Hello and welcome to a birthday Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is January 22nd.
That's right, folks, we've got a birthday in our house today. The hubs turns...well, I bet he'd rather I not say.
Fun Fact: My husband was born in a country that no longer exists. Yes, on this day, (in a certain year), he was born in Czechoslovakia. For the history buffs, you might recall that Czechoslovakia divided into two new countries - the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.
Whenever someone asks my husband where he is from, he says, "Europe." Personally, I think that's the lamest answer he could give. That would be like me saying I'm from North America. Um? Where exactly? He puts the onus on the inquirer to decide if they're willing to ask the obvious question, "And where in Europe, exactly?" or smile politely to mask their discomfort and/or dismay at not getting a more thorough answer. He insists that Americans, although mostly nice people, do not know European geography. And, I sort of have to agree. I confuse the Aegean and Adriatic seas; the Balkans from the Baltic. It wasn't until I was on a bus to Rome that I learned a wee bit of Slovenia borders Italy.
It's sort of hard celebrating a birthday on January 22nd because today also marks the landmark legal decision of Roe v. Wade. In general, but especially on this day, people are sensitive and sometimes downright riled up. I can't help but feel a little guilty about filling my headspace with birthday meal planning and birthday cake decorating (I'm doing a beer cake this year!) instead of the ethical and moral implications of life and death issues.
Fun fact: Despite appearances - namely that my husband appears much older than he is and I appear much younger than I am - we are the same age. I appreciate this because it feels like we can face aging on equal footing and timing. Okay, I know this isn't realistic - everyone's health histories are unique - but it's nice to feel like we're plodding along at the same pace with the same problems such as holding the directions on the cold medicine packaging farther away in order to read the print. My cousin told me that something uncanny happens with the eyes exactly two months after a person turns 45, so I can't say that I wasn't warned when this very thing happened to me us.
I have a problem with getting sleepy every time I read. And I do mean every time. I can be fresh from ten hours of sleep and twenty minutes in I'm snoozing over the page. I also have a tendency to close my left eye, inviting cries of "Argh, matey!" from my snarky teens.
Convinced I needed glasses, I scheduled an appointment with my kids' optometrist. Convinced he didn't need glasses, my husband adopted a technique of over widening his eyes after squinting - as if that would reverse the aging process.
At my appointment, the optometrist assured me that not only did I not need glasses, but I actually had pretty great eyes. "I would wish to have eyes as good as yours when I'm your age," he said. It almost sounded sexy. I'm pretty sure I blushed.
His prescription? Reading glasses at the lowest strength. (That's +1.00 for those of you under the age of 45.) I did not take this as good news. Did I really need reading glasses?
My greatest fear with reading glasses is that they will damage my eyes making me forever dependent on them. In my thought logic, glasses were a much better outcome because they would fix the problem instead of creating a greater problem. On the other hand, reading glasses are much cheaper than the real deal, right?
I bought my first pair of reading glasses at a dollar store. Cheap comes with its own price as the lenses were cloudy and sort of hurt my eyes. It didn't take long before the frame cracked and a lens popped out and fell through the dusty cracks of my bedframe.
The second pair I bought at the local pharmacy for about $15 and upgraded the strength to +1.25. Bonus! They came with a case!
In a word: Heaven.
I could read again! Now, the literary nod-offs mostly only happen at night when I'm reading in bed. By then, I'm ready to tuck in and call it a night.
When I found a pair of blue light reading glasses last fall at the College of Saint Scholastica bookstore, I couldn't resist. I'm in front of screens all day. I had to buy them. I gladly paid the twenty bucks.
Meanwhile, the hubs resisted. It wasn't until he showed me a printed-out version of his PowerPoint presentation for work - with slides of verbiage in print much too small - and I offered my reading glasses that he saw the light.
He added a backflip to his usual ocular gymnastics. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "This is great!"
For Christmas, he got his very own pair of reading glasses, strength +1.50. "Wow!" he said again. He folded them up, put them in their special case, and put them in a special spot - the location of which he no longer remembers. And I can't help him, because I have no idea where the special spot is either.
(Which reminds me, I read a good book on memory, Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova.)
Aging. It's nice to have someone to do it with.
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
Remembering You
Kim
The sooner you accept your assistive devices, the sooner you can start having those Wow! moments.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to our favorite European.
No worries about dependency on glasses. Soon after any problem starts, you will have cataract surgery which will brighten up your distance, and in my experience improve shortsightedness as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso no worries about "the ethical and moral implications of life and death issues." They are negated by the fact of impermanence. Ha!
And finally, as far as "having someone to do it [aging] with, try having a spouse who is seven years younger.