The Eyes Have It

When Mr. Fixit when to eye guy, he told us that there were cataracts in both eyes. We had told that it was only one eye. It was decided that he should have both taken care of now.

Yesterday we went to the pre-op consultation. He will have one eye done next Monday and the other done the following Monday. If all goes as expected, he will still need glasses for reading, but his vision should improve greatly and he won’t have to wear his glasses all the time. I wonder about that. He has been wearing glasses for about 35 years. It seems to me that his vision would be corrected to what it was before the cataracts developed. It was 4 years ago when the doctor said that she saw a cataract in its beginning stage. He is going to be disappointed if his vision isn’t improved so much that he won’t have to wear glasses all the time.

It's Been a Long, Long Time. .

Today is our 46th anniversary.

$uch Aggravation

Not only did Directv raise their monthly fees, they discontinued the channel, “Cloo” in our package. It began some time ago as “Sleuth.” That means I’ll only be able to watch  “NCIS’ two or three times a day. I am p.o.ed!

When our local county library system began their ebook service, I was so happy. It did save me a lot of money. I didn’t spend as much as I did before, but I set aside a little money to buy books Kindle books. An adjoining county has a reciprocal arrangement with our county allowing non-residents to obtain cards at no cost to non-residents. I obtained a card so that I could use their ebook collection; it is much larger than our county’s. Today when I wanted to browse the neighboring county’s selection. I couldn’t access the service. There was a notice stating that that the reciprocal agreement would not apply to ebooks. I will now have to pay $30.00 (yearly? one time fee? I don’t know.) Another neighboring county only charges $25.00, but their selection is smaller since their population is smaller. I know, it’s still a bargain, but I feel they changed the rules in the middle of the game.

Macmillan Publishing, Simon & Shuster, Penguin Group, Brilliance Audio, and Hachette Book Group have refused to sell or license ebooks to libraries. I think I read in the news that there are still negotiations ongoing. Even if it’s cutting off my nose to spite my face, I think I’ll boycott these publishers if an agreement isn’t reached to allow libraries to offer their books. I’m sure my personal boycott will make someone sit up and take notice.

Has anyone else noticed that the price of ebooks has risen since Christmas? Before Christmas, popular best sellers were $12.99, now they are $14.99. The publishers are getting greedy, and I bet the authors aren’t reaping the benefits of the price hike in proportion to the publishers. Ebooks should have slashed their overhead costs for heavens’ sake. Still I suppose $14.99 is better than $28.00 retail. I just won’t be buying them.

“. . .Has Left the Building”

For many years, beginning when our boys were young, I have attended soccer games, baseball games, karate competitions. Cole was 5 when he started playing baseball. He also played soccer for one season and basketball for a couple of seasons. Owen and Levi have both played touch football. Bella just started volley ball. We have seen our share of kid sports.

Today Noah had a basketball game. I have mentioned before that I don’t really enjoy watching my grandsons play basketball. The sport is rough, the coaches are too critical and too competitive. They seem to coach with a mindset of win at all costs. The parents are overly invested in the game and  winning. Some of the parents put the mothers of little beauty queens to shame.

In today’s game, an event happened that I’ve never seen in any young people’s sporting event. In the first period, which was 8 minutes long, the refs called 18 fouls on our team and probably a like number for the other team, and one referee yelled at the opposing coach for some reason. From his remarks I gathered that he thought the coach was being disrespectful to him. We were sitting near the coach, and I didn’t hear him raise his voice. I suppose he could have made a remark that we didn’t hear though. Both officials were being quite unpleasant to the players. Most of the time the referees try to teach the children. When they commit an infraction, they explain it them. Today these guys were just snotty.

When the period ended, both coaches tried to talk to the refs, explaining that these young players were 12 years old and under, not pros. One ref began yelling and told our coach to sit down. Our coach was being polite and never raised his voice. He didn’t impugn the man’s integrity or tell him where to go or make any suggestions that are anatomically impossible. He just looked him in the eye and kept standing. The ref was ready to throw him out of the building.

At that point, the vice president of the league who was running the clock jumped up out of his seat and tried to calm the troubled waters. The idiot referee was having none of it. As a result, the VP tossed the referees out of the building telling the players and the parents that those officials would never be used again. Everyone applauded when they left the building.

The coaches decided to continue to play the game as a scrimmage and reschedule the game, if possible, later in the season.

I have seen players ejected from games, coaches ejected from games, and parents ejected from games. I have never seen officials ejected from games. That was a first for almost everyone at the game, I think.

Growing Younger Every Day

Stephen King’s 1991 mini-series, “Golden Years,” tells the story of an older man who stops aging and grows younger. Interesting premise. Where would it end? In the womb? Or would he simply cease to exist when he reached the moment of conception. It’s sort of like the incredible shrinking man. How small could he become? Did he shrink into nothingness or did he still exist in the cosmos the size of atomic particles?

Mr. Fixit and I were married when I was 20 and he was 28. At the time, the gap between us seemed to be large. In fact, some people thought it was too big a gap. When I was 32 and he was 40, it seemed still to be quite a difference. Even when he retired at 66, the gap seemed to be wide because of the length of time I had to wait to collect my SS benefits. Then after my SS kicked in, it seemed the gap disappeared.

Now as the character in King’s series, Mr. Fixit seems to be getting younger than I. In the last few years, he has had his heart fixed twice; it’s now almost as good as it ever was according to Dr. Doofus. He had his hernia fixed again. He now has help with his hearing, but that doesn’t count. It’s funny about those hearing aids; he can hear everyone except me. He’s had a colonoscopy; everything there is fine. Now he has an appointment next week to fix his eyes. If they decide to remove the cataract, he will be able to see much better.

As I see it, he’s getting younger with every doctor visit. Soon he will be the spring chicken and I will be the doddering old lady. Medical science is wonderful!