I Don't Want to Wait Another Eleven Years

On 10-13-2015, I went to Midwest Eye Care at 4353 Dodge St. here in Omaha to do something I hadn't taken care of in eleven years: Undergo an eye exam.

I was hoping to replace the eyeglasses I bought there the last time I visited the facility- the first set of bifocals I've ever owned.

Instead, the staff told me it was time to get cataract surgery. (Dr. Scott Greder and his staff found a single cataract in my left eye...the only thing wrong with either of my peepers. Outside of my needing glasses to begin with, that is.)

Felt stunned to find this out.

Ever since then, I've experienced all kinds of emotions; almost everything from grief to anguish to relief. (After all, when you have to close your left eye to get clarity when you're driving at night, you've got to do something to correct the situation. And when you experience a halo effect when you're trying to see, you need to do something to fight the situation.)

After I got home from a trying shift of work, I got home and went to the very computer on which I'm typing this post. I started doing some research on cataract surgery...and when I reached www.mayoclinic.org and read up on what the Mayo staff had to say about the procedure, well...let's face it. 

Tears came to my eyes.

Okay, I've probably now lost the support of any rap music fans by admitting tears ever came to my eyes about anything. (You know what some rappers and some of their fans have to say about men who've shed tears. With that in mind, how would they feel about Jesus in John 11:35?)

The day after the Midwest Eye Care appointment, I started asking around about what it's like to go through cataract surgery. 

One of my coworkers at a local plastics factory went through this last year; after both his eyes got the treatment, he's seeing much better than before. 

My ten-going-on-eleven-year-old nephew has already undergone the surgery twice...when he was three, then again five years later.

Found out the procedure is commonplace, and it takes anywhere from five to twenty minutes (at the fewest) thanks to laser technology. And you get to come home the same day of the surgery.

In all, according to the Mayo Clinic Website, it takes eight weeks to fully recover from the operation. 

I was able to get the eye exam in the first place due to receiving a bonus from the company I work for. Even with health insurance through the company, I've still got to be ready to pay a deductible. Right now, I'm all set financially to fork over the deductible dough.

I'm scheduled to go on a consultation at MEC at 2:00 PM on 11-24-2015; afterwards, I'll be able to find out when my own operation will take place. (I'd rather get in on laser technology than the old procedure- the one with tiny knives. Laser surgery is more accurate than the old system.)

So in the meantime, I'm working to take comfort in the chance to see better than before (and get in on experiencing more vivid colors and sharper images).

Who knows? Maybe, fifty years after putting on my first pair of glasses, I might not need them anymore.

Here's what I do know:

I don't want to wait another eleven years to get these eyes checked out.

I Didn't Think He Had It in Him

When I got home from work last night, I went right to the Internet. After I got online, I checked out the news headlines on my ISP's Website and saw this:

"Gingrich weeps as he recalls his mom."

The man who served as this country's House Speaker from 1995 to 1999- who wants to get back into politics by going right to the very top- was at a coffeehouse in Des Moines to give his campaign one final pre-Iowa caucus push.

At some point or another, the discussion came to memories of the woman who adopted the Harrisburg, PA native when he was a child (she died in 2003).

Newton Leroy McPherson Gingrich (that's his full name, folks) told the coffeehouse crowd about how his adoptive mother had to battle bipolar depression, talked about how she lived a happy life, and then...he teared up.

I just hope that his tears the other day were truly genuine.

When USA Today did the story, the reporter told the world that Gingrich's tears were reminiscent of when, in early 2008, then US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) answered a reporter's question about the rigors of campaigning for the most talked-about job in politics...only to shed some tears.

I remember how those same reporters, coming into 2008 itself, talked about how Rodham Clinton "lacked the warmth" supposedly needed for her to succeed as a presidential candidate. (They'd been after the former first lady since 1992, after all!)

Now many of these same media people are out there speculating over the idea of HRC trading in her gig heading up the State Department for the vice presidency.

Anyway, after the story about Rodham Clinton's tears broke, she ended up getting plenty of support- especially from the reporters who savaged her over events like her and husband Bill's 1992 interview on 60 Minutes. 

And now, we're told that Gingrich's teardrops might pull more people toward supporting the former US representative from Georgia.

We shall see.

All I know is this: Many of the things NLMG has done since coming on the national political scene in the 1980s (especially masterminding two government shutdowns during the Bill Clinton years) have driven many people to tears.

And then you've got some of things Gingrich has said here in 2011 alone...especially his desire to rip the textbooks out of inner-city children's hands and replace those books with brooms and dustpans. (To say nothing of his contention that there's nothing American about the man who's got the job the ex-college prof and six other Republicans are after: Barack Obama.)

Above all, I'm wondering if Newton ever weeps as he recalls the two marriages he walked out on before he met a woman named Callista.

Oh, well...it was just a thought.

Well, that's all I've got for now...except: I'm Jim Boston, and I'll see you in 2012! Thanks for reading this blog!