Monday, January 27, 2014

Back to center, and other nonsense from the house with equal numbers of children and adults.


Normally I get up at 8 am, because I can. I set my own work hours, and they begin with a stop at the post office for township mail. The post office opens at 9, and even then I seem to pick up yesterday’s mail. Although the township box is in the second of ten banks, the nice post lady is seldom to it when I arrive, and the nasty one definitely is not. Unlike Leon, who has been assigned to another post office, neither of them will flip ahead and hand out my mail.

Something was ringing this morning, way too early. My phone. Another damn weather alert, my brain reasoned. Then I heard Jan’s cell phone ring. “It’s the school,” I said, too late, but recognizing the number of doom. She fumbled through to missed calls first; buses delayed two hours. Tom was just driving the children to the corner in single digit temps. “Take my car and chase them down.” I went back to bed.

One decision into my day, and I could not go back to sleep for my last ninety minutes, so I got up, showered, told the children to get in the car, I would drive them to school. Additional motive:  Hamilton could pump gas on the way. It didn't look promising at school, where the sign on the door said School Delayed Two Hours. Back to our corner where, having passed the bus on the way home, I sat with them at the corner, awaiting the bus. They told me the car was much warmer this time around.

After breakfast I left for my appointment for the one week check of my new glass lens. Off into the snow and cold, thankful for those wrap around, polarized lenses.

I had more than a new lens behind the glasses. Sunday, carrying my laundry into the laundry room, I looked away to tell Hamilton something, lost my balance on the step up, and splat….flat onto my new glass eye. I recovered for as long as it took me to get up and put my laundry in the machine. My glasses were relatively unscathed, my vision no better or worse than before, no blood. Hamilton and I left for church. I dropped him, and went to work for the morning. I have an audit starting Tuesday and that doctor appointment this morning.

At work I thought, some ice probably would be good.  I found a plastic bag, put a couple cups full of snow in, twisted it up, applied it, and started into my information for the audit process. When I saw myself in the washroom mirror, Holy black eye, Batman. If you’re squeamish, look away.

At the ophthalmologist this morning the nice technicians could not believe the state of my eye from cataract surgery, but I came clean. The doctor seems to have been pre-alerted. He bustled in, examined my eye for damage, and there was none. Then the regular testing. My glass eye reads half the 20/20 line, beautiful progress. What did I think of my new vision? In a word, how soon can the other eye be fixed? It will be his first open surgery date, the third of March.

Back to work, and all along the golf course I saw snow rollers. Photo courtesy of Channel 5. I didn't know what they are until the road super told me. In fact, he promised me I could lift photos right from his Facebook page, but he hasn't posted them yet.

The old snow surface freezes just enough the new snow can’t stick; the wind catches and starts them and they roll merrily along. They look like hay bales, one directional rolling. An unusual occurrence, the news said.




And back to center? I have slacked off the gym since the children came, and never did get the hang of balance training during therapy after the stroke. So, I called the fitness trainer right across the street from work and made an appointment for Thursday. No more excuses. Back to the lily pads and centering ball training.

And, the children have no school tomorrow, but I must get up early because the auditors arrive at 9am, and my government office will not be closed.


A more balanced future!



24 comments:

  1. You were hurt and still doing laundry. You are unbelievable. wow

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  2. Ouch! Glad the new eye is ok. Snow rollers look very cool, I've never seen or heard of them.

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  3. Good lord, Joanne! I'm glad nothing was damaged beyond your appearance!

    Snow rollers - a first for me. They're nifty.

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  4. Oh my, Joanne. You should have stayed in bed that day.

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  5. Oh, no! Your eye looks horrible! Maybe the auditors will take it easy on you when they see your eye :) BTW, I have never seen snow rollers before. Sort of like crop circles or something!

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  6. Oh my gosh with your eye! I'm glad you had an appointment and everything was looking good. I imagine that will take a bit of time to heal! I have heard across the region of lots of schools being canceled tomorrow because of weather. How cool with those snow rollers! Hadn't seen them before, very neat!

    betty

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  7. Oh my god, if that'd been me with the eye I'd have had to have gone back to bed for the rest of the day. Regardless, good to know it is okay. What a trooper you are!

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  8. OMG, your eye looks a fright! I hope it doesn't feel as bad as it looks. Sounds like the weather is really wreaking havoc with the schedule. I've never seen the "snow bales" before though I grew up in a place where we got lots and lots of snow. I like the look of them. Of course, that is probably because I like the look of hay bales too. Hope your week goes better than your day.

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  9. Ouch! to the eye, so glad there was no serious damage done. Those snow bales are amazing, I love natural phenomena like that. I'm also rather fond of this phenomenal woman we call Joanne. Take care. x

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  10. I was stunned at the sight of your black eye! Glad there was no damage. I'd never heard of snow rollers, of course we have yet to get any snow so far this year.

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  11. Hari om
    Let's focus (ahem) on the positives here; you WANT surgery on the other eye, so the damaged eye is working just fine; you are getting the chance to see a weather-related phenomenon most of the world will never experience and you got the prompt you needed to get back into exercise. ... Joanne, you have enough spunk about you that you could pull of the old "I did three rounds against Bigfoot" excuse at the office!!!

    For heaven's sake dear blogpal, watch that step! YAM xxx

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  12. You are an amazing woman.

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  13. Ouchie! You were lucky...wrong word...you were fortunate that you didn't damage your lovely new sight.
    I've never seen snow rollers...what a fabulous crazy weather world we have!
    Jane x

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  14. What a shiner! Glad it didn't do an serious damage (not that that sentiment helps much ;-) I saw in the SE Ohio newspaper that they're having the snow rollers down there as well. It's been several years since I've seen this, but think it's pretty neat.

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  15. It's never boring at your place. Congrats on the new vision in spite of the crash. Stay warm and balanced. The snow rollers are super cool. Never seen them except in photos.

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  16. What a shiner! What a relief for you to have not damaged the newly fixed eye! Mostly I admire your innate sense of humour in describing all the havoc! Never heard of snow rollers-- how amazing!

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  17. holy cow Joanne! that's quite a shiner you've got there. as for the kid adult ratio, be glad they don't outnumber you.

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  18. Should you have been doing so much..lifting, carrying, after cataract surgery?
    Not, I should think, that anything can stop you doing what you want to do....

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  19. a tiny bit of snow here & everything stops running !

    Take care x

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  20. Take care my friend, that one looks like it hurts.

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  21. Ouch, that black eye looks very painful but I'm so glad it wasn't worse.

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  22. OHHH -- your life is certainly not boring! That eye sure is a colorful shiner! Kids, a shiner, school closing, buses, doc's, snow rollers, cold, ice, etc, all in one day! -- barbara

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  23. Those snow rollers are really amazing. We saw it on TV last night. Your eye! There seems to be a rash of facial accidents lately in the blog world. I sure hope that heals quickly and that it warms up quickly too.

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  24. That looks very painful Joanne, I hope it doesn't hurt too long.
    Love the snow rollers, I've never seen those before.

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