Little did ~ew know, that hot chocolate might have had a tad more than what was advertised.
The door opens slowly and one of the old time patrons enters. He moves slowly, tries to wipe the fog off his glasses, just to realize, he's not wearing them. Somewhat insecure and slow he makes his way to the bar, holding his right hand up in front to sense his arrival. ~bartender is rustling about.
~bartender? I know it sounds odd, but I can hear you being busy better than see your shadow ...
~bartender looks at the visitor.
I have missed you already? Hot spiced chocolate for you?
The man nods, adds water to the list and slowly heads for the next table. He takes off his jacket, opens his backpack grabbing for the notebook, as always, hesitates and puts it back with a sigh.
What's up with you?
~bartender is somewhat irriated.
Well, my eye problem has spread and currently I can see only with one eye and that quite badly. Reading is currently close to impossible. And the newspaper doesn't scale to 30 point fonts easily --- he adds a chuckle. Apart from that the light in here is nothing short of lousy.
~bartender laughs.
Oh well, here comes your order, maybe I should get the jukebox going for you then?
The man nods, tries to not tip over his cup of hot chocolate.
I need to see with my fingers. That at least works to some extent.
The man continues to stare into the void taking a sip of his beverages once in a while, while listening to the sounds of the jukebox. It does look like a boring moment, but who knows, what kind of interesting movies his brain edits for him to watch.
Little did ~ew know, that hot chocolate might have had a tad more than what was advertised.
I am going slowly blind as well. I am -2 diopeters right now and it is getting worse. I wish I hadn't messed up my eyes but I didn't know any better when I was younger. I should probably try to change my lifestyle but that is hard.
Howdy,
"going blind" is a bit large of a word. My eyes have suffered ablatio retinae, both of them, of course --- that's why it's currently really bad. My left eye shall be ok in about 3 weeks time, adding a -10 diopters glass in front of it. I have had -7 diopters for most of my life. Glasses are really ok. My right eye needs another round of surgery, but there is hope that it will return to a visus of 0.8 or so. (1.0 is good, higher values are reserved for the youth :) Then I shall be able to read again, currently that is quite limited.
So, ~257m, get glasses, if you don't have any, if you can. The world looks better with them.
Other than that I can only recommend to anyone who cares to listen: please go to see the eye doctor once a year, have your retina inspected and the interior pressure measured. Degeneration of the macula and glaucoma can be treated or slowed down substantially if discovered early on. By the time you realize, there is something wrong, it is probably too late. That being said, ablatio cannot be detected beforehand. But surgical treatment can reduce the effect dramatically --- I am very grateful for these procedures to exist.
So, just a little more patience on my side (4 months passed, another 3 to go) is needed. Needless to say that I ran out of patience already after the first of those months.
By the way, learning touch typing is a good investment to your skills, too. Close your eyes and type away! :-) And get yourself a really good keyboard, while you are at it. And no, I don't mind the clicking and clacking of all ye patrons trying to improve on that skill while you are here. :-)
~bartender? A round of home made lemonade or hot chocolate to everyone, depending on their local temperature conditions! And remember, solstice is coming up fast (11 days to go).
Cheers!