I used to ponder how I could keep my mind from leaving me “bit by bit” (Yes, I still ponder). I now also ponder how to keep my body from malfunctioning “bit by bit”.

    Recently a muscle in my eye went out on early retirement. It left me seeing double wherever I looked. Extremely uncomfortable and concerning. I could look straight ahead at eye level and have clear vision. If my eyes wandered to the left, right, up or down, I saw double everything. Each item’s double would be on top of its twin. Cars in the distance looked like double decker buses one would see in England.

    My bird watching counts changed dramatically. Instead of pairs of doves, a dule would appear. We have 24 quail in the neighborhood. Well, we had 24. Now our covey numbers 48.

    When it comes to reaching for a cookie, I now have a choice of many until I reach for one and that particular one is a mere shadow in the form of a cookie. Blast!  After the initial shock registers, I can fumble around for the real thing.

    To explain it more clearly, when you hold up two fingers and close the right eye the view is different than if you hold up two fingers and close the left eye. The depth perception is off. When looking down, I see two to three floor surfaces that are at different levels. The question becomes, “Which one is solid?” Of course one will be and the other one(s) are also, hopefully. With luck the difference in floor surfaces is the only thing down there, and there is nothing else lurking like a toy or a rock.

    My left eye and my right eye are still functioning—just not together. They are both on their own. Glasses are helping as the Doc placed a prism inside the lens to bring the eyes back into sync. Optimistically, this “bit” won’t last forever, but will be a passing annoyance. Never a dull moment. Adventure still lurks around every corner.

    p.s. The eyes have joined forces once again. Halleluiah!!!!! What a bump in the road that was.

    I do not enjoy speaking on the telephone. That goes for any telephone. Why? I can’t hear every word. Well, maybe that isn’t totally true. I hear every word, but not always exactly as spoken, or as fast as delivered.

    “Cs”, “Ts”, “Es”, “Gs”, “Ps”, “Vs” do sound the same. When speaking to an English speaking person without a regional or foreign drawl, I have an 80% chance of understanding most of what is being said. I use, “Excuse me” often but finally succeed in interpreting, or making sense of what has been said. I once, after going back and forth for a while, asked a person to please spell her name. I couldn’t get it for the life of me. She spelled “Sue”. We did have fun laughing. Yeah, real funny. I enjoy people who don’t take themselves too seriously.  People do not take lightly to someone mispronouncing their name (especially when it is Sue).  They need to deal with a name like mine on a daily basis.  It really isn’t such a big deal. 

    And then there is message retrieving. When leaving a message, why are you in such a hurry? Why 987-3888 and not 987-3.8.8.8? It normally takes me about three tries to get the call back number close to correct. Sometimes I need to try up to three different number combinations to finally get through to the caller. Sometimes three different number combinations don’t work.

    I do ask hubby to decipher for me on occasion. However, he is picking up my idiosyncrasies as his hearing is becoming foggy as well. Working together, we normally get lucky and recognize the name as well as decipher the number. If not, I can only hope they will call back, or hope it wasn’t important.

    Every day is an adventure!