One of those 'old days' around here...

Some mornings I wake up like me, and other mornings?... I wake up in an old lady's body... ... Might as well get the complaints out of the way first - my right knee has been giving me problems for months because of the way I walk and favor my back... I saw one doctor after our doctor retired (he was just a young whippersnapper and I really couldn't relate to him), saw his dad (irritating man who told me I'd be down for months, had bad things to say about our doctor of 13 years, etc. - see ya) and went to a third doctor in the practice... My only complaint about this third doctor is I sat there wondering who was going to die first - me or him...

Thankfully he wasn't as negative about my knee and what could be done for it... It has now become a PITA because I do my floors on my knees... Kneel down on that right knee and it is a virtual 'crown' of pain that spreads out from the kneecap... First I have to get other stuff squared away with this new doctor, then we'll have to tackle this knee thingie... Maybe this summer...

It is REALLY tough to switch doctors after you have been going to one for so long... Our doctor got REALLY sick to the point he had to retire (and he's young - like late 30s)... Once the immediate sadness and concern about his health sunk in, then the 'ut oh, what about us?' kicked in...

But I'm still a tough old broad, so I'll grin and bear it until I'm darned good and ready to do something about it... Basically, when I can take it no longer... LOL...

I dragged myself back to the eye doctor last month after an 18-month lapse... My eyesight was always one of my best strengths...

A few years ago I started having problems seeing detailed things close up (not good when you do so much with your hands~!!!)... And now, my distance sight is not as good as it should be... Not bad, but there's a difference... And the way he explained it to me?... When the distance diminishes, it also diminishes the close up sight too... So the 'new and improved' glasses are really tri-focals, although they fancied it up and are calling them 'progressives'... (smile)... By any other name, they are still a PITA~!!!

I have to break my own personal bad habit of looking down and over the top of the glasses... That's the first step... The new ones have an upper that is geared to the change in my distance sight... I catch myself all day long trying to look over the top of the glasses though...

And the middle has the not-distance-not-close-up part... Supposedly for seeing my computer screen, distances further away than my arm, etc... The changes are subtle for sure... But most days I feel like I am drunk while wearing these... It is very close to a drunk crow trying to walk... Things are like 'wa-WA-WA-wa' as they appear distorted to me and I'm trying to compensate, trying to find the spot where it is clear to see and read - while my head is moving up and down to 'hone into' the spot... Yep... A drunk crow walking...

You know those mirrors that have that little sign? "Things are closer than they appear"?... Add this into the mix, if it couldn't get any worse!... I overshoot and undershoot distances... Scary when I am driving, so I'm even slower of a driver now than I was!

After hours of struggling with this, I really don't want to do much eye stretching at all and I have found when Paul comes home, I quit work myself... (unusual for me)... All I want to do is to get to my chair and sit down to knit... I can focus on the work in front of me and the world stops spinning out of control visually... It takes a few hours for the nausea to subside, but at least I can eventually go to bed without feeling sick to my stomach...

It is so bad, that I am usually nauseated most of the day... This is one feeling I REALLY hate - give me pain any day - but that 'almost want to throw up but not quite' feeling is one I just hate having... Know the one I mean?... Like, "Do I go ahead and run my errands or wait until it passes by?... Should I have a bucket close by just in case? No, it's getting better now... give it a second... No, it's not - move out of the way, dogs!...."... LOL...

But I am just as hard-headed as they come, so I keep telling myself that I will overcome this and teach myself how to wear these new glasses... I don't think I have ever struggled as hard with an issue like this... The past two weeks have made me even more appreciative of the gift of great sight I've had over 50 years... So I guess the struggle to master these progressive glasses is a good thing...

Soooo....Time marches on and I have things to do... I don't have time to coddle myself trying to get used to these glasses, ya know?... I have been watching a set of file drawers for about 6-8 months now... There are so many gosh-darned files to keep up with running a dog rescue... Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork~!!... I have some of it stashed here, other files there - what a PITA~!!!

Yesterday I noticed that Office Depot dropped the filing cabinet by $50 as an instant purchase... I didn't want a personal filing cabinet size (18" deep) - I wanted the real office kind (26" deep) that could really hold and do what I needed it to do... And with the $50 savings, it was finally right in my budget at $139...

I called Paul to see if he was around or in town, but no answer... I had already printed out the specs months ago so although I knew it was 70+ pounds, I figured if they could get it up onto the bed of the truck and I timed it properly, I could get Desiree's help to get it off the truck... Of course, I screwed up the timing so I'm at home with this in the bed of the truck and it is only me... And an hour before she gets in for lunch...

I decided to slide it off of the truck and then use the doily to get it around the back of the house... "Note to self: Do NOT stand up in the bed of a large pick-up truck with a set of new progressive glasses on. It could be hazardous to your health."... LOL...

I stood up and went through that 'wa-WA-WA-wa' distortion, practically ka-bomging my head on the top of the breezeway rafters... The ground looked a LONG way down and that cardboard box was much heavier up in the truck than it was on the ground, trying to hold it - and with my right knee complaining about how I was tweaking it, trying to hold up the weight of this file cabinet~!!!...

I must have looked like a solo Laurel and Hardy routine as I pushed, shoved, got down and looked, figured, got back up into the bed of the truck, called Paul again, reflected, oxygenated, then just simply stupidified myself!...

The third time I am climbing back up into the bed of the truck, I am telling myself that I should just shove it off the end of the truck and go with the luck of the draw, but it was BRAND NEW and I didn't want to ding it~!!!... I should have gotten the one on clearance for $25 cheaper and already dinged up ~~~ then I wouldn't have cared~!!

LOL... Finally I pulled the truck out of the breezeway and put the wheels on the gutter, which dropped the tail end much lower in height... I pulled the doily around and it was just a matter of a few feet instead of miles between the tail gate and the ground... When I looked at my watch, I realized it had taken me three times as long to get it off the truck as it had taken me to buy it and bring it home... I kept stopping and asking myself if the filing cabinet could wait, but realizing it was stopping all other progress this day until it was in, and I could start moving completed files into it... Otherwise, they would just stay piled up around my desk and I'd have gotten not much accomplished for an entire day's work~!!... Nah, get back to work and figure this out!

And by the time Desiree got in for lunch?... I had the file cabinet on its back and was attaching the mover's doily onto the base of it... (EVERYTHING in my house needs to be on wheels if I have to move it around at any time!)

It is darn hard to keep a good woman down, progressive glasses or not!

As Always,
The Lady

P.S. Have the filing cabinet half filled up already and today's another day!