really keep track of without a score card since it changes with almost every news cycle.)  And of course, undoubtedly, there will some of the same, shrill voices, picking up the by now monotonous refrain yet again – that since I’m one of those “Libs” that are “ruining OUR country” then I cannot, must not be, never was a “true” American.

Which kind of reinforces the thoughts I had a few years back when I put together this slide show to Ken Medema’s powerful song, “I See America.”  It’s a repost, but one I think perhaps appropriate to help us keep a proper, truly “patriotic” perspective on America as we celebrate Independence Day.   Wanna show you love America as much as others do?  Then show American love – not the hate that’s become some kind of new, pernicious, and ugly normal.  Once upon a time we were better than this.  Here’s hoping we can be that again.

Happy, safe, and blessed 4th everyone.

Here’s our video from last weekend’s paddle on the New River.  We did the 9 miles from the Hwy 221 access to King’s Creek access, hoping for higher water and a better flow than it turned out to be.  But any day on the water is better than a day of just about anything!

This video has a introduction, then several parts set to music.  Enjoy!

Want one?

I have about 20 or so of these left to share.  They are 4″ X 8″ and are “easy remove” for bumpers and windows.

Shoot me a name and address on the contact form above and I’ll drop one in the mail to you.  (And no, I don’t keep, file, or EVER share any contact information that anyone ever sends me.)

An opportunity to join Judy and I on today’s No Kings March here in Charlotte.  We may not have had the size crowd they did in New York or D.C. – and certainly didn’t have the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen like they did in Minneapolis – but it was a great day anyway.