"I'm Gonna Take Them Down to the Cataract Ranch"

[captainsblog]

The two bigger bits of news from week's end play on both meanings of that word:

Not that "large waterfalls" are anything new around here, but I wasn't expecting to be awakened earlier this week with news of a new one threatening to come into existence less than a mile from the kids' home in Virginia.  It was a message from a friend on the other side of the world who'd read that Lynchburg was being evacuated and were they okay?  My first thought turned to active shooters and all that, but no- this was just more of that crafty Chinese hoaxy global warming gone bad, weeks of rain conspiring to overtop a nearby dam with water and threatening, if it broke, to flooding the entire area in a manner of minutes.

Fortunately, (a) it didn't break (yet), and (b) they live significantly uphill from it.  But it still came as quite the scare and Emily was relieved to have good relationships with co-workers who promised refuge to them and all three of their cats if they needed it.

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Then, yesterday, I kept my appointment for a new pair of glasses and the first time in three years the peepers had been checked.  Not much change in my prescription; unscratched lenses will probably help as much as anything.  And they ran a full battery of Old Guy tests for glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinal tears, even internal signs of diabetes, and the good news was there was no sign of any of the above.

There were, however, signs in each eye of the beginning of cataracts.  This comes totally as not a surprise, since we have a multiple family history of it, and the optometrist said it's probably years before surgery will be on the table.  When I asked if there was anything that would help prevent or manage it in advance of that, her only solution was to "have fewer birthdays."  Since that proposal comes with some unacceptable side effects, I'm going to have to rule it out.  So we'll just wait and (hopefully still) see.   Eleanor's went remarkably well a couple of years ago, and if nothing else it meant her last pair of glasses for distance vision, so maybe I've now bought my last pair, too.