Sign of the times
Jul. 30th, 2009 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieSeen today on my way to my optometrist appointment, on a chalkboard sandwich board outside a restaurant/pub:
"Come on in! We'll throw a water balloon at you for $0.50."
No, I am not kidding. Not something you'd expect to see in normal circumstances around here, but funny and definitely appropriate to the weather. I'm sure they'll have plenty of takers, too. I'm glad I saw the sign, and not just because it was amusing. It (and the appointment with my doctor) reminded me of something else.
Almost exactly six years ago I probably wouldn't have been able to see the sign, or if I could have, I probably couldn't have read it without great difficulty. I was functionally blind at the time, particularly in bright light as it was today. I was that way for about three weeks, all told. Thankfully the problem proved treatable and was therefore temporary (thank all the gods for modern medicine!), and it has not returned.
Of course we don't really know what caused the problem in the first place. It was ideopathic, or as my specialist put it, "that's just a fancy way of saying we don't have the faintest idea why this happened." It could conceivably happen again at any time, and you'd better believe that if I see even the slightest sign, I'll be on the phone to my doctor ASAP. In the meantime, I see just fine. And I occasionally remember just how wonderful that is.
"Come on in! We'll throw a water balloon at you for $0.50."
No, I am not kidding. Not something you'd expect to see in normal circumstances around here, but funny and definitely appropriate to the weather. I'm sure they'll have plenty of takers, too. I'm glad I saw the sign, and not just because it was amusing. It (and the appointment with my doctor) reminded me of something else.
Almost exactly six years ago I probably wouldn't have been able to see the sign, or if I could have, I probably couldn't have read it without great difficulty. I was functionally blind at the time, particularly in bright light as it was today. I was that way for about three weeks, all told. Thankfully the problem proved treatable and was therefore temporary (thank all the gods for modern medicine!), and it has not returned.
Of course we don't really know what caused the problem in the first place. It was ideopathic, or as my specialist put it, "that's just a fancy way of saying we don't have the faintest idea why this happened." It could conceivably happen again at any time, and you'd better believe that if I see even the slightest sign, I'll be on the phone to my doctor ASAP. In the meantime, I see just fine. And I occasionally remember just how wonderful that is.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-31 02:34 am (UTC)You know what's really crazy...that it's hotter there than it is here.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-31 07:18 pm (UTC)A generic medical term meaning we idiots got no idea what's causing your pathology.
But it sounds impressive tho', don't it?
A curse upon your doctor for breaking the Vow of Silence and actually explaining what it *really* means! If that definition gets out to the general public we'll have to come up with a new code word! ;)
--J